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The answer to your question Fred; Chase Clement
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Rice Sports Information/Anthony Vasser
This could be one of the most debated topics in the history of College Football in Houston. And, my good friend and colleague, Fred Faour, with the Examiner and 97.5 ESPN, the Ticket, is making a good case. However, the numbers speak for themselves and suggest that Chase is THE MAN.
Please read Fred's article. It's very good!
But, I'd ask you to keep one thing in mind when making a judgement call on Chase; He and Jarett Dillard went to Rice to run the TRIPLE OPTION under former Head Coach, Ken Hatfield. Simply means, he was ALSO a good runner coming out of high school. He rushed for 420 yards and 14 TD's his senior season. One thing about recruiters---they will usually recruit around a system instead of around a player's talent.
Therefore, Chase had to adapt to a new system under a new head coach when Todd Graham took over for Hatfield right after the 2005 season. In 2005, Clement played in 11 games, started 1 and threw for 582 yards while rushing for a net of 32.
Now, think for just a minute. I know we're talking "what ifs". But, this is a valid argument. Chase threw for over 3000 yards as a senior in high school. If he had immediately walked into the spread offense, and avoided any health problems, there's no telling where his numbers would be. We've posted the numbers for Clement, Kolb, Ware, and Klingler---all in different articles.
Long story short, there's a good chance that Clement's numbers would compare to those of Kolb. If you compare the athletic ability of the three, Chase is the better runner. He rushed for 1, 741 yards during his college career. Ware wasn't a runner and I think he would admit that. He didn't have bad feet, that just wasn't the offense the Cougars were running---and besides---Ware and UH had Chuck Witherspoon.
I had the great fortune of covering UH Quarterbacks Ware and Klingler who both were in the Heisman talk---Andre won it in '89 and Klingler had a shot. It's true that Clements' name never even registered with the Heisman talk last season on the national level. But, in all fairness to Chase, most college offenses today are throwing the ball all over the place AND running the spread! So, big numbers are more of the norm, than not.
But, if you compare production and what Rice was able to do as a team in 2008 in winning 10 games, including beating UH and winning a bowl game in dominating fashion with Clement running the show, and consider the "what ifs", Chase just might be the all-time best college quarterback to play in Houston sports---all due respect to Ware, Kolb, Klingler, Elston, Danny Davis, Tommy Kramer, Donald Hollas, Bert Emanuel, and my friend and colleague, Fred Faour.
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