Prince v. McNown (come on history, repeat yourself)
by LVBruin on Sep 18, 2010 8:37 AM PDT
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PrintBumped. GO BRUINS. -N
Like most folks here on BN, I've been mortified by the performance of Kevin Prince so far this season. Yet somehow, I still find myself going to bat for the sophomore signal caller time and time again. In debates with friends and family, I've found myself falling back on the same argument, "he's still young and great quarterbacks aren't built in a day."
Yes, I'm sure that there have been a handful of college QBs who figured it all out in no time flat (as far as I know, Peyton Manning was audibilizing in the womb) but I'm also sure that these guys are the exception to the rule.
My hope for KP is that he follows in the footsteps of another Bruin field general who had his struggles early on. Just out of curiosity, I decided to run a side-by-side statistical comparison of Prince (post-Stanford/346 attempts) and a young Cade McNown (post-Oregon, 1996/340 attempts).
| CMP | ATT | COMP% | YDS | TD | INT | |
| McNown | 172 | 340 | 50.59% | 2289 | 9 | 13 |
| Prince | 188 | 346 | 54.34% | 2209 | 9 | 11 |
I'm not sure what's more surprising here, the near mirror-image nature of the numbers or the fact that KP might have a slight edge. Also note, KP's 6 for 12 for 39 yards and a pick might go down as one of the worst performances in Bruin QB history but it doesn't hold a candle to Cade's 8 for 27 for 39 yards and 3 picks in the third game of his sophomore year.
Of course, I'm not suggesting that we all get our collective hopes up, only that we don't abandon hope entirely.
Super fun fact: If history does repeat itself, Prince will have his breakout game today. Apparently, Cade busted through the glass ceiling right around 340 attempts because he followed up a mediocre (at best) Oregon game with a 22 for 41, 395 yard, 3 touchdown performance against Arizona State.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Interesting
I REALLY hope he has his breakout game tomorrow! GO BRUINS!!!
"The entire world that bleeds blue and gold ... they have been dying for this." - Coach Rick Neuheisel
I'll be there again to watch our Bruins
If they can send me home happy, I will stomach the unbearable drive out of the Rose Bowl.
I think the real Bruins show up tomorrow.
Prince will have a better game and if we go back to a huddle offense, I think that will help both the offense and defense.
Go Bruins!!! Make us proud.
Frankly,
The answer at this stage of the season for Ucla is running the ball with Malcolm Jones. He is the real deal. He just needs to play a lot more.
As for KP, we all wish him well. Some of us would just like to see more chances for others, too. Maybe one of them could be another Cade, too.
Agreed
If you were to look back through my comments from last weekend and this week, you’d find that I was half-advocating abandoning the run game altogether. I think I went so far as to suggest Thigpen at QB : ). With this post however, I wanted to show that writing off Prince at this point in his career is silly.
Always good to keep perspective by thinking big picture
While I am not invested in any of the QBs, always good to look at numbers. I wrote a post along the similar lines comparing Prince’s first year to other Bruin QBs dating back to 1990. He stacked up pretty well. It’s too early in the season to give up on him completely.
KP does stack up well.
There is an immeasurable factor missing from the equation: expectations. I was young when McNown came to Westwood, but I would assume that he wasn’t expected to bring the program back to glory by a lot of the fanbase. I think most of the posters on this site recognize that KP’s evaluation shouldn’t be based upon unreasonable expectations at this stage, but not so much for the driveby flamers.
by AllHailMightyBruins on Sep 18, 2010 9:21 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Prince
Don’t have any doubt about his potential, strenght of his arm, or any if the basics. The biggest difference between the two so far was Cade’s ability to play with reckless abandon while avoiding injuries.
In fact its very possible to say that Prince may have a stronger arm at this point, but he needs to play hard while staying healthy for the comparison to even continue.
AllHail is Right -- There Were No Grand Expectations for Cade
and no pressure to either carry or resurrect the program.
And, ’96 is right, too. What made Cade special was two things — his ability to play with reckless abandon AND his refusal to lose.
KP cannot afford to play with reckless abandon, again; he has been injured too often to do so. And, he is in a system that does not encourage that type of play.
But KP balances that out with what I perceive to be strength of commitment and that amorphous quality known as “leadership”; let us not forget how he set the example this summer in the weight room and in gathering and pushing his team mates.
I also think KP is stronger and faster than Cade was at this stage.
Like all Bruins, I am hoping/waiting for KP to have that break out game we know is in him.
Why not now?
sjh
by Class of 66 on Sep 18, 2010 10:03 AM PDT up reply actions
Wow...
I don’t know about everyone else, but that comparison really puts our current situation into perspective!! It has definitely given me a new reason for my continuing optimism.I think many of us really do have short memories that gets clouded by our passion for this team. I sure hope that history repeats. I would really like to see KP begin to take charge and own the offense more. I believe he will do that as his confidence builds. I have no doubt that his preformances will improve. I just hope it happens sooner rather than later.
Go Bruins!
Good points... and good comparison...
I am still 100% in Prince’s corner, but the one key difference between Cade M. and Kevin P. at this point in their college careers is that Cade had already proven himself to be primary catalyst on the team with electrifying moves (with his legs) and clutch TD passes. Remember his freshman year, 1995 to be exact, and McNown already was getting everyone excited despite the mediocre team/record. We lost a good number of games in ’95 and ’96 because our team was young and also fairly mediocre (we still kept beating SC though!), little of it had to do with McNown. McNown was truly one of the few bright spots and even though he made a few costly mistakes, they were never game breakers, esp. during losses. Our victories in those years had almost everything to do w/ McNown. McNown was supremely confident throughout… and it showed. He beat SC soundly both those years and as we all know never lost to them.
KP on the other hand hasn’t proven to be quite the catalyst yet. He’s had a few good games (last year) but he has to be more confident, more clutch. He’s also not as mobile as Cade (and when he has been, look at what’s happened — he’s gotten hurt every time!)… Kevin hold tremendous promise as a pure QB, his arm strength, etc. Cade had the whole package as we would see after four years. I’m still shocked that he never made it big in the NFL.
A good comparison though… I think KP WILL turn it around soon and will prove his worth. I just don’t want him turning into the next Ben Olson who got hurt merely by getting out of bed in the morning (or so it seemed). KP needs to bulk up, learn from his mistakes and go free-wheeling (mentally mostly) like Cade did. All he needs is one big breakout game and I think we’ll be on our way… we have the talent (I believe it) we just have to use it, play smart and stay healthy.
W.S. Montano Class of 1994
The throwing numbers are comparable
But what about the running numbers? Cade had excellent running ability as wsmontano1994 mentioned… Also, I feel it was a different atmosphere with Cade during his start as we saw so many flashes of great potential.
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