COLT McCOY'S SHOE-FILLER

By mark rogers
December 28, 2008

Garrett Gilbert. 6'4" 210 pound quarterback at Lake Travis in Austin.

If you haven't heard this kid's name by now? Memorize it. Because unless he gets in some kind of freakish accident or pulls a Josh Hamilton with no miraculous recovery, you'll be hearing his name for about the next 20 years.

No more than three as a quarterback at the University of Texas, then as many as he wants in the NFL. He will be a star at both levels.

Gilbert has led Lake Travis to two consecutive Class 4A State Championships and in the final game last week broke Graham Harrell's all-time state passing mark...by five yards.

His coach (ex-Stephenville coach Chad Morris) knew how many yards he needed to break the record and told Gilbert.

Gilbert told Morris that he didn't care about the record.

Morris promptly told Gilbert that he didn't care if he didn't care and sent him back onto the field to make history.

Four completions later Gilbert stood alone on top of the all-time passing yardage list: 12, 537 for a career. Not too shabby.

There are two schools of thought about Gilbert's role at UT.

1. He will not redshirt and be Colt's backup for one year with current back-up John Chiles moving to receiver. Playing in mop-up duty. Getting much-needed experience before he takes over as the starter in 2010.

2. He will redshirt letting John Chiles continue to back Colt up, then compete with Chiles for the starting job in 2010. A competition he will undoubtedly win.

But both roads have the same ending: Gilbert will be gone after the 2011 season.

So the Longhorns better get the most out of him while they can. My hope is that they let him get experience and be the back-up next year, but what do I know?

I was in Austin this past week and heard a lot more about Gilbert than I ever have before. He is a remarkable athlete and person, I could go on and on about him but you could just Google or YouTube him and find out all you want.

Bottom line is the Gilbert is one of the best high school QBs to come out in a long, long time and will be a name we all remember for a many years to come.

Comments

This site does not necessarily agree with comments posted below.

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)




Previous Entry:
« COWBOYS DESERVE TO WATCH FROM HOME

Next Entry:
TEXAS TECH RECRUITING »