For the longest time, Texas football coach Mack Brown couldn’t decide between his quarterbacks.
He finally settled on Major Applewhite, who now holds 41 UT offensive records. Then, last week Applewhite suffered a sprained knee against Texas Tech, and again the job fell to sophomore Chris Simms.
Applewhite won’t play against Kansas on Saturday, when the Jayhawks play host to the Longhorns, but KU coach Terry Allen doesn’t necessarily see that as an advantage for KU.
“Obviously Applewhite is more mobile,” Allen said. “But anybody in America would take Simms in their quarterback contingency. Major’s right-handed and Chris is left-handed. Other than that, the offense stays the same.”
Applewhite, who is questionable for UT’s regular-season finale, too, completed 152 of 279 (54.5 percent) passes for 2,164 yards, with 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions this season.
Simms is 41-of-75 (54.7 percent) for 441 yards with three touchdowns and five interceptions.
“There’s a little lack of maturity there,” Allen said. “We’ll try to force him out of the pocket. That would be a key for us if we could force Chris into turning the ball over.”
“Applewhite’s more experienced in what they’re doing,” added KU senior safety Kareem High. “Hopefully we can rattle Simms.”
When he does take to the air, Simms will have plenty of targets. While no Longhorn has more than 550 receiving yards, eight have at least 100. Wideout Roy Williams leads the team with 32 catches for 544 yards and five touchdowns. B.J. Johnson has 33 catches for 496 yards and two touchdowns.
“Number 4 is his big weapon,” High said of Williams, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound true freshman. “But we know they’re going to pound the ball.”
Allen is sold on Williams’ skills.
“This Roy Williams,” Allen said, “might be the best of them all.”
The Longhorns’ two-deep depth chart lists 10 freshmen. Williams, Johnson, tight end Brock Edwards and defensive end Kalen Thornton are true freshman starters.
While the Longhorns are young, Allen considers them among the most athletic in the league.
“Player for player, throughout the league they might have as talented players as anybody,” Allen said.
Kickoff for Kansas-Texas will be 1 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Kansas senior linebacker Tim Bowers has been selected to the 2000 Verizon Academic All-District VII Football team by the College Sports Information Directors of America. It marks the third time during his career that Bowers has been selected to the district All-America honor squad. All first-team selections from the eight district teams advance to the national Verizon Academic All-America ballot.
Bowers, a two-year starter and co-captain for the Jayhawks, has a 3.22 grade point average in political science and pre-medicine. He is also a three-time academic all-conference selection.
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