I guess it's a case of departure from what you'd ordinarily do. If you have a QB with an arm like Wuerffel, you don't feel pressured to throw any more than you ordinarily would. We know Wuerffel threw the ball plenty under Spurrier, but that's the norm for Spurrier.
With a QB with special arm talent, you feel pressured to use him more, perhaps too much - you may even ignore the makeup of your team. Tennessee from 1997 to 1998 - most of the linemen were the same, most of the same RBs, same WRs, but a big difference at QB. They ran the ball a lot more because that's what the roster dictated, and they won all of their games.
We all know you should play to your team's strengths and the key to what I'm saying is that you shouldn't blindly pass more than normal just because your QB has a big arm, just when you have a great overall QB...and even then, only to a small degree. Even if I have a Brady or a Montana, I need to run the ball plenty.
I think this is to a degree more interesting than the NFL one. And I think that because there's a kernel of truth. Big arm dudes are given more and earlier chances. They get more leeway. That might lead to some poor play. They also get absorbed into more bad situations more often.
But I don't think the UT thing is that. Manning was plenty good at all the other stuff. Using the fact they won all the games the next year is seeing something changed and saying "Ah-HA" that must be it.
In truth, if you traded the UF teams and bowl opponents, between the teams (and maybe the Vols turnover work in the second game), Manning probably has a title. Murderball Nebraska is a lot better than FSU with a backup QB. That Gators team was short offensive playmakers. I was tempted to argue the UT defense was better in 1998, and it was in PPG, but there's a chance that's because of a slower pace.
I'll go with this. I looked back on how Tennessee beat Florida, which was the biggest difference between those regular seasons. The Vols got outgained 396-235. They won by the skin of their teeth with five turnovers. Though the air they were 7-20 for 64 yards. Martin did have a few very nice plays and didn't turn it over, a notch above Manning, but I'm guessing if you gave Manning five dang turnovers and held the Gators to 17 points, he'd have won that game.
Things just came together for that UT team. You could argue they were now free to run, but even there, they lost their best back to injury, one who got the ball 240 times with Manning. And in football, talent trumps system a heck of a lot. If you have an awesome QB, you use the dude, the same way they uses an awesome RB and awesome WRs in Manning's last year.
