What if 2006...

We lost to Georgia Tech, who scored 38 points on us, Boston College might have been a farce, and Georgia. Even if we win the BC game, we still dont go to the ACC Championship because we lost to Georgia Tech. We still play Georgia, and were whipping thier AXX until they fake punt and stole all momentum. We lose that one too.

Quit knocking Glennon, no he wasnt what could have been but he is what we had. He took a beating from an offensive line that couldnt block, and he still played his heart out. Glennon may not have been a prolific QB but he gave us everything he had. Under the conditions, thats alot to ask, could you have put the team on your back with 67,000 of your own fans screaming rabidly at you?

Its tough to really speculate about 2006. Sure Glennon had some spectacular games during the season, and the awful loss to Megatron comes to mind where he continuously led the offense down field and produced points (I believe it was one of only three 300+ yard games he had as well); however, he laid an egg, along with the secondary against BC and had the worst half of any quarterback in recent memory during the Chick-Fil-A Bowl vs Georgia. Do I think if MV5 led the offense we would've gone undefeated? Probably. GT's defense in 2006 was incredibly weak against semi-mobile QB's (see ACC Championship Game: when Skinner moved in the pocket their defense was confused (HA!)) and Vick had his best career games against BC- there was nothing to say that the trend would not have continued. In terms of personnel, the strength in that team was the receiving corps and the Nation's top ranked total defense. The receivers would've been even better with MV5 and he could've masked the BC game for the defense. Winning the ACC, in my mind, would be as close to guaranteed as you could get: it was a terribly weak conference (minus Virginia Tech, who finished the season was the highest ranked ACC team in the final regular season polls) and the Division Champions had some huge holes that were exposed throughout the season. GT had to come up with a monumental effort after the woodshed beating we gave them in the top 15 game the year before and were incredibly motivated to erase those memories. With MV5 under center, we score 45+ again on GT and at least in the 30's on BC, washing our two losses. I don't change wins because I just don't feel its necessary to over-analyze.

In terms of the National Championship, I think we probably would've gotten there against Ohio State. The overall landscape of College Football was weak that year; however, the question that presents itself is would an undefeated ACC go over a 1 loss SEC team? At that time I think so because the ACC, just the past year, was possibly the second or third strongest conference from top to bottom having three teams in the top five at points throughout the season (granted not at the same time but FSU, Miami, and VT at one point or another were top 5- VT/Miami were top 10 the entire season). Now we get to the Ohio State matchup: they would be coming off the biggest regular season win in the last twenty years after beating #2 Michigan (if ever there should've been a rematch that was it- clearly the best two teams in the country throughout the season, much like this past season, and OSU hardly practiced prior to the BCSNG from what I am told, hence why they lost). Now, if they came out with the same effort against UF then yes, I could see us thrashing them systematically: Troy Smith would've been spied the entire game. On offense, MV5's penchant for not showing up in some big games would worry me, particularly against those corn-fed boys. But, my heart says 31-17 Tech, my gut says 24-21 Ohio State.

BUT, in the end, we didn't even win our Division and were just on the outside looking in on an At-Large birth in the BCS (think we got jobbed a bit that year but Notre Dame did meet their contractual obligations for a BCS game). Sorry for the rant: I am a historian and questions like this are fascinating to me personally and professionally.

In terms of Glennon, I was in the minority: I thought he played rather well in some key moments in 2007 and deserved to be the starter. In the Orange Bowl he was clearly the better of the two QB's because Tyrod kept turning the ball over and our offense moved the ball on their defense when Glennon was under center; however, the team needed that spark from TT5 to win some games. But, aside from the Bowl meltdown, my memory of Glennon will orbit around his performances against BC (x2) and Miami in 2007: both games he lit up really good defenses and managed the game effectively. However, it is also difficult to wash the LSU "experience" from the ole' memory banks along with the BC "game" in 2006 and the entire 2008 season.