Good Feeling: Our Own Quarterback of the Week

By Kelsey McKinney in 40 Acres on September 17, 2012 at 11:50 am | No Comments

David Ash’s stellar performance Saturday made him this moment’s best college quarterback in the land.

After much preseason deliberation, Mack Brown’s decision to start sophomore David Ash at quarterback is starting to pay off. The College Football Performance Awards named David Ash this week’s National Quarterback of the Week.

Ash earned the award for Texas’s crushing 66-31 win over Ole Miss, which took UT from 14th to 12th in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.

On Saturday, Ash threw for a career-high 326 yards, completing 19 of his 23 passes. Four of those passes went for touchdowns.  On Saturday, Ash completed 15 passes in a row—bringing him just 3 passes shy of Colt McCoy’s school record for consecutive passes.

So far this season, Ash’s passing game has been exemplary. All in all, Ash has thrown seven touchdowns in three games without a single interception—putting him at 96 consecutive passing attempts without an interception.

Additionally, Ash has completed 55 passes on 72 attempts, for 703 total yards this season. This is already a marked improvement from last year, when UT quarterbacks threw 15 interceptions and only 16 touchdowns for the season. It’s led ESPN to say Texas is “beginning to put together the pieces that comprise a return to a college football juggernaut.” Ash was also recognized as the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week for his phenomenal performance on Saturday .

Monday afternoon, Ash was named the Davey O’Brien Quarterback of the Week. Receiving this recognition based on academic and athletic teamwork, character, and sportsmanship will place Ash in the running for the Davey O’Brien Quarterback of the Year Award at the end of the season.

And Ash wasn’t the only player recognized for the Longhorns’ great performance on Saturday. Three other Longhorns also received honors from CFPA:

• Senior wide receiver Marquis Goodwin was selected as Honorable Mention All-Purpose Performer of the Week for his 69-yard run in the second quarter. The run was the longest rushing score for Texas since Jamaal Charles rushed for a 75-yard touchdown against Oklahoma in 2007.
• Sophomore cornerback Quandre Diggs, selected as Honorable Mention Defensive Back of the Week, grabbed two interceptions from Ole Miss over the course of the game and returned two punts for 49 yards.
• Sophomore linebacker Steve Edmond was selected Honorable Mention Linebacker of the Week for his first quarter interception off of Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace. His interception returned for a touchdown was the first for Texas since Carrington Brydon’s 58-yard TD return in the A&M game last year.

The Longhorns enter their fourth game next week against Oklahoma State in a season that is, thus far, with as many losses as it has interceptions: none.

Photo courtesy UT Athletics.

Tags: Bo Wallace, Carrington Brydon, colt mccoy, david ash, Jamaal Charles, mack brown, Marquis goodwin, Ole Miss, Quandre Diggs, UT football