After Michigan's loss to Michigan State, Lloyd Carr still hasn't decided on his ...

Quarterback Options

Carr likes both, but numbers in favor of Brady

Lloyd Carr still likes 'em both. He's not one to play favorites, but the numbers seem to favor senior Tom Brady over sophomore Drew Henson. There's lies, damn lies and then statistics, of course. And no one would say you should choose a quarterback based on statistics, but since the two quarterbacks in question simply find new ways to say that the system is fine by them, stats are about all that's left to go on.

DANA LINNANE/Daily Michigan quarterback Tom Brady's standout performance in the second half of Michigan's loss to Michigan State prompted criticism of coach Lloyd Carr's two-quarterback system.

Through the first few games of the season, until, say, Purdue, the performances of the two quarterbacks were nearly identical.

After that game, in which Brady outplayed both Drews - including the Heisman Trophy candidate - they started to separate. And even though Henson took over in the second half of the 34-31 loss to Michigan, he was replaced for ineffectiveness after throwing an interception to Aric Morris.

"He made a great read and a great throw," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said of Henson's bomb to senior wide receiver Marcus Knight. "Drew didn't play as well in the third quarter as he would have liked."

By that logic, probably the entire offense should have been yanked. They never made it inside the Spartans' 33 until Brady took them there with a 31-yard completion to fullback Aaron Shea. In fact, Brady found the end zone twice in the fourth quarter (his pass to Shea set up a 2-yard run by Anthony Thomas.)

Brady crafted two more touchdown drives in that fourth quarter two weeks ago - both capped with touchdown passes.

So far this season, Brady has been the architect of 11 touchdown drives. Henson, with somewhat less playing time, has engineered five.

After Brady's performance in the second half against Michigan State, critics blamed Carr's two quarterback system for the loss.

They cited Brady's utter annihilation of Michigan State's secondary.

Those critics found more ammunition when Purdue quarterback Drew Brees did the same thing in the first quarter against the Spartans. That meant that the Michigan State defense gave up six touchdowns in two straight quarters - five through the air. While this may have made a case - in hindsight - for Carr to have had Brady pass more against the Spartans, that's probably not fair to say.

What is fair to note, though, is that when Henson wins the first-half battle of the quarterbacks, his second-half play is probably not quite what Carr and his coaches would have hoped for.

The two quarterback options, naturally have as much class as they have talent. Neither one will even give a hint as to the displeasure this rotation may cause them. Their coach, of course, is keeping mum, too.

"I like 'em both," he says with a smirk whenever pressed on this issue. He did the same on Moday.

He obviously does like both. Most college teams would kill for one quarterback with 75 percent of either's talent, and he has two - along with an almost airtight insurance policy in case of injury.

He's also managed to avoid having this system fatally wound his team. But with one loss - in the conference no less - Carr's margin for error is narrower than the gap in ability he perceives between his two choices.

10-21-99