What Happened to Jake Locker? (Why He REALLY Retired Early..Its Not What You Think)

UW_Doog_Bot said:

Had to go to school during his era. He came back to play ball at our then loser school instead of being drafted after already coming to our then loser school in the first place. Was not surprised at all by his early retirement. Dude always did what he thought was right for him regardless of what anyone else said.

Objectively, I recognize he wasn't a great QB. My doog heart will always love the guy for picking UW as the home town team and then winning us a shitty Holiday Bowl after the dark dark years.

I get that. What I don't get is why there isn't even a fraction of the same appreciation for Isiah Stanback, who was arguably the best pure athlete to play football at UW (or in the Pac 12).

creepycoug said:

UW_Doog_Bot said:

Had to go to school during his era. He came back to play ball at our then loser school instead of being drafted after already coming to our then loser school in the first place. Was not surprised at all by his early retirement. Dude always did what he thought was right for him regardless of what anyone else said.

Objectively, I recognize he wasn't a great QB. My doog heart will always love the guy for picking UW as the home town team and then winning us a shitty Holiday Bowl after the dark dark years.

I get that. What I don't get is why there isn't even a fraction of the same appreciation for Isiah Stanback, who was arguably the best pure athlete to play football at UW (or in the Pac 12).

You're talking a guy who was a four year starter versus a guy who was a two year starter. A guy who had hype as the #1 pick in the draft but spurned that to come back for another year versus a guy who was a 4th round pick at a different position. A guy whose first game was the stuff doog dreams were made of versus a guy whose first game was a blowout home loss to Fresno State in which he completed 20% of his passes and threw a pick six AND had a fumble returned for a TD.

You really surprised one of these guys has a much bigger fanbase than the other? Really?

Stanback was a talented kid who played under completely shittastic coaching staffs. But other than throwing an incredible Hail Mary to end the first half at Arizona did he have any real memorable moments? Did he ever make anyone believe he was taking UW anywhere?

Jake had Heisman hype and first round hype and every other kind of hype. Most of it was dumb, but it was hope at a time when UW fans were starved for it. IS never generated that kind of hype, or that kind of hope.

Doogles said:

creepycoug said:

UW_Doog_Bot said:

Had to go to school during his era. He came back to play ball at our then loser school instead of being drafted after already coming to our then loser school in the first place. Was not surprised at all by his early retirement. Dude always did what he thought was right for him regardless of what anyone else said.

Objectively, I recognize he wasn't a great QB. My doog heart will always love the guy for picking UW as the home town team and then winning us a shitty Holiday Bowl after the dark dark years.

I get that. What I don't get is why there isn't even a fraction of the same appreciation for Isiah Stanback, who was arguably the best pure athlete to play football at UW (or in the Pac 12).

Fuck this debate again! Stanback didn't pop off in the Holiday Bowl, plus Jake was a much more exciting runner.
Love 'em both!

Oh, sorry. I didn't realize "but Holiday Bowl". That makes everything perfectly clear now.

HillsboroDuck said:

creepycoug said:

UW_Doog_Bot said:

Had to go to school during his era. He came back to play ball at our then loser school instead of being drafted after already coming to our then loser school in the first place. Was not surprised at all by his early retirement. Dude always did what he thought was right for him regardless of what anyone else said.

Objectively, I recognize he wasn't a great QB. My doog heart will always love the guy for picking UW as the home town team and then winning us a shitty Holiday Bowl after the dark dark years.

I get that. What I don't get is why there isn't even a fraction of the same appreciation for Isiah Stanback, who was arguably the best pure athlete to play football at UW (or in the Pac 12).

You're talking a guy who was a four year starter versus a guy who was a two year starter. A guy who had hype as the #1 pick in the draft but spurned that to come back for another year versus a guy who was a 4th round pick at a different position. A guy whose first game was the stuff doog dreams were made of versus a guy whose first game was a blowout home loss to Fresno State in which he completed 20% of his passes and threw a pick six AND had a fumble returned for a TD.

You really surprised one of these guys has a much bigger fanbase than the other? Really?

Stanback was a talented kid who played under completely shittastic coaching staffs. But other than throwing an incredible Hail Mary to end the first half at Arizona did he have any real memorable moments? Did he ever make anyone believe he was taking UW anywhere?

Jake had Heisman hype and first round hype and every other kind of hype. Most of it was dumb, but it was hope at a time when UW fans were starved for it. IS never generated that kind of hype, or that kind of hope.

That's really my point.

A lot of what made Jake popular (and I think there were other things) was the potential and the "Great Athlete" stuff. But he couldn't throw the 15 yd. out. I remember watching him and his coaching staff try against SC like 10 times and he couldn't throw it. So Stanback had some limitations, and so did Jake.

But Stanback played in a very tuff era of Husky football, could also have gone elsewhere, also had a legitimate option to play baseball, and was an unbelievable talent. He also got hurt, but games played isn't the test because Jake had all that hype coming in and would still be a doog legend even if he'd suffered Stanback's injury. Stanback also played WR and played special teams.

Fine, give Locker the edge. I just never thought the differences between them were that huge, in the "one's great, one's mediocre" sense of the point. They were both very exciting players with a ton of upside that was never realized. Stanback had some great moments and games for Washington beyond that pass to Chambers. You're short-changing him.

We're talking about the difference between one who is a deity around Montlake, and one who is rare even mentioned.

creepycoug said:

HillsboroDuck said:

creepycoug said:

UW_Doog_Bot said:

Had to go to school during his era. He came back to play ball at our then loser school instead of being drafted after already coming to our then loser school in the first place. Was not surprised at all by his early retirement. Dude always did what he thought was right for him regardless of what anyone else said.

Objectively, I recognize he wasn't a great QB. My doog heart will always love the guy for picking UW as the home town team and then winning us a shitty Holiday Bowl after the dark dark years.

I get that. What I don't get is why there isn't even a fraction of the same appreciation for Isiah Stanback, who was arguably the best pure athlete to play football at UW (or in the Pac 12).

You're talking a guy who was a four year starter versus a guy who was a two year starter. A guy who had hype as the #1 pick in the draft but spurned that to come back for another year versus a guy who was a 4th round pick at a different position. A guy whose first game was the stuff doog dreams were made of versus a guy whose first game was a blowout home loss to Fresno State in which he completed 20% of his passes and threw a pick six AND had a fumble returned for a TD.

You really surprised one of these guys has a much bigger fanbase than the other? Really?

Stanback was a talented kid who played under completely shittastic coaching staffs. But other than throwing an incredible Hail Mary to end the first half at Arizona did he have any real memorable moments? Did he ever make anyone believe he was taking UW anywhere?

Jake had Heisman hype and first round hype and every other kind of hype. Most of it was dumb, but it was hope at a time when UW fans were starved for it. IS never generated that kind of hype, or that kind of hope.

That's really my point.

A lot of what made Jake popular (and I think there were other things) was the potential and the "Great Athlete" stuff. But he couldn't throw the 15 yd. out. I remember watching him and his coaching staff try against SC like 10 times and he couldn't throw it. So Stanback had some limitations, and so did Jake.

But Stanback played in a very tuff era of Husky football, could also have gone elsewhere, also had a legitimate option to play baseball, and was an unbelievable talent. He also got hurt, but games played isn't the test because Jake had all that hype coming in and would still be a doog legend even if he'd suffered Stanback's injury. Stanback also played WR and played special teams.

Fine, give Locker the edge. I just never thought the differences between them were that huge, in the "one's great, one's mediocre" sense of the point. They were both very exciting players with a ton of upside that was never realized. Stanback had some great moments and games for Washington beyond that pass to Chambers. You're short-changing him.

We're talking about the difference between one who is a deity around Montlake, and one who is rare even mentioned.

I didn't say he didn't, I said he didn't do anything else that was memorable.

I was a huge Stanback fun from his HS days, I'm a pretty big Metro League/city schools homer. I wanted him to do well. Even more than I wanted Jake too. But Jake, for all his considerable flaws (and I'm absolutely in the "he's overrated on this bored" camp) had the Syracuse debut, knocked off USC (twice) including the huge pass to Kearse in the first one, beat a ranked Oregon State in double OT or whatever it was where he kept hitting Kearse, engineered the game tying drive against Hawaii only to have Marcel Reece drop it in the end zone and gave LSU all they could handle.

He also had the shit Nebraska games, the ND 12 QB sneaks that could never break the plane, broke his wrist throwing a block that lead to owen, and of course the 5 Reasons Oregon game. Even Locker's failures were memorable.

Stanback, OTOH, literally did five things I remember: The disastrous debut against Fresno, the Chambers bomb, started 4-1 then the "we needed more clock" comeback attempt against USC and breaking his ankle the next week against OSU. I'm not saying he didn't do more than that, I'm just saying he didn't do shit that registered in the way Jake's did.