Hat tip to the nice folks over at Cincy Jungle for bringing this story to my attention.
Apparently former Texas Christian University quarterback Andy Dalton really lit it up at his Pro Day yesterday. He threw 50 passes, none of which were deemed to be "uncatchable" by the people in attendance. Former NFL head coach and current analyst Jon Gruden, who knows at least a little bit about quarterbacks, seems to like Dalton a lot.
"You want winners, and that's what he's done his whole career," Gruden said. "There's a lot more to that than people understand. Teammates have to follow you, and believe in you, when times are tough. In key situations, you have to deliver. He's done it time and time again. How can you not be interested in a guy who performs like that?"
Gruden certainly is right about Dalton being a winner. He was a four-year starter for the Horned Frogs, and his record as TCU's starting quarterback was 42-7 over those four seasons. He lost four games as a freshman, and the last loss his team suffered was in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl against Boise State. He led Texas Christian to the Rose Bowl this past season, where they knocked off Wisconsin to conclude a 13-0 season. Dalton was MVP of that game.
Dalton led TCU to bowl games every year he was the team's starting quarterback. . .and, in three of those four games, he was the game MVP. As a redshirt freshman, he was the MVP of TCU's victory over Houston in the 2007 Texas Bowl, and he was also the MVP of the Horned Frogs' 2008 Poinsettia Bowl victory over Boise State in addition to the Rose Bowl MVP award mentioned above.
In his last two years at TCU, he completed 408 of 639 passes (63.8% completion rate) for 5613 yards (8.78 yards/attempt, 13.8 yards/completion) with 50 touchdowns and only 14 interceptions.