Now we know why.
Owner Bud Adams, who has remained loyal to and supportive of former starter Vince Young, has told coach Jeff Fisher to flip the switch back to the third overall pick in the 2006 draft, according to Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean.
Adams previously made his wishes generally known in comments to the Tennessean, in the hours after a 59-0 thumping at Foxborough. Per Wyatt, Adams has been "more direct" regarding his desire to see Young back on the field.
Fisher, on Monday, was anything but direct.
"Both quarterbacks had a good week,'' Fisher said Monday regarding practices prior to the team's October 25 bye. "But [Kerry Collins] had an especially good week last week. . . . I am not going to go into details about lineup changes. Those are competitive issues.''
Young became the starter as a rookie, and he nearly led the team to a 2006 playoff berth despite an 0-5 start. He held the job through 2007, but an injury and an apparent emotional reaction (punctuated by a police search the following night after Young went missing) to being booed at home in Week One of the 2008 season prompted Fisher to go with Collins.
As the Titans piled up wins last year under Collins, finishing 13-3, Young became the forgotten man.
With the losses piling up this year, Adams wants to see what Young can do.
"If you don't play the guy and lose all your games, it is hard for you to see what he can do for you," Adams said on October 18. "Vince has won a lot of games for us.''
The Monday comments from Fisher suggest that the long-time coach believes Young won't spark a reversal -- and possibly that he'll only make things worse. The good news for Fisher is that, with a clear appearance being created that Young will be playing against Fisher's wishes, he'll be able to explain away a 2-14 or worse record when trying to get his next job by saying that he was forced to play a guy who no longer has it.
Of course, maybe Vince Young still has it. One way or the other, it looks like we'll be finding out on Sunday, when the Jaguars come to town.
The Titans and Mr. Young would appreciate it greatly if the paying customers refrain from booing, hissing, or otherwise expressing display with hand or finger gestures.
Titans will continue to loose and VY will again go home and hide under his bed.
After that 59-0 debacle in the snow, they could start Heisman Hisself and still get booed.
[i]The Titans and Mr. Young would appreciate it greatly if the paying customers refrain from booing, hissing, or otherwise expressing display with hand or finger gestures.[/i]
If Titan fans can handle the BS they've been watching the first 6 weeks in Kerry Collins, they can tolerate a couple of dookie sandwiches from Vince Young.
Let's see how Vince does when Jeff's on the sidelines with a Kerry Collins jersey on.
Actually, Bud Adams has instituted "foam finger" night for the fans to cover up any potential damaging hand gestures. If the manufacturer of the foam fingers isn't a Vince Young fan, there might be a bruised ego or two. Oh... this just in... Viagra is sponsoring foam finger night. Remember, the key word in foam finger night is FINGER.
4-3 Jaguars.
I just don't understand what is soo different about th e Titans this year from last year, all they did was get rid of Haynesworth, is it really the towell curse?
Mr. Zorn, meet Mr. Fisher
As much as I dislike Vince Young, I suppose I can see the logic here; you've gpt this well paid semi-high profile player sitting on the bench, Collins isn't getting it done this year and the team is winless. What do you have to lose? Either VY is chomping at the bit to show what he's learned this past year and reclaims his starting job (sure, I believe in the Easter Bunny, why not?) or more likely he proves that he hasn't learned a thing and isn't ready and totally embarrasses himself so thoroughly that no one blames the Titans for releasing him into football oblivion.
Kerry Colins can at least take solice that one year ago he took this same basic group of scrubs to a 13-3 record.
Fisher has had a problem since day 1 with Young, True he has not done much to date, but 0 & 6 Kerry Collins has never been a great qb, he has 2 or 3 good years. You are paying a guy 100 million give or take a few . Fisher needs to get offof his ego, you havn't won a game in 9 tries now, counting the last 3 from year before. Enough with Kerry Collins he is done. So will Fisher after the year is over.
Why is Fisher hesitant? He's 0-6... Kerry Collins has had a very long career... Fisher should be more embarassed that he and his coaches remain static in replacing Haynesworth.. static in not at least putting a VY, Johnson, White Spread package on the field to make opposinf teams work on something else besides the Big Scoop of Vanilla Fisher keeps making htem play
Vince Young was Rookie of the Year.
He can play. Give him the ball!
Great strategy bud, try to force the hand of the coach that has kept you team steady and realitivly successfull for year, into playing a qb who sucks.
I am a firm beliver that if an owner wants to make decisions like that, they should coach the team themselves.
I never thought I'd see this, but this is the red carpet for Jeff Fisher's path out of Nashville. It's too bad...
The Titans had wins solely because of their defense.
The idiotic owner broke the defense and now has a crap team.
So if you want to use young to help this team get his ass on the defensive line because he most likely better than the dudes there now.
# FinfanJim says: October 27, 2009 9:57 AM
I never thought I'd see this, but this is the red carpet for Jeff Fisher's path out of Nashville. It's too bad...
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You took the words out of my mouth, FinfanJim.
No way Fisher stands for this, he's gone.
Not a Titans fan at all, but Fisher is a great coach. No Superbowls, but always consistent. He needs to move on as old man Adams will get worse. VY sux.
I use to have a tremendous amount of respect for Fisher as a Head Coach. My, oh my, how far
the mighty have fallen. Kerry Collins has never had back to back good season during his entire career.
Fisher has hitched his wagon to Collins who is a journeyman QB at best and who is a marginal passer in the NFL with the mobility of the Chrysler Building in New York.
I say, if Fisher does not want to play Young then cut him and remove the temptation and distraction.
It doesn't matter anyway at this point as the team has quit on Fisher AND HE ON THEM. Fisher is playing out the string looking for his new gig. Fisher's arrogance during press conferences suggest to me that he is mailing it in.
I think Bud Adams KNOWS THIS. A change is gonna come. How soon? Who knows. It definitely is comming though.
There's a pretty big difference between what Snyder did to Zorn and what Adams is demanding of Fisher. Snyder stripped Zorn's power.
Adams is making a big request but 1. Adams almost never gets involved. There has never been a doubt that Fisher is in charge; 2. this season is over for the Titans. Adams is the guy who invested many millions in Young; 3. If Young doesn't work out, Titans fans can be sure that a top of the line QB will be on the Titans radar during the draft.
That temporary mental breakdown has had a ridiculously strong effect on people's perceptions of Young. If we didn't know VY and I told you a player two years removed from rookie of the year, a respectable professional W/L record and a star QB at Texas with one of the most clutch college performances of all time in the Rose Bowl would be sitting on the bench for reasons that are primarily not on-the-field issues you'd ask whether his back-up turned out to be the second incarnation of Tom Brady. I'm not saying Vince Young has been an amazing QB in the NFL, but, purely on the field and comparing him with other rookie QBs from the past 15 years, I can easily see where Bud Adams is coming from.
This is Jeff Fisher's last year at TEN. I won't blame him for leaving. I hate him, but any team would be lucky to get him.
He will choose his next team.
the team didn't make the playoffs in 2006 because of Young, they did despite Young. Did you see his game performances? More turnovers than TD's. They had a very good team that pretty much carried Vince, not the other way around.
If turnovers is your team's problem, surely you will exacerbate that by putting Young back in at QB
Kerry isn't the problem and Vince is certainly not the solution. There are a lot bigger problems with the Titans than the QB position. In the NE game everyone keeps referencing, Kerry was 1 for 10 in but had 6 drops to go along with his 1 for 10 start, hence he should have been 7 for 10, not his fault. The QB position doesn't solve giving up 59 points or lack of effort. The Titans are too good of a team not to win a game so inevitably they're going to win a game and it won't be because they changed QB but obviously that will be the headline!