[DC 86]

Has there ever been an example of a team platooning QBs that was successful?  When Stanford did it with Burns and Chryst, we were 4-3 before Shaw finally handed the reins to Chryst, who then went on to win five straight (with a sixth technically coming in the Sun Bowl when he got injured).

Actually there is. Washington won the NC in 1991 platooning QB's.

Thanks for the info.  This one example show that success with platooning QBs is indeed rare.

It's become a trope that "if you have two quarterbacks you have none" and that platooning quarterbacks doesn't work. It doesn't work because it's rare to have two high quality quarterbacks of complementary ability, not because playing two quarterbacks is inherently a flawed strategy. In addition to Brunell/Hobert mentioned above, Florida also won a national championship using two quarterbacks (Chris Leak and Tim Tebow) who not coincidentally were both extremely good players at the college level and brought different skills to the job. FSU put up 38 points against Notre Dame last night while strategically employing both Travis and Milton, and there are a number of other examples of teams using two QBs successfully.

Taking this to its logical extreme, if Stanford was platooning Luck and Elway I bet the system would work; the problem isn't playing two men per se, it's that neither West or McKee has proven to be a capable starter, so both are playing out of desperation and the hope that one of them will demonstrate that they are competent. I expect that McKee will be the full time QB at some point soon, not because playing two quarterbacks is necessarily bad but because he will prove to be our clear best option.

[DC 86]

Has there ever been an example of a team platooning QBs that was successful?  When Stanford did it with Burns and Chryst, we were 4-3 before Shaw finally handed the reins to Chryst, who then went on to win five straight (with a sixth technically coming in the Sun Bowl when he got injured).

Actually there is. Washington won the NC in 1991 platooning QB's.

Thanks for the info.  This one example show that success with platooning QBs is indeed rare.

It's become a trope that "if you have two quarterbacks you have none" and that platooning quarterbacks doesn't work. It doesn't work because it's rare to have two high quality quarterbacks of complementary ability, not because playing two quarterbacks is inherently a flawed strategy. In addition to Brunell/Hobert mentioned above, Florida also won a national championship using two quarterbacks (Chris Leak and Tim Tebow) who not coincidentally were both extremely good players at the college level and brought different skills to the job. FSU put up 38 points against Notre Dame last night while strategically employing both Travis and Milton, and there are a number of other examples of teams using two QBs successfully.

Taking this to its logical extreme, if Stanford was platooning Luck and Elway I bet the system would work; the problem isn't playing two men per se, it's that neither West or McKee has proven to be a capable starter, so both are playing out of desperation and the hope that one of them will demonstrate that they are competent. I expect that McKee will be the full time QB at some point soon, not because playing two quarterbacks is necessarily bad but because he will prove to be our clear best option.