Oct. 11, 2009

By Jerry Hill

Baylor Bear Insider

Tom Muecke said he was "sick to my stomach" when he got the word two weeks ago that Baylor sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin had suffered a season-ending knee injury.

"I'm just glad I didn't see that happen," said Muecke, a former All-Southwest Conference quarterback (1982-85), who was honored as a Baylor Legend during the Oct. 3 game against Kent State. "I wasn't able to get up for the game, but I was getting (text messages) . . . and the last thing I had heard was that he had maybe hyperextended it. He's such an outstanding talent. I know it doesn't help right now, but if he could get a hardship out of it, that certainly bodes well for the next three years."

Muecke would like for Griffin to get the redshirt he never received. Forced to burn his redshirt seven games into his freshman season, when quarterbacks Mike Brannan and David Mangum went down with injuries, Muecke then split time with Cody Carlson the next three as he threw for 3,688 yards and 29 touchdowns in leading the Bears to bowl game appearances in 1983 and '85.

"I know a lot of people probably won't believe it, but that was never an issue with us getting along and working well together," said the 46-year-old Muecke, an optometrist with Berkeley Eye Center in Houston for the last 10 years. "It just sounds like it doesn't make sense. But that's the way it was. And I think the guys that knew us best would tell you the same thing."

In a sense, Muecke and Carlson proved the theory, "If you got more than one quarterback, you don't have one," dead wrong.

Starting with the opening game of the 1983 season, when they actually alternated every play, the Muecke-Carlson duo led the Bears to a thrilling 40-36 win over BYU and quarterback Steve Young.

"We had no idea going into the game, because coach (Grant) Teaff hadn't said anything about who was going to start," Muecke said. "And to be honest with you, as I sit here right now, I don't even remember who took the first snap. I just know that the other one was coming in right after that play. I think by the end of that season, we had evolved into series, even two series at a time. And that's the way it stayed for that year and then the next two years until I was gone."

While Muecke was considered the better runner and Carlson the better passer, they were both strong enough in the other area that it kept opposing teams completely off-balance.

"I think maybe we complemented each other. I'm not sure exactly why it worked out as well as it did. But it did," Muecke said. "And I think if it hadn't, then maybe Coach Teaff would have gone a different way and just gone with one."

With neither one giving an inch, Muecke said, "it definitely kept you on your toes."

"Nobody had the job," he said. "So you felt like every day, even in practice, you had to go out there and perform well and make every throw count. It was a situation where you definitely didn't get to relax too much. Because once you started to stlip up, you knew you might not be out there as much."

After finishing at Baylor, Muecke spent seven years in the Canadian Football League with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Calgary Stampeders and expansion Shreveport Pirates, throwing for 4,298 yards and 33 touchdowns. And in between his CFL stints, he spent one year as a non-active player with the Houston Oilers, where he was reunited with Carlson.

"I actually lived with him during that time," Muecke said. "It was kind of like back to the old days."

Officially retiring after the '94 season, Muecke returned to Houston to do his post-graduate work at the University of Houston College of Optometry.

"I got my business degree from Baylor, and I was fortunate to be able to go play in the CFL, because I really didn't know what I was going to do," Muecke said. "But I thought the business degree would help. I didn't actually decide to go to Optometry school until I was in Canada playing ball. So needless to say, I got a late start on that. But that's OK."

Tom and his wife, Alison, live in Friendswood, Texas, with their two children: daughter, Mackenzie, 8; and son, Garrett, 3. To this point, his only coaching experience is with his daughter's softball team, but him and Garrett "mess around in the yard."

"He's more into trucks and trains and cars right now," Muecke said. "But he likes to throw (the football) on the roof of the garage and let it roll down. So at least we're getting a little of it in there."

And while he missed the first two home games, Muecke said he plans to make the rest of them this season in Waco, and "I'm really excited about coach (Art) Briles."

"I'm thrilled that he's in there," he said. "It's already obvious the type of talent he can recruit with his schemes. It's definitely turned things around. We're not where we want to be, obviously, but there's no more of this getting thumped by 50 points every week. We're there to compete. Three of the games we lost last year were by a touchdown or less, so I think it's obvious that things have changed."