Yeah, meant to add Harbaugh wasn't even around yet...VY was just a tiny bit ahead of the game. Even in college -- he had to force Mack to junk the GDGD offense to save both of their skins. Literally, he had to make a choice between almost certainly getting fired and letting Vince be Vince.
Way back in the '80s, the best player I ever played against was a 6'5 Black quarterback for the Waller HS freshmen team. He had the same VY stride when running and a cannon when chunking it, but he was a lefty, and they ran more of a traditional old-school option attack. Zone-read was years away. I was an outside linebacker on D and defending that shit was a nightmare. Some announcer got in trouble a few years ago for saying part of the reason Jackson has such success is that linebackers can't see if he has the ball or not -- he is really good at selling fakes, and, well, the ball is the same color as his hands. Same deal with this Waller QB, and it was made worse by their home jerseys, which were maroon, so the ball didn't get pop against that background.
Anyway, this guy could have been '80s VY but Waller is Waller. I was a Strake Jesuit Crusader, and when we rolled into town on the bus, we were met with a burning cross surrounded by Black and White Waller students alike -- because it was kind of our mascot, so /noKLan. But there you had the mentality. Somehow or another this QB -- Darrell Hawkins -- was persuaded to give up football and focus on basketball, and he was really good at that, too -- he eventually became a key component of Nolan Richardson's most ferocious Arkansas teams. But not anything like another VY, which he could have been. Meanwhile, Waller handed over the offense to your average 5'10" White kid and were a perennial .500 team.