Remember in “Remember the Titans,” when the character “Sunshine” shows up at football camp with his dad and his dad tells coach Boone (played by Denzel Washington), “Hey my son’s a quarterback, and I would love him to play quarterback for your team,” and Denzel replies, “Well we’ve already got a quarterback.”

Sunshine grabs a football and throws it 60-some yards and hits the formerly-racist-but-now-accepting-of-his-black-teammates linebacker Gerry Bertier in the shoulder pads.

I hear this is how Austyn Carta-Samuels’ brief two-year career began at the University of Wyoming. That’s of course leaving out the fact that we already had a quarterback, because all we had was Dax Crum. Also, Carta-Samuels best attribute as a signal-caller was not his arm; it was his ability to use his legs. I won’t go as far as to say he throws like a girl, because that’s a third grade insult, but I will say that he throws like he’s from California. (Nor am I suggesting that the Cowboys had any sort of racial divide like in that movie, just to clear that up)

I guess the only thing that makes sense about this analogy is the blond haired kid from California.

Last year I saw an absolutely poignant photo of the football star someone caught while shooting a basketball game. Carta-Samuels, sporting a tight, white polo shirt with the collar popped up ever so stylishly, wearing a backwards LA Dodgers hat with his arm around some young lady right in the front row of the AA – like he thought he was LeBron or something.

I guess I’m not surprised he left, I’m just surprised there wasn’t a one-hour special on The Mtn., where he proclaimed that he was “Taking his talents to South Beach.”

The first way our program is going to get any better is if Christensen can build a recruiting base over a few years. In the months since the Cowboys finished their season, that hasn’t exactly happened.

Strong safety Shamiel Gary, kicker Ian Watts, wide receiver David Tooley, and, of course, the ‘Magna’ Carta-Samuels have all left the program.

Aside from “Remember the Titans” analogies, perhaps the other thing that the exit of Carta-Samuels brings to mind is similar exits of players from the Cowboy basketball team during the past few years. Scholarship players have bolted from the hoops team like it was going out of style in the years since Heath Schroyer has been coach.

Apparently, it’s becoming an epidemic in the likes of overrated athletic programs on this campus, i.e. football and basketball.

I understand the desire to leave a place like Laramie, especially in mid-January. California sounds really nice this time of year. On top of the ruthless, frigid weather, I couldn’t imagine playing for the Cowboys, it’s hard enough to watch them.

Not that anyone cares, but I also don’t believe he can be viewed as a highly desired prospect. There are deceiving statistics that might make teams think so, but all you have to do is watch him play.

He threw for 3,655 yards and 19 touchdowns with only 13 interceptions in two seasons, and he rushed for 758 yards and six touchdowns. The Cowboys won nine games and lost 13 that he started.

I don’t see him as a quarterback that can sustain drives, and I don’t believe that he’s anything more than a high school-style, running quarterback that is entirely too hesitant to throw the football sometimes.

Yes, he played a tough schedule both years that he was here. Yes, his receiving core and offensive line wasn’t outstanding. But the one thing I always wanted to see, and never did, was a big upset win from the guy.

In the past two years, Wyoming played No. 2 Texas (eventual BCS national runner up), BYU, TCU and Utah in 2009 when they were all very good teams, No. 3 Boise State this year, and another run against TCU and Utah this year. TCU won the Rose Bowl and Utah was ranked all season.

There’s no question that this schedule was quite formidable, but here are a few more stats that stick out to me.

Of his nine wins, not one came against a ranked opponent, and the combined record of the teams that the Cowboys defeated in the last two years with Carta-Samuels under center (all but two) is 43-66. Six of those points came from 1-AA Independent Southern Utah, which Wyoming beat 28-20 this year at home, and Wyoming’s combined margin of victory in seven of Carta-Samuels’ nine wins was 26 points. It’s largest margin of victory in that stretch was eight points.

The two wins not included in that stretch were against CSU this year when the Cowboys won 44-0, and their 2009 win over New Mexico 37-13. By the way, New Mexico has had two straight 1-11 seasons, with it’s one win this year coming against Carta-Samuels and the Cowboys.

It’s not that he didn’t do some good things as a true freshman, but that bowl run still seems to me as six wins against teams the Cowboys were supposed to beat. It was the same story this year. Three wins against teams we were supposed to beat – and not a single other win for that matter.

Did you ever notice how NFL teams switch quarterbacks after three losses even if it’s not the quarterback’s fault sometimes? I think Cowboy fans can view this as that sort of shift – even if it wasn’t a decision made by the coaching staff.

Sure, it’s obviously harsh to blame all this on one kid from California, but I’ll be the first to say I’m not devastated by his departure.

Later bro’, hang ten.