Written by Austin Brown and Brooks Hepp

Friday Night Lights was the single greatest television series of all time. For five glorious years, the Dillon Panthers (and later the East Dillon Lions) became America’s team. We cheered when Smash Williams extended his dislocated shoulder across the goal line at the buzzer to win state, we cried when Tim Riggins left his cleats on the field at Darrell K. Royal Stadium after losing the last football game of his life, and our hearts skipped a beat any time Lyla Garrity did just about anything.

Coach Eric Taylor became a lone-star legend during his five years in Dillon and nowhere is his coaching genius more evident than when you examine his ability to develop quarterbacks. Taylor’s prowess for coaching the quarterback position earned him the reputation as the kingmaker in East Texas. Five different young men served as QB1 under Coach Taylor, but the show is primarily focused around two. Matt Saracen and Vince Howard both went from obscurity to stardom under Taylor’s tutelage. These two have a long track record of accomplishments between them, highlighted by a pair of state championships. Unfortunately for us, Matt and Vince missed each other by one year, and thus never got to go head-to-head on the gridiron.

We could just acknowledge that both Matt and Vince were phenomenal quarterbacks and call it a day, but this is America and we don’t settle for ties. One of them had to be better than the other. But which one was truly better? We drafted two of our writers, Austin Brown and Brooks Hepp, to answer this question and settle this debate once and for all.

Austin Brown: The discussion of the best QB on Friday Night Lights begins and ends with East Dillon’s Vince Howard. Vince was far and away the most talent player to ever play under Coach Taylor. He starts out as a guy who’s never played organized football in his life, and six weeks later TMU is essentially breaking NCAA rules to talk to him as a sophomore. That speaks volumes to the type of player Vince was. He was the fastest guy on the field at all times, and he could absolutely launch the football down the field.

Vince’s best moment on the field was his 63-yard Hail Mary as time expired to win state. I just went and watched that play again. He’s at least five yards behind the line of scrimmage when he releases the ball, and the receiver is at least 3-4 yards into the end zone when it’s caught. HE THREW THAT BALL OVER 70 YARDS. You think Matt Saracen makes that throw? Hell nah.

Brooks Hepp: Let’s take a stroll through seasons 1-3. The Panthers have finally got things rolling when one of the top recruits in the country, Voodoo Tatum, comes into town and takes Saracen’s spot. As we all know, that was short lived and Saracen beats him out for the starting spot and even outplays him in the state championship. Voodoo was a top recruit and Saracen was clearly the better quarterback.

Then season 3 rolls around and everyone’s least favorite character enters the scene…JD McCoy. Eventually, Matt loses his spot to the number one player in the nation but steals it back from him in the state championship before almost leading one of the biggest comebacks I have ever seen. Have the poise to not play quarterback for half a season then almost lead your team to a state championship victory? Try that, Vince.

And plus, watch the pilot episode. That last Hail Mary pass to win the game was 60 yards while he was under pressure. So yes, I do think he could make that throw.

AB: Let’s examine the first East Dillon vs. West Dillon game from season four. JD (the same freshman who took Saracen’s starting spot in season three) came in with the number one team in the state, Vince came in with a team that just two months earlier had to forfeit a game at halftime because they were so depleted that Coach Taylor feared for their safety. What happened? Vince outplayed and outclassed JD so badly that he had to move out of Dillon forever.

Coach Taylor spends the majority of seasons 1-3 trying to do anything he can to not have to start Saracen. Matt starts season one as the backup but is reluctantly thrust into a starting role when Jason Street goes down in game one. Coach Taylor waits all of about 15 seconds after that game to begin searching for Saracen’s replacement. Matt’s senior year, he gets his starting job taken by the aforementioned 15-year-old JD McCoy. Did Coach Taylor even think for a second about replacing Vince? No, because Vince was the GOAT, and anyone who ever watched him play realized that.

Let’s transition into their personal lives, particularly looking at their dating lives. Matt spends all five seasons chasing after Julie Taylor who has to be one of the least likable characters in television history. Julie is needy, impulsive and possibly bipolar. Contrast Julie with Vince’s girlfriend Jess Merriweather. Jess is they type of girl that every man dream about. Jess essentially raised her brothers by herself, she makes Vince work for it before she finally agrees to date him and she has ambitions beyond finding a ring by spring. Julie, on the other hand, can’t even be bothered to babysit her younger sister because she’s too wrapped up in herself and drops out of college after accomplishing nothing besides sleeping with her professor. Is there any sane man in America who would take Julie over Jess? No, there is not.

BH: You fell right into my trap, Austin. The best part of Saracen’s game as a quarterback is his intangibles. He always made the right decisions on and off the field, and his relationship with Julie was better for the team than Vince’s relationship with Jess for multiple reasons. One, she basically became an assistant coach. That has to be some sort of conflict of interest on the team if one of the coaches is dating a player, and I’m sure it was distracting to the other players watching them flirt during practice. Also, Jess and Landry were happily together before Vince came around. What kind of teammate steals his own teammate’s girlfriend? That just causes controversy and that is something Matt would never do because he would always put the team before his love life.

Matt was the most poised quarterback in Dillon history. You can clearly see in season 4 that Vince was just not ready for the task of being a quarterback. He needed a season under his belt as the starter until he could truly become elite. Matt, on the other hand, got thrown into a pit of fire when Street got injured, and he didn’t need more than a couple of plays to lead them to a victory and later a state championship. Vince had the talent, but GOAT’s don’t take an entire season to become elite. GOAT’s lead their teams to comeback victories and state championships during their first year as a starter.

AB: Let’s focus for a minute on what I think is the most important scene of the entire series. It happens in season 4 episode 12 when Vince and Kennard are on their way to kill the guy who shot and killed Vince’s best friend Calvin. As they get close to the house, Vince gets out and decides he doesn’t want to go through with it. He decides in that moment that he wants more out of life than the gang life has to offer.

When Vince gets out, Kennard sticks a gun in his face and tells him to get back in the car or he will shoot him. Does Vince cower in fear and get back in the car? Not a chance. He doesn’t even flinch when he tells Kennard, “do what you gotta do.” Kennard backs down and gets in the car in drives away. You want to talk about poise? Vince Howard is poise. (For the record, the Lions went 14-1 in their next 15 games after this incident.)

Vince was superman in a football jersey, Matt was a game manager. Vince had offers from every college in the country out of high school, Matt became a pizza delivery boy. Vince throws a 70-yard Hail Mary to win the state championship in the series finale, Matt is watching from the bleachers while rocking a Vanilla-Ice-looking sideways hat.

Vince Howard is and forever will be the greatest quarterback to ever come out of Dillon, Texas.

BH: In the end, there is one simple reason why Matt Saracen was the best quarterback to come out of Dillon: the season one state championship run. If they lose the first game the year, they don’t even make the playoffs, and Jason Street put them in a position to lose that game. Yes, that Jason Street: the best player in the country. The one the Notre Dame scout called “the best he had ever seen.” And Matt outplayed him. Matt put a bigger dent in that game in two drives than Jason did the entire game. He was the reason they made the playoffs.

Who threw the perfect pass into the corner of the end zone in the pouring rain to win the mud bowl? Matt Saracen.

Who went toe to toe with national phenom Voodoo Tatum in the state championship and beat him? Matt Saracen.

Who was the greatest quarterback to play for Coach Taylor in Dillon, Texas? Matt Saracen.

If only there was a season 6 to see how Vince played in his senior season…something tells me it would’ve been special, but not Matt Saracen special.

Texas forever.