Vince Young's down-and-out pattern

Maybe he knew the good times couldn't last.

It was the fall of 2005 and Vince Young ruled supreme over college football, leading Texas toward an undefeated season and a showdown with top-ranked USC in the national-championship game.

Even then, when it seemed no defense could stop him, the gifted quarterback warned his eventual successor, Colt McCoy, about dealing with success.

"You've got to grow a thick skin," he told the freshman.

McCoy recalls: "That's the biggest thing we talked about. When you're doing great, everybody loves you and when you're doing bad, there are a lot of people who turn on you. You can't listen to either one of them."

Maybe Young could see the hard times coming.

Exactly three years since his shining moment in the Bowl Championship Series national title game at the 2006 Rose Bowl -- remember Young sprinting across the goal line in the final seconds, howling amid confetti that flickered from the night sky? -- a football career hangs in the balance.

The 25-year-old former college superstar and NFL rookie of the year has lost his starting job with the Tennessee Titans amid questions about his ability to handle pressure. There was a bizarre, and much-publicized, incident earlier this season that by various accounts had him sulking, depressed, even suicidal, all of which he has denied.

No matter what happened, Young's reversal of fortune has been swift and dramatic, and something that neither he nor team officials were willing to discuss for this story.

It is left for others to chart the trajectory of his career, the path that took him from then to now.

State of mind

Through the front gate of the Texas football offices, into the lobby, it is hard to walk more than a few steps without seeing a photograph or a trophy, some reminder of the man who some call the greatest pure athlete in school history.

The coaches, who still communicate with Young regularly, insist he has the pride and wherewithal to, as offensive coordinator Greg Davis put it, "come out the end of this cloud."

"I think he's a young man who probably got down," Longhorns Coach Mack Brown said. "He got frustrated."

The situation came to a boil during 48 hours in early September.

Late in the Titans' home opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Young threw his second interception of the day and was booed off the field. He slumped on the bench and did not budge when Tennessee got the ball back.