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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 30, 2001
At 6 feet 4 and 260 pounds, Culpepper looked set to redefine the quarterback position after his first season as a starter last year. Last season he threw the ball short, threw it deep and ran around and over defenders, accounting for 33 passing touchdowns and seven rushing scores. The Ocala native finished with 297 completions in 474 attempts (62-percent completion rate) for 3,937 yards and an overall quarterback rating of 98.0. And he started in the Pro Bowl.
Has the luster worn off? Is it the lack of a consistent Vikings running game? Is it the reshuffled offensive line? Whatever, two games into his second season as a starter, Culpepper doesn't look like the phenom he was last year. His completion rate is still a very good 62.2 percent, but he has thrown just two touchdowns and has been picked off three times. Against the Bears last week, he was stopped on third and goal from the 1.
Times may be difficult for Culpepper now, but he has had productive moments against the Bucs. In two games against Tampa Bay (one win, one loss), Culpepper is 44-of-72 for 544 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
It's only been three seasons since Culpepper left Central Florida, where he virtually put the school on the Division I-A map. While playing for the Golden Knights, Culpepper rewrote the record books with more than 30 school records, including his 73-percent completion rate his senior year, surpassing Steve Young's NCAA single-season mark of 71 percent.
Coming out of college, Culpepper hinted he would have loved to have played for the Bucs, and Tampa Bay would have scooped him up had the Vikings not taken him with the 11th overall pick. Three quarterbacks, Cleveland's Tim Couch (first), Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb (second) and Cincinnati's Akili Smith (third) were taken ahead of Culpepper.
From the department of Why Fans Are Not Coaches comes this: After Culpepper struggled in the opening loss to Carolina, Twin Cities fans bombarded the two local newspapers with e-mails and the radio talk shows will callers pleading for backup Todd Bouman. Yes, you heard right.