Which recruit

#28
#28
Of course! There is no science to predicting which players will truly excel. A lot of these discussions are made from evidence from 2-3 60 second highlight tapes and gut feeling.

It's highly possible our 3 starting WRs in 2007 are Gerald Jones, Brent Vinson, and Kenny O'Neal. I love some of the returning guys, but we're incredibly deep in talent at WR, but not in experience. It's a blank canvas for the depth chart, so everybody has a chance.

Rivals does a top 100 top prospect list each year and they have video on most if not all of these players. High School Coaches make highlight reels of players they think can play in college, but they have tapes of all their games.

Many if not all the top players go to camps where they are timed in the 40 and their strength is tested by counting reps at 225 (depends on position).

That is then used to compare and rank the prospects based on speed and strength. For instance QB's go to camps where each is given the same throws to make, comparisons are drawn and the players ranked. There is more involved then what you say.
 
#29
#29
Is the World championships the Olympics?
Actually, Willie Gault is (ok, was) a bonafide US Olympic sprinter. He was on the 1980 team that was boycotted from competing. While in the strictest sense that did keep him from ever competing in the Olympics I think it'd be a bit disingenuous to say he wasn't an Olympic athlete because of world politics.

Here's a very interesting read on the subject of football speed. Well, I found it interesting anyway.

40 yard dash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
#31
#31
Leonard Scott and Sam Graddy were Olympic caliber sprinters too. Speed is great but it isn't everything.
 
#33
#33
Leonard Scott and Sam Graddy were Olympic caliber sprinters too. Speed is great but it isn't everything.
If I remember correctly Graddy wasn't just "caliber", I think he brought home a Silver. If I'm also not mistaken the Bronze was Ron Brown and played for the Rams. Nehamiah (sic?) was a 49er. Off the top of my head the only guy at that track level that really "brought it" to the football field was Bob Hayes. That's not to say there aren't/haven't been other guys with elite speed that translated well to the field. Dieon and Darrell Green come to mind.
 
#34
#34
If I remember correctly Graddy wasn't just "caliber", I think he brought home a Silver. If I'm also not mistaken the Bronze was Ron Brown and played for the Rams. Nehamiah (sic?) was a 49er. Off the top of my head the only guy at that track level that really "brought it" to the football field was Bob Hayes. That's not to say there aren't/haven't been other guys with elite speed that translated well to the field. Dieon and Darrell Green come to mind.

Yep. I heard a NFL scout say one time that if Deon had decided to run track in his prime he would have been the fastest man in the world. I doubt that is true, but that was the esteem NFL scouts had of him at the time.
 
#35
#35
If I remember correctly Graddy wasn't just "caliber", I think he brought home a Silver. If I'm also not mistaken the Bronze was Ron Brown and played for the Rams. Nehamiah (sic?) was a 49er. Off the top of my head the only guy at that track level that really "brought it" to the football field was Bob Hayes. That's not to say there aren't/haven't been other guys with elite speed that translated well to the field. Dieon and Darrell Green come to mind.


What about UT's very own Justin Gatlin? I wonder if he ever played football.
 
#38
#38
Rivals does a top 100 top prospect list each year and they have video on most if not all of these players. High School Coaches make highlight reels of players they think can play in college, but they have tapes of all their games.

Many if not all the top players go to camps where they are timed in the 40 and their strength is tested by counting reps at 225 (depends on position).

That is then used to compare and rank the prospects based on speed and strength. For instance QB's go to camps where each is given the same throws to make, comparisons are drawn and the players ranked. There is more involved then what you say.

I stated that these discussions (between us fans) are based on little information besides 1 minute vidoes we see. Obviously coaches see far far far more.
 
#39
#39
Rivals does a top 100 top prospect list each year and they have video on most if not all of these players. High School Coaches make highlight reels of players they think can play in college, but they have tapes of all their games.

Many if not all the top players go to camps where they are timed in the 40 and their strength is tested by counting reps at 225 (depends on position).

That is then used to compare and rank the prospects based on speed and strength. For instance QB's go to camps where each is given the same throws to make, comparisons are drawn and the players ranked. There is more involved then what you say.

Also, I would think that you and I know each other on VN long enough for you to KNOW that I know this common knowledge.
 
#40
#40
That is not accurate. There have been people electronically timed under 4.4. There is no question about that. Berry's forty time is electronically timed. But, like they were saying earlier forty times are vastly overrated in terms of translating to football success.

I will refer to an article written by Mark Zeigler in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

It is way to long to copy and paste but google it and you will see. Here is one part of it though.


There is no official world record for 40 yards.
The shortest distance that the IAAF, track and field's international governing body, recognizes for world-record purposes is an indoor 50 meters, or about 54 yards. It is 5.56 seconds and it was set by Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey in 1996. There is also a world record for 60 meters – 6.39 seconds by American Maurice Greene in 1998.

But it is another Canadian, Ben Johnson, who is believed to have run 40 yards faster than any human in history. Johnson is best known for injecting copious amounts of steroids and winning the 100 meters at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul in 9.79 seconds, only to have his gold medal and world record stripped after failing a post-race drug test.


Timing officials have since broken down that famed race into 10-meter increments, and Johnson was so preposterously fast that he went through 50 meters in 5.52 seconds and 60 meters in 6.37 – both under the current world records at those distances. He went through 40 yards that day in 4.38 seconds.

He was running in spikes . . . on a warm afternoon perfectly suited for sprinting . . . with a slight tailwind . . . with years of training from arguably track's top coach, Charlie Francis . . . with Carl Lewis and six others of the fastest men on the planet chasing him . . . with 69,000 people roaring at Seoul's Olympic Stadium . . . with hundreds of millions of people watching on TV . . . with the ultimate prize in sports, an Olympic gold medal, at stake.

And, as we learned later, with muscles built with the assistance of the anabolic steroid stanazolol.

Four-point-three-eight seconds.

Then again, maybe Ben Johnson isn't the fastest 40-yard man in the world.

Maybe half the NFL is faster.
 
#41
#41
Also, part of the article in which I stated before is that the sprinter's start is by the gun in which they state a perfect reaction time is .22 seconds. The NFL or different combine 40 times are done on the players start.

It is all irrelevant because the fastest guy is still the fastest guy at the combine if the measurement of time is the same for everyone. My point is, dont get caught up in all of these crazy 40 times.
 
#42
#42
Also, part of the article in which I stated before is that the sprinter's start is by the gun in which they state a perfect reaction time is .22 seconds. The NFL or different combine 40 times are done on the players start.

It is all irrelevant because the fastest guy is still the fastest guy at the combine if the measurement of time is the same for everyone. My point is, dont get caught up in all of these crazy 40 times.
Are you sure you're making the point you're trying to make? If football player 40's are timed from the players start vs track start that .22 would be subtracted from a comparable football time, right? So the track 4.38 is now a football 4.16. And that's assuming a "perfect" start. Not sure how close to perfect that particular start was but anything over that .22 would also be subtracted from a football 40 time. Sorry, not wanting to belabor the point but it'd be silly look back at what Coker pulled off a few times this year and not think pure, undiluted speed wasn't a major component. I think you'd agree
 
#43
#43
Are you sure you're making the point you're trying to make? If football player 40's are timed from the players start vs track start that .22 would be subtracted from a comparable football time, right? So the track 4.38 is now a football 4.16. And that's assuming a "perfect" start. Not sure how close to perfect that particular start was but anything over that .22 would also be subtracted from a football 40 time. Sorry, not wanting to belabor the point but it'd be silly look back at what Coker pulled off a few times this year and not think pure, undiluted speed wasn't a major component. I think you'd agree

That isnt the issue. The accuracy of the times or the hoopla of being caught up in the numbers. What I am saying is, if they are all out on the same day and running. Then no matter what the time is, they are all timed on the same medium so numbers could tell you who was fastest at that time.

Someone posted some CRAZY time that someone ran of 4.1 or something in which posted just saying how that wasnt accurate or could be accurate.
 
#44
#44
That isnt the issue. The accuracy of the times or the hoopla of being caught up in the numbers. What I am saying is, if they are all out on the same day and running. Then no matter what the time is, they are all timed on the same medium so numbers could tell you who was fastest at that time.

Someone posted some CRAZY time that someone ran of 4.1 or something in which posted just saying how that wasnt accurate or could be accurate.
I have heard of such reports also. I specifically recall Alexander Wright (of Auburn track fame) being credited with a 4.09. That's just tough to swallow. Rae Carruth was supposed to have some absurd 40 time as well. I always like the NFL combine and the hard, cold "everybody running the same thing" times. In truth, if you go under 4.4 at the combine you are a legit burner. Upshot is, if you are supposed to be (or better yet known to be) TRULY fast (not just sorta-kinda) it tends to add excitement. Against Vandy didn't you jump up and yell "He's gone!" because you knew, most likely, he was. Only burners do that for you, make you believe ANY play can go the distance, hence the fascination. As for some of the hyperbole involved, I hear 'ya.
 
#45
#45
Also, part of the article in which I stated before is that the sprinter's start is by the gun in which they state a perfect reaction time is .22 seconds. The NFL or different combine 40 times are done on the players start.

It is all irrelevant because the fastest guy is still the fastest guy at the combine if the measurement of time is the same for everyone. My point is, dont get caught up in all of these crazy 40 times.

QFT
 
#46
#46
I'll put more stock into high school 40 times when a corner back lines up directly next to a receiver and they run straight lines to get to the ball. THEN it will be the best tool to use.

Until then, I'll take excellent acceleration, great vision and good speed over excellent speed, good acceleration, and good vision.
 
#47
#47
I'll put more stock into high school 40 times when a corner back lines up directly next to a receiver and they run straight lines to get to the ball. THEN it will be the best tool to use.

Until then, I'll take excellent acceleration, great vision and good speed over excellent speed, good acceleration, and good vision.

Agreed, 40 times are over blown. One thing you cant coach though is speed.
 
#48
#48
That is not accurate. There have been people electronically timed under 4.4. There is no question about that. Berry's forty time is electronically timed. But, like they were saying earlier forty times are vastly overrated in terms of translating to football success.

Actually I read that article.. The fastest time wasn't 4.48 but it sure wasn't as fast as you think. I think it was around 4.32.
 
#50
#50
If he ran a 4.06 then he would have ran in the Olympics...

He would have gone in 1980 (he was on the world record holding 4X100 relay team) had that idiot president Jimmy Carter not boycotted the Olympics that year in protest to the Soviet Union invading Alfganastan!!!!:banghead2:

It cost Gault (and other UT athlethes) probably a Gold metal!! If you think W is a bad president, he looks like George Washington compared to that miserable failure Carter!!:realmad:
 

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