I found this on a track and field message board..
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/10843553
This is the first of a two-part series on the fastest players in college football.
Tuesday: Jeremy Maclin wants a match race
Thursday: The fastest playerever
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A college football match race. Good idea, right? There's not much else happening on campus this time of year that doesn't involvelifting, bar fights and summer school.
The four-letter could beat us over the head with it (or as other more rational TV professionals call it, "promotion"). Advertisers would love new,different programming in the dead of summer.
| 10 FASTEST PLAYERS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL (in alphabetical order) | |
| Jahvid Best, RB, Cal, sophomore: Used sparingly as a freshman, Best once ran a 10.31 100 in high school. Missed the track season (and spring practice) recovering from a hip injury. |
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| Noel Devine, RB, West Virginia, sophomore: A 10.4 (100) and 21.3 (200) sprinter in high school, Devine averaged 8.6 yards per rush as a freshman. |
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| Jacoby Ford, WR, Clemson, junior: Reportedly ran a 4.126 in prep school. Called the fastest player ever at Fork Union Military Academy, a program that has produced 87 NFL draftees and two Heisman winners. |
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| Michael Ray Garvin, DB, Florida State, senior: Set the school record for kick return yardage in '07. Member of FSU's 4x100 national champion relay team last year. |
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| Percy Harvin, WR, Florida, junior: Think where Florida's running game would be without this wide receiver who runs a 4.28 40? |
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| Trindon Holliday, RB/WR/KR, LSU, junior: Once ran a 4.27 40 in basketball shoes at an LSU camp. Since then he has become an elite track star and budding football prospect. |
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| Jeremy Maclin, WR/KR, Missouri, sophomore: Set the NCAA record for most all-purpose yards by a freshman in 2007. |
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| Taylor Mays, S, USC, junior: Two-time state of Washington prep sprint champ. Recently ran a 4.25 40 at USC. |
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| Joe McKnight, RB, USC, sophomore: Former No. 1 recruit in the country, McKnight was a YouTube sensation who was compared to Reggie Bush. Ran a 10.4 100 in high school. |
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| C.J. Spiller, RB, Clemson, junior: Seventeen career touchdowns as a standout tailback. Blazing sprinter with career bests of 6.74 (60), 10.41 (100) and 21.47 (200). |
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| Ten others to consider: Bryan Evans, CB, Georgia; Jamere Holland, WR, Oregon; Deon Murphy, WR/PR, Kansas State; Louis Murphy, Florida; Travon Patterson, WR, USC; Chris Rainey, Florida; Omar Bolden, CB, Arizona State; Brandon Saine, RB, Ohio State; Marcus Thigpen, RB, Indiana; Pat White, QB, West Virginia. | |
Happens all the time anyway when players are horsing around. "Line up, fool, and let's run one. See that cone? First one to it goes to the head ofthe training table line."
"Yeah, I've heard of him," said
Missouri's Jeremy Maclin of his opponent in the dream match race that probably will never take place. "We get compared a lot.I've heard people say I'm faster, I've heard people say he's faster. I know he's really fast.
"I think it would be fun to go (race) at the same time, two guys with speed like that."
And Trindon Holliday has heard of Maclin. The LSU track star/receiver/running back/returner said so in December when his team was getting ready to winanother national championship.
You might have deduced, then, the reason for a match race: Two Tigers from top programs at the top of their game. The pair might consist of the two fastestplayers in college football.
Might. That's the problem. How do we know? Factor in football equipment; the way they're used; their positions;their
height. Holliday is listed at 5-feet-6. Maclin, a redshirt sophomore, has more classic receiver size at 6-1.
Holliday, a complimentary player in football, is a borderline Olympic class sprinter for the nation's No. 1 track squad. Maclin doesn't run trackbut was an All-American for Missouri on the gridiron, which reached No. 1 for the first time in 47 years.
One thing is still certain: Speed rules the game more than spread-option offenses, multi-million dollar coaches or the suddenly gun-happy culture developingamong players.
Every Friday during spring practice, Missouri players ran 40s. Maclin's best was 4.31 seconds without, he says, a decent start each time. He ran in the4.3s every time.
"(But) I'm definitely 4.27," he said.
Of course, a match race would be nothing but eye candy. How do you compare Holliday or Maclin to Jacoby Ford and C.J. Spiller, both sprint/football stars atClemson? Spiller (running back) and Ford (receiver) at least touch the ball.
How do you evaluate Southern California safety Taylor Mays or Florida State defensive back Michael Ray Garvin?
Garvin was part of FSU's 4x100 national championship relay team last year. According to USC, Mays, a former two-time state high school sprint champ inWashington, ran a 4.25-second 40. He's also 6-3, 230 pounds. That's the same 40 time that Chris Johnson posted in 2006. Who is Chris Johnson? Mostly,he flew under the radar at East Carolina while leading the country in all-purpose yards last season. Johnson ran that 4.25 at the program's NFL timingday.
In February, Johnson ran a 4.24 at the NFL combine. Not surprisingly, he was drafted in the first round in April by Tennessee.
"I feel like I can get better," said Maclin, who also sees an NFL future looming. "I have a tendency to start gliding. When I'm runningand I know I'm beating everybody, I have a tendency to start gliding."
Gliding? It sure didn't look like it when Maclin became a breakout star (and 2008 Heisman candidate) piling up 2,776 all-purpose yards, the most ever bya freshman and the fifth-highest total in NCAA history. He led Missouri in receiving yards (1,055) and was the only player in the country to score rushing,receiving, punt-return and kick-return touchdowns. All that while playing with 2007 Heisman finalist Chase Daniel and two future NFL Draft choices in thenation's No. 5 offense.
"I fell in love with what Missouri was doing on offense," he said.
That was after Oklahoma had fallen in love with him. Maclin originally committed to the Sooners out of Kirkwood (Mo.) High School. To hear the player tellit, though, OU didn't follow up -- enough. Living in St. Louis, he was swayed to Missouri.
Maclin's youth football coach Jeff Parres felt pity for the kid and eventually adopted him. Jeremy was the youngest of three sons of Cleo Maclin.Fighting what the
New York Times called a lifetime of "neglect and emotional abuse" as a result of his mother, Jeremy flourished inParres' family.
After arriving in Columbia, stardom was delayed when Maclin injured his knee during a seven-on-seven drill before his freshman season.
"I'm really impressed with him," Daniel said. "He got hurt and came back faster than he was as a true freshman."
So what's next for Maclin? Defenses, now more aware, will continue game planning against him. It started at the end of last season. Oklahoma bracketedhim in the Big 12 championship game, using a linebacker on short routes who then released him deep to a defensive back. Maclin did have 204 all-purpose yardsbut was kept out of the end zone.
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| Darren McFadden and Maclin would be a good match, both claim 4.27 in the 40. (US Presswire) | |
In the first meeting with Oklahoma, Maclin scored twice but threw a crippling interception -- adding quarterback to his position list.
"I had a feeling I could be a guy who could be counted for the big play ...," Maclin said. "I think I did just that, I stepped up. I exceededa lot of people's expectations but I still feel like I've got a lot to prove."
Opponents respect him; the next chore might be getting NCAA '09 to notice. It was hard to find one of the fastest players in the game on the popularvideo game last season. Maclin says he was buried on the depth chart as No. 80 (his real-life number is 9).
The player coached his avatar in "career" mode. That part of the game allows a player to develop from a high school recruit to (possible) NFLprospect.
"I've eventually developed to be one of the premier receivers and I go to the NFL," the human Maclin said of the pixilated Maclin. "Ithink my final rating was 95 (out of 100) -- All-American, Heisman candidate."
That's a video game pretty much mimicking real life.
Now all that's left is that match race.
Part 2
This is second of a two-part series on the fastest players in college football.
Tuesday: Jeremy Maclin wants a matchrace
Thursday: The fastest player ever
They're still trying to find a label for Trindon Holliday.
If it's easy to master the Three Rs in the classroom, then it must be advanced calculus to nail down the Three Rs for the LSU junior. Is he a runningback? A returner? A receiver? In varying degrees he's all of those things, just not often enough to be more than a complimentary player so far for thenational champions.
In Beijing this summer there could be an equally confounding riddle.
What's that equipment manager doing in the blocks for the U.S. in the 100-meterfinal?
Answer:
That 5-foot-6 dude? That's our guy, Trindon, chasing an Olympic medal.
Holliday's story would be easier to figure out if we could slap a designation on him. But this is the USA -- United States of Absolute. We like ouridols American, our beer lite and our sitcoms formulaic. In two seasons as LSU's super-fast secret weapon, Holliday has been hard to chase down on twosurfaces. Harder to define, in general.
In football, Holliday has touched the ball only 95 times in two seasons (3.5 per game), averaging 12.7 yards every time he has done so. As a track star, heis one of the fastest sprinters in the country -- maybe the world -- with a chance to make the U.S. Olympic team next month.
That's why questions still nag: Is he a football player who dabbles in track or a budding world-class sprinter who is pretty good at football too?
"He is a football player with track ability," Tigers football coach Les Miles said.
"Just like playing football for LSU is very, very important to him," LSU track coach Dennis Shaver said, "this is too."
Even Holliday, on his MySpace page, won't break the tie listing his "occupation" as "running track AND playing football."
With a little research, the LSU sports information department split the difference. They're calling Holliday the World's Fastest Football Player.Ever. They've got a point. Only 69 humans have run a faster 100 meters than Holliday's 10.02 posted in last year's NCAA track and fieldchampionships. None of those 69 were playing football at the time.
Only 12 college sprinters have run a faster 100 time than Holliday. None of
them played college football. Mix in the fact that no high schoolathlete has run faster than 10.08 and Holliday is left with the football world title. We're talking about a better time than some pretty good sprinters whowent on to make their name in football -- Olympian "Bullet" Bob Hayes and Heisman winner Herschel Walker.
All that without having reached his peak in either sport. Holliday was recruited as a football player but Shaver was involved in the process. Miles haspromised an expanded role for Holliday, who ran for 364 yards and returned a kickoff for a touchdown last season.
"If someone were to leave their lane in track, it wouldn't bother him much," Miles said. "He would understand the collision."
Meanwhile, Shaver wonders how good the 160-pound Holliday could be if he were a full-time sprinter.
"I do know if we had him for a year-round program we could make some improvements in his mechanics," Shaver said. "If his legs were just acouple of inches longer, we would probably be writing about something else."
Hint: It would be conference, U.S. or maybe even world records more than football.
The dual threat should add some spice to this weekend's NCAA Mideast Regional in Fayetteville, Ark. Top-ranked LSU and Holliday will be the main topicsof conversation -- much as they were in football five months ago in New Orleans.
As a 5-4, 140-pound high school sophomore, Holliday was a slotback at Northeast High in Zachary, La. When football recruiters began to inquire, Northeastcoach David Masterson intentionally fudged on his player's 40 time. The colleges, he surmised, wouldn't believe this kid could run in the 4.2s.
Holliday got only three offers out of high school -- Southern, Southern Miss and LSU. Miles was intrigued by Holliday's numbers at an LSU high schoolcamp. Wearing high-top basketball shoes, Holliday ran a 4.28 40. Asked to run it again, Holliday posted a 4.27 without even getting in a track stance. The onlyquestion left for Miles was whether the track speed could translate to football.
"He was always a football player," Miles said. "I can't imagine he loses any speed with pads on, I mean, at all. He's pretty damnexciting."
Assuming Holliday stays two more seasons, it's scary to think he could get faster. Already he has recorded 6.6 seconds in the 60 meters and 21.33seconds in the 200. He finished second in the last year's NCAA outdoor (10.06) after running that personal-best 10.02 in a prelim. Miles would love to getfellow LSU sprinter Richard Thompson (9.93 in the 100) in a set of shoulder pads with Holliday.
"We're working on that right now," he said. "We're going to call that the 'Smoke' formation."
As in Holliday and Thompson leaving a cartoon vapor trail in their wake.
That's the thing about the WFFP. At 6-2, Thompson probably has more of a classic football body. It took him only 43¾ strides to run his 9.93. Hollidayran the 100 in 10.05 recently using 49½ strides. That equates to the same amount of strides by a female sprinter running a second slower, Shaver said. In otherwords, Holliday gets tremendous explosion out of that small body.
It's just that Holliday's body isn't classic for either sport. Shaver doubts that Holliday could turn pro as a sprinter. "He justdoesn't have that kind of build that companies are going to make a huge investment in."
Despite his incredible speed, Miles says Holliday's size is a "serious issue." Not one that can't be overcome. There is precedent for thesmall guy. Doug Flutie did OK. Former Stanford star Troy Walters (5-8, 171) has lasted seven years in the NFL as a receiver/returner.
But what might trump the doubt is the kid's will. Two years ago at the SEC meet (also in Fayetteville), Holliday gamely raced with a high-ankle sprain.He finished 24th with a time of 11.01 in the 100. A lot of elite sprinters would have shut it down before they made it to the starting line. A lot of footballplayers wouldn't have thought twice about playing through it.
Hey, maybe we finally found a label.
"He ran his guts out to run that fast," Shaver said.
Or was it Miles?
