Gridironstuds.com Blog

I don’t care what she says,  some 18 years ago,  Shaiy Howard could not have known that this moment would be like this.  All parents dream of and pray for big things for their child upon their entrance into this World.  However,  All-American cornerback Tracy’s Howard’s mother could not have envisioned this scenery nearly two decades ago.

On the eve of what will be her son’s biggest decision, Shaiy Howard is trending on one of the largest websites on the Internet, Twitter.com.  Howard has posed as the de facto social media bouncer for her highly sought after son.  In this day in age,  it’s probably a necessary evil as the on rush from fans, media and coaches through a Twitter account can drop a G.P.A. like Michael Spinks versus Mike Tyson.  So there she is, with her shield like a soldier in “300″ taking on everything coming his way.  Ms. Howard is doing a great job but also appears to be enjoying it.

“You wild! RT @MrLove305: Tracy Howard to……… THE MIAMI DOLPHINS!!! LMAO”

That was her response to a fan who jokingly suggested Tracy skip the whole National Signing Day thing and head straight to the Dolphins.  Several 2011 Dolphin season ticket holders may be taking a more serious approach to that suggestion.

“Nothing, it is funny how everyone knows more than us about us…..tomorrow is almost here and he can select one school:-).”

Howard’s response to an apparent friend as she poked fun at the insanity of fans who want so hard to have the scoop that they will pretend to know everything about a recruit down to name of his favorite aunty.

It can be both comical and scary if you think about it.  After all,  Tracy Howard is a teenager and he has an entire legion of football fans hanging on his utterance at 9:50 Wednesday morning.  In what other situation would something like this happen?  Fans will be dug in before their computers tomorrow like a pair of the new Jordans are going to pop out.  However,  before that,  many are taking to Shaiy Howard’s twitter account to toss in those final few words that will sway their decision towards their school.  In some fantasy world they feel that the words of Joe Fan will supersede those of mother, father and son, uncle and aunt, grandma and grandpa.  It’s as if they are envisioning a scene in which Shaiy and Tracy will say right after their announcement that it was the words of “SuperMaxLovaShotCalla” on Twitter that did it for us and we chose school X.  No doubt,  Ms. Howard is sitting atop a unicorn while she says this.

Stacks850 T r e n d s e t t a
@ shaiyhoward I hope to see Tracy put on da UF hat n you doin da gator chomp!!! While he signs da LOI

TheG8TROB Rob Dunkel

@shaiyhoward Just remember the Gatornation is everywhere. Muschamp is the best coach to develop a defensive back.

Chad Wilson High School Football

Now I love Uncle Luke.  I don’t know that you will find many who wore the University of Miami uniform who don’t.  You know whenever someone starts it off by saying they love somebody,  there’s another shoe about to drop.  I have to call him out on his recent article written in Miami New Times about super agent Drew Rosenhaus entitled: Drew Rosenhaus is the Gordon Gekko of Sports Agents.

In Luke’s article he references Terrell Owen’s quotes about how Rosenhaus referred him to financial planners who steered him into poor and risky investments that eventually flopped.  Luke also calls Rosenhaus out for having never donated a dime to the youth leagues in the inner city of Miami,  the place where a great deal of his clients come from (according to Luke).  Luke also takes Drew to task on failing to teach his clients fiscal responsibility and stated that Rosenhaus “preys on under privileged African Americans.”

Now hold on!  First of all,  it’s not Rosenhaus’ responsibility to teach his clients fiscal responsibility.  It would be nice but it’s not what he was hired to do.  How can we even be sure that Rosenhaus is fiscally responsible? Hell, everyone thought Leigh Steinberg was fiscally responsible didn’t they?  Word from bankruptcy court is that he’s not.  Rosenhaus was hired to get the most money out of NFL teams for his clients and it seems as though he’s pretty good at that.  I never bought a set of steak knives from Luther Campbell but I damned sure bought his albums because he made good music that people wanted to listen to.  My point is,  Drew Rosenhaus is a NFL agent,  not a financial advisor.

Why should Rosenhaus donate money to the youth leagues in the inner city, because Luther Campbell started and runs one?  Seems a little self serving doesn’t it?  Isn’t this what Luke is accusing Drew of?  If Rosenhaus delivers a couple of grand to the Liberty City Optimist League will that make everything he does o.k. with Luke?  I don’t know but the article sure comes off like this would be the case.  So Rosenhaus should donate to the charities that are near and dear to Luke’s heart?  I doubt Luke did any research on what charities Rosenhaus donates to.  For all we know,  Rosenhaus donates to the United Negro College Fund or to an inner city literacy movement.  All Luke knows is that Drew signed players from Miami’s inner city and he did not donate to Luke’s league so that’s a problem.  Almost like Luke is charging Rosenhaus a fee for picking up players from the city he lives in.

I sure recall some of Luke’s artists accusing him of taking money from them back in the day.  Now one of two things happened.  Either Luke fleeced them out of some cash or his artists were frivolous and care free in their money management.  When all the money was gone,  the artists were looking for someone to blame and Luke was it.  I tend to believe the latter as experience would tell me.  This seems kind of similar to what T.O. is doing with Rosenhaus.  Guess who’s responsibility T.O.’s money is?  T.O.’s !!

Athletes getting lazy and using their agent as their all everything when the agent’s prowess is contract negotiation is a mistake.  That’s a mistake made by the athlete.  The agent is going to be the agent.  They make deals and they will make deals with investment firms, insurance firms, real estate firms and they will steer clients to those firms they have deals with.  It’s on the athlete to do their research on the firms and make sound decisions on the most important commodity which is their money.

I played on a team with Michael Barrow, Darrin Smith and Jesse Armstead.  They all played in the NFL for quite some time but none of them made half of the money T.O. did.  All three of them seem to be doing quite well for themselves and they have all been out of the game for quite some time.  None them had a privileged up bringing but they were all wise about “their” money.  How’d that happen?

Can we stop expecting others to look out for us?  Can we grab the bull by the horns and handle our own affairs?  I attended a rookie symposium once and there were quite a few in attendance who seemed quite disinterested in the messages being sent their way with regards to women and money.  Let’s not cry now and point fingers when the money’s all gone.  If T.O. knew nothing at all about money he could have saved himself by asking Drew one simple question, “do you have money in this Alabama casino deal?’.  That would have given him quite a bit of answers wouldn’t it?

Drew Rosenhaus is from North Miami and Luke is from Liberty City.  Both made a substantial amount of money in their lifetime.  Who do you think should teach inner city youth about fiscal responsibility? Luke was not out donating money to pregnant teens or preaching sexual responsibility to the thousands of white teens who purchased his albums in the 80′ and 90′s.  However,  I sure know there was one thing on a person’s mind when they were listening to the Two Live Crew or Luke’s records.  Luther Campbell benefited greatly from record sales amongst white american teens.  Did he shell out some money to help them when the loose talk of sex help them get naked?  Let’s not be the pot calling the kettle black.

We can start with pushing reading harder in our inner cities.  I think Luke could lead the charge.  If we open up their minds to reading which leads to learning then teaching them about money after that will stick.  I think Luke could lead the charge on that.  We can get books and magazines to replace the iPods and Beat headphones every now and then.  Luke can lead the charge on that.  If the message in the inner city is not coming in the form of a hip hop rap or from some half dressed female,  them most aren’t trying to hear it.  Reading can go a long way in curing that mentality.  Luke can lead the charge on that.  If we want to wait around on sports agents to pour their time and effort into these objectives then we can get ready to read about more stories like T.O.’s.

I guess ultimately,  Luke on a smaller scale,  is doing to Drew what was done to him.  When he obtained a certain amount of status as a performer based mostly on another race being his customer,  the establishment tried to shut him down.  However,  this doesn’t make it right.  How about if Luke,  now that he has assassinated Rosenhaus’ character,  collaborate with the agent and direct him to some charities or outlets where he would do well to pay attention?  Again,  I love me some Luke but I have to call b.s. on this one. What Luke may realize is that he’s more like Rosenhaus than he thought.

Chad Wilson General

There’s fast and there’s what the hell Marvin Bracy is.  Bracy has developed a reputation more so for his speed than his football prowess over the last year or so.  Bracy ran a 10.05 last summer in the 100 meters and made people watching it curse in amazement.   Just when you say to yourself,  the kid has probably maxed out his potential,  Bracy opens up this track season with what he did the other day.

Bracy lined up for a 55 meter dash for a Youth (hilarious) indoor track meet on Sunday January 29th and stunned the crowd with Mazerati type acceleration out of the blocks.  Before anyone knew what happened,  Bracy blistered through the finish line and into the safety pads in a time of 6.08 seconds.   This is the fastest time of the year thus far.  It’s early in the track season folks.  It sure seems to me like Bracy is on his way of surpassing the junior record of 10.01 set by Florida’s Jeff Demps.

Video of the 55 meter race is below.  Bracy is damn near half way done with the race before you hear the sound of the gun and he’s out of those blocks before the smoke is visible.  The second place finisher came in at 6.48.   That’s a full four tenths of a second behind.  There’s no doubt that Bracy will be on this 40 yard dash list very soon.  View the video below:

Chad Wilson High School Football

If you are a recruitingnik,  by now you have dug deep into the Landon Collins drama.  Collins announced his college intentions at the Under Armour All-American game earlier this month.  What is typically a joyous event for player and family alike,  punctuated with hugs and tears was anything but.

Collins’ choice of the Crimson Tide hat was greeted with a sigh, head drop and hand over face by Landon’s mother April Justin.  Justin is stern in her belief that Collins’ best choice would be the hometown LSU Tigers as opposed to their bitter SEC rival Alabama.  Justin’s motives may never be truly known but she has offered up her opinion publicly.

In an interview with Momsteam.com,  Justin indicated that the family routinely sets short term and long term goals.  Several of the long term goals were circumvented when Collins chose Alabama.  One of those goals was for Collins to play at LSU with his younger brother who is also being courted by the Tigers.  She also stated that winning the Heisman Trophy was another “goal” that has been set.  That remark will be sure to draw the ire of football purist who will see Justin as a person who has taught her son to put himself and his goals before the teams.

While I could pile on Justin as so many others have,  my experience as a youth football coach gives me reason to pause.  Seven years of coaching youth football allowed me the opportunity to have a finger or two wagged in my face by a protective mother who felt like my goals did not matchup with what she had in mind for her son.  My travel through the World of youth sports educated me on the fact that when it comes to their children,  women have their goals for them and then bleep all the rest.  You can take your X’s and O’s,  your strategy, your team building, etc. and toss it in the bonfire.   Before you go and criticize this quality in a woman,  understand that it is that very quality that makes them the primary care taker inherently.   Mothers have one objective and that is the well-fare of their offspring.  It’s what makes female birds attack people walking close to their nest,  a bear want to destroy a hiker and what made my mother throw the neighborhood bully into the bushes when she saw him in my face.

Another thing moms have is intuition.  Mom’s can read people and they make it a point to do so when someone enters into the lives of their children.  Justin has had the privilege of entertaining both Nick Saban and Les Miles in her home.  Perhaps,  she got a read on one or both that suggests to her that Landon would be best suited in Baton Rouge than in Tuscaloosa.

With all this said,  I have made the following observations.  Landon Collins is a pretty damned good football player. I don’t think he can go wrong at either Alabama or LSU.  Ole Landon is going to be the one going to class, meeting people and suiting up in the pads.  He’s going to have to feel comfortable in his environment.   If mom has done everything right, then at age 18,  Landon should be able to make quality decisions for himself.  Alabama’s success would certainly be tied up in the fortunes of a 5 star recruit like Landon Collins.  They can ill afford to have him fall by the wayside so I am sure the plan they have for him is a solid one.

I would not be surprised if there is a hold up in Collins’ signing on Wednesday but I am not expecting that.  These things usually have a way of working themselves out.  Sometimes,  the player ends up being not as advertised and it’s much ado about nothing or the player ends up proving to be a lights out player that would have hit the NFL whether he was playing for the BCS national champs or Austin Peay.

Chad Wilson High School Football

Chad Wilson General

Now your favorite recruiting website has an App.  That’s right,  Gridironstuds.com is now on the Android market.  Download the Gridironstuds.com app. to your android phone and stay up to date with all of the latest happenings.  Take Gridironstuds.com with you on your mobile phone.  Visit the following link for more info and hit this website on your android phone to download the app right now:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.appbuilder.u5608p118967

Chad Wilson General

What Research Found Out On This Very Important Topic
By: Chad Wilson   @Gridironstuds

Please follow me on Twitter @Gridironstuds

Football fans across America continue to obsess over the most simple drill in the game of football. Is there anything more discussed than the 40 yard dash? Every Spring, this drill takes center stage and undoubtedly the question is asked 1,o00′s of times. What’s the fastest 40 yard dash?

Just as sure as you get the question asked 1,000 times, you will get dozens of ridiculous answers. For starters, let’s find out why the 40 yard dash? When and why did 40 yards become so significant? It started in the 1960′s with the NFL team that had the most developed and comprehensive scouting department and that was the Dallas Cowboys. Prior to this time period, NFL coaches chose the 50 yard dash as the mark of measure to determine a player speed worthiness. In 1960, Gil Brandt, the director scouting for the Cowboys along with his department came up with the 40/20/10 measurement. The 40 was used for all players. The 20 yard split time of the 40 was of great significance for linemen since the thought was that they rarely run 40 yards in a game. The 10 yard split was important for wide receivers as a measure of their burst off of the line of scrimmage. With this, a drill was born and almost 50 years later, it has become the center piece of info on a prospective high school, college or professional football player.

So who had the fastest 40 yard dash ever? Research confirmed what I already knew and that there is no way to really tell. Here are some important things to know about the 40 yard dash:

Run your fastest 40 ever. Click on the pic.

- A hand time (use of a stop watch) will usually be faster than an electronic time

– There are two types of electronic times:

1. When a watch is started by a coach and an electronic beam records the time when it picks up the player crossing the end point

2. When an electronic beam picks up the movement of a player from the start and starts the clock. An electronic beam also detects the player at the end point and stops the clock. This time will be slower than version #1 and even slower than a hand time in which a coach starts his stop watch when he sees the player begin the run and then stops the watch when he sees the player cross the finish line.

- An accurtrack time will be the slowest of all. Accutrack is what is used at track meets. The clock in accu-track timing starts when the starter’s pistol is shot. The runner’s time for the event is recorded digitally when the technology detects the player crossing the finish line.

Studies have shown that that average reaction time by a human to a starter’s pistol is .25 seconds. For this reason, anyone who compares a 40 yard split time in a 100 meter event and compares it to reported hand timed 40 yard dash marks is making a big mistake. If you want compare the 40 yard split of a runner in a 100 meter event, subtract .25 seconds from the recorded time. So, Olympic runner Justin Gatlin’s 4.42 forty yard dash split recorded during his Gold Medal winning 9.85 100 meter run, would convert to a 4.17 forty yard dash by football standards.

After much research a few things have come up over and over and over. These things plus my own two eyes would lead me to believe that Darrell Green, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders were the fastest football players to ever play the game.

It has been said consistently that Darrell Green recorded a time of 4.09 at the Washington Redskins’ training camp in 1986. That’s a hard time to swallow but Green’s obvious speed has been put on display many times while he was in the NFL. Green ran down from significant distances two of the fastest running backs to play in the NFL (Tony Dorsett and Eric Dickerson). Green has said in interviews that the fastest time he has ever been aware of running is 4.15. To his credit, Green does have a verifiable and official time of 10.08 in the 100 meters while he was a college student at Texas A&I University. If anyone could run a sub 4.1 forty, it was Darrell Green.

Many sources report a 4.12 forty yard dash time for Bo Jackson and if you watched him turn the corner and run down the sidelines in 1987 versus the Seattle Seahawks, you would not doubt any time reported by this freak of nature. Repetition does not make it a fact but if enough sources have reported this time to make me believe it. Jackson has an official 10.39 time in the 100 meter dash in college.

Deion Sanders has the closest thing of the three as a verifiable 40 yard dash time. Sanders ran a 4.21 forty yard dash at the 1989 NFL combine and kept right on going through the finish line into the first round of that year’s NFL draft. Like Green and Jackson, anyone who watched Sanders play would have little trouble believing that Sanders pulled off this feat. Sanders recorded a 10.21 100 meter mark while at Florida St.

Of course there are scores of reported 40 yard dash times that have made the rounds on the Internet. Some are ridiculous like the 3.9′s attached to a couple of players and some 4 flats that were attached to some others.

Here are some of the problems with reported 40 yard dash times from team workouts. Some times you can’t be sure that the distance run was indeed 40 yards. There’s always the chance that the distance was not properly marked. When teams do individual private workouts for teams, often times the scout has not brought the necessary tool to mark off the distance. There’s also the chance that player’s will cheat the distance. I have first hand knowledge of a player starting in front of the starting point to run a forty, fully taking advantage of the fact that there was only one scout on hand and that he could not tell if the player was indeed starting at the correct mark. Another problem is the angle of the surface. There are plenty of practice fields across the country that have a slope. Coaches see great value in having their players run on a slight decline to record eye popping times. Savvy scouts will insist that players run up one way and then down the other. An average of the two times is taken to get the most accurate time. One other problem is that some players run the 40 yard dash with cleats on grass while other places have their players run on a synthetic track with spikes on. Guess who would record the fastest time.

In my personal experiences, I have seen some sub 4.3 forty yard dashes in my time. Kevin Williams of the University of Miami (1989-92) ran a 4.28 forty yard dash before my own eyes. Former Hurricanes Tremain Mack (4.25) and Al Shipman (4.27) ran sub 4.3 forties before my own eyes. Track star Henry Neal recorded a 4.20 forty yard dash before my own eyes in a workout for the Miami Dolphins in 1996. The Dolphins did not sign Neal since his football background was quite limited. I never watched him run an actual 40 yard dash but after having to cover him in training camp, I am inclined to believe every second of Joey Galloway’s reported 4.18 forty yard dash.

One player that is not on the list is Bob Hayes of the Dallas Cowboys. No doubt, Hayes was one of the fastest men, if not

Bullet Bob Hayes

the fastest man to put on an NFL uniform. However, as it relates to the 40 yard dash, I could find no time recorded for this Olympic Gold medalist. Hayes has the fastest 100 meter time for an NFL player at 10.05. Should current Florida Gator Jeffery Demps make it to the NFL for any significant amount of time, he will own the fastest time at 10.01. Demps ran this as a high schooler and owns the national prep record for the event.

The fastest recorded 40 yard split on record belongs to Olympian Maurice Greene. During his World Record 60 meter run of 6.33, a mark that still exists, Green crossed the 40 yard mark at 4.18. Remembering that .25 seconds must be subtracted from that time due to Accu-track timing and you come up with a 40 yard dash time of 3.93 seconds. What’s the problem with that time? It was run on an indoor track with spikes on giving the runner an advantage over the football players who have run on grass with cleats.

In an effort to centralize all the reported 40 yard dash times. I will start what we call the SUB 4.3 Club. I will attempt to keep a running record of the sub 4.3 forty yard dashes and their owners in this list. I will refrain from adding times of the ridiculous and will do some research on all times that qualify. I will say one thing, can you web surfers stop reporting that Deion Sanders ran a 4.57 forty yard dash backwards. That’s just flat out ridiculous.

Enjoy the following list of reported (and somewhat believable) 40 yard dashes run under 4.3 seconds. We will continue to add on to this list over time. Did I miss someone? Comment on this article and make your case. Please do not quote high school forty yard dash times. Nothing against them, let’s just stick to college and pro football right now.

Listings in bold are new ones added since last update.

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Note Updated 1/11/12: Three new additions to the list.  Clayton Holmes as prompted by a visitor named Kane who reminded me about the speedster front the Cowboys.  After some research I was satisfied that he did indeed run a 4.23 forty yard dash during him time with the Cowboys.  The other two additions came from an interview I happened to view from Tom Shaw who has trained some of the fastest men that have ever played and continue to play in the NFL.  Ike Taylor of the Steelers who Shaw says ran a 4.25 coming into the NFL.  Shaw also said Taylor once ran a 4.18 but I will stick with the 4.25 run before pro scouts.   Shaw also mentioned how Rod Woodson ran a 4.28 at the NFL combine.  I don’t know how that fact escaped me but it has escaped me no longer.  So three new additions.

Notes Updated 3/05/11: Two new additions to the list.  I added the 4.20 forty yard dash that I witnessed Henry Neal run at a Dolphin tryout in 1996.  I remember it well because I had to run my 40 after his.  My 4.44 clocking seemed pedestrian after Henry mowed the lawn for the scouts.  Neal was not a football player but a track star that was well put together.  He was 5’9″ 177  of all muscle.  Perhaps some Dolphin scout saw him on his travels and flew him in for the workout.

The other addition is Walter Sutton.  I was reminded of this by an ex-Miami teammate of mind named Kelvin Harris who resides from the Fort Myers area that Walter Sutton also came from.  Sutton was drafted in the 4th round in 1991 by the Atlanta Falcons.  Sutton unfortunately was not able to start his NFL career because he was prosecuted on a drug dealing charge.  Sutton attended SW Minnesota St. and the best way to get drafted that high out of a school that size is to have speed and Walter did clocking a 4.28 forty for the Falcons in a pre draft workout.

Notes Updated 3/02/11: DeMarcus Van Dyke is the latest addition to the list after clocking a 4.28 at the NFL combine.  That’s about as legit as it gets.  Van Dyke is the 4th Miami Hurricane to make the list.

Notes Updated 1/24/11: Foolish me for not updating this sooner with Sam Shield’s 40 time since I witnessed it myself on his pro timing day last spring.  While I still had my mouth open from his 11’3″ broad jump where he seemingly got stuck in the air,  I watch Shields go out and chew up the first 40 yards like a 6 year old chews up a pack of bubbilicious.  He then smoothly coasted through the 2nd twenty and had scouts huddling up like they were calling a play on 4th and 1.   There were times all over the place ranging from 4.30 to 4.22 but the one most heard was 4.25 so that’s what I went with.  Johnny Knox is also deserving to be on this list. Knox, from the Bears, ran a 4.34 at the combine when he was coming out but he also ran on his pro timing day and there are may reports that put his time in the 4.26-4.29 range.  4.29 is what I have heard the most,  so that is what I went with.

Notes Updated: 3/04/10: USC’s Taylor Mays has been added to the list with his unofficial 4.24 at the NFL Combine.  Eventhough his official time was a 4.43,  I must include Mays’ time since several of the times on the list are hand times just like his.  Pretty amazing given Mays size (6’3″, 230 lbs.).  I may say that’s outside of Bo Jackson’s time,  Mays’ may be the most impressive when you take in the size factor.  Trindon Holliday has also been added for his unofficial 4.27 run at the combine on 3/01/10.

Notes Updated 3/01/10: Clemson’s Jacoby Ford and CJ Spiller were added to the list today.  Ford’s time at the Indianapolis NFL combine was a 4.27 unofficially and 4.28 officially.  CJ Spiller’s unofficial time was also a 4.28 but his official time ended up being a 4.37.  I am taking the 4.28 because there are many times on this list that are unofficial hand times.  Any way you look at it,  CJ Spiller can fly.

Notes Updated 1/04/09: Who knew this article would become so popular.  This has ended up being one of the most popular sports articles on the Internet since I wrote.  Just goes to show how much of a hot topic 40 yard dash times are.  I have received so many comments and emails about 40 yard dash times.  Please understand this 40 yard dash list is an “official” list meaning the times on it can be verified.  I am sure there have been some sub 4.3′s run out there but they have been done in a way that can not be verified.  There are a 100 stories about some boy name “D-Rock” who ran a 4.17 with some high tops on at lunch time on the grass field.  I can’t put those times on there.  There are even times that may be closer to official that I won’t even include.  For instance,  anyone who has seen C.J. Spiller or Jacoby Ford from Clemson or Trindon Holliday from LSU run could guess that these guys probably run sub 4.3 forty’s.  I am sure they have probably run them for some coach or strength and conditioning guy.  In fact,  Ford is said to have run a 4.26 at Clemson.  Holliday’s high school coach claims he ran a 4.27 but I am suspicious of high school forty yard dash times.  I need to tell you that up front.  Spiller has an alleged low time of 4.28.  However,  he also has a high time of 4.47.  On situations like that,  I will just wait to see what they run at the combine or in their private NFL workouts.  Sometimes,  they don’t hit the times you expect them to hit.

NOTE: Some of the times listed above may have been run on a track with spikes on. In cases where I know that to be true, those players are excluded from this list. Football is not played on a synthetic rubber surface with track spikes on. DeAngelo Hall’s reported 4.15 on Virginia Tech’s indoor track when he was a junior in college would be an example of that.

Is there someone missing from the list? Comment on this article with name and the time. I will check it out and add it if research dictates that it should be there. Comment on this article.

Chad Wilson General 40 yard dash, bo jackson, champ bailey, cj spiller, college football, darrell green, deion sanders, DeMarcus Van Dyke, jacoby ford, james jett, johnny knox, nfl football, raghib ismail, sam shields

Always fun to watch some of the best in the country go up against each other.  Check out the 1-on-1′s DBs v. WRs from the Army All American Bowl practice:

2012 Army All American Bowl – 1-on-1\’s – DBs v. WRs

Chad Wilson High School Football

I have long waited for this day to come.  Gridironstuds.com was launched in 2009 and our initial 2009 class was a great one sure to produce some NFL talent.  Names like Tavon Austin (WVU),  Rueben Randle (LSU),  Russell Sheppard (LSU),  Jamaal Berry (OSU) and William Gholston (MSU) stacked our initial class and left many of our visitors excited about their futures.  However,  with his early declaration for the NFL draft,  former Miami Killian High School product and now former Miami Hurricane Lamar Miller is poised to be the first Gridironstuds.com member drafted into the NFL.  After redshirting in 2009,  Miller turned some heads in the 2010 season rushing for 646 yards and 6 TDs while averaging an unusual 6.0 yards per carry.  Miller followed that up with a 2011 redshirt sophomore year that saw him gain 1,272 yards average 5.6 yards per carry and hit the end zone nine times.  With that,  Miller has declared for the NFL draft and will take his talents to the NFL come April.   There’s always the chance that someone else from our 2009 class will declare early but until then,  it seems that Lamar Miller will be the first member to be drafted.  Click here to view Lamar Miller’s profile on Gridironstuds.com.

Chad Wilson High School Football

Chad Wilson General