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Nonsense. Anyone who has run a 10.94 second 100m sprint and has taken 2 punts and a KO return to the house in D1 ball has better than 4.69 speed in the 40. Watch those videos again and tell me he runs a 4.7 40. I might believe 4.49 for someone with that speed on a slow day, but not 4.69. Obviously he has been injured and/or is out of shape.Originally posted by gocatsgo2003:
He doesn't have top-end speed. That's not surprising, but I thought he would be in at least the 4.5s. Wonder what affect injuries might have done to him.
I don't think that anyone is faulting you. But based on what WE all saw in Venric he is MUCH faster than that.It's also true that his top end speed did not match his starts. Sort of the opposite of Carl Lewis, who for his level of sprint, was a notoriously slow starter and most often won his races in the second half. Mark was at bare minimum at 4.4ish guy. Either he is hurt or it's a joke or misprint.Originally posted by chicagocatfan24:
Just the messenger. Saw it on twitter
Venric's entire game was based on explosion and awareness, not top-end speed. I wouldn't be surprised if his 10- and 20-yard splits were pretty good, but 40 isn't great. The 10.92 also seemed like a pretty decent outlier (would guess heavily wind-aided, as was his 10.96) that was backed up by a 11.18 the next day.Originally posted by Gladeskat:
Nonsense. Anyone who has run a 10.94 second 100m sprint and has taken 2 punts and a KO return to the house in D1 ball has better than 4.69 speed in the 40. Watch those videos again and tell me he runs a 4.7 40. I might believe 4.49 for someone with that speed on a slow day, but not 4.69. Obviously he has been injured and/or is out of shape.Originally posted by gocatsgo2003:
He doesn't have top-end speed. That's not surprising, but I thought he would be in at least the 4.5s. Wonder what affect injuries might have done to him.
He ran away from a lot of people. The KO and Punt return TD's back that up. It's just that he didn't run away from all the people all the time.Originally posted by Styre:
Yeah -- I don't remember him running away from a lot of people. He was elusive as hell in the backfield, though.
Hyde was on our radar and would have been a borderline academic kid. He was very athletic on high school tape but also VERY slender. Hindsight is always 20/20, but he didn't have any BCS offers until picking up an Iowa offer two weeks before Signing Day in the class of 2009.Originally posted by realcatfan:
Micah Hyde ran a 4.56 at the combine. I don't know what holding a ball does to your speed, but I'm not surprised to see Mark a 1/10th of a second slower than Hyde based on this.
Was Micah a guy that could have gotten into NU? I'm asking as I don't know. It's really easy to point at guys and say that the NU coaching staff missed on them. Truth is 75% are guys that can't get into school. Also, was Micah ever interested in NU? Again, I'm asking as I didn't follow his recruitment. I'm just saying it's tough to offer a kid if he doesn't take your phone call.
He was caught from behind twice that I recall. He did not have great top end speed as far as RB's go. That still doesn't change the fact that he had sub-11 second speed in the 100 meter dash in HS, that he outran three teams on KO and punt returns as well as Nebraska on an 80 yard TD run. There is no way in my mind he was only a 4.7 40 guy when he was at NU. You think he was faster than Sutton, well, Sutton ran a 4.66 40 at the combine.Originally posted by hdhntr1:
Wasn't he caught from behind on a play? I saw him as quick at getting up to speed and changes in direction but felt his top end was not quite there. Better than Sutton.
Actually, Tyrell ran a 4.75 at the Combine and a 4.64 at NU's pro day.Originally posted by Gladeskat:
He was caught from behind twice that I recall. He did not have great top end speed as far as RB's go. That still doesn't change the fact that he had sub-11 second speed in the 100 meter dash in HS, that he outran three teams on KO and punt returns as well as Nebraska on an 80 yard TD run. There is no way in my mind he was only a 4.7 40 guy when he was at NU. You think he was faster than Sutton, well, Sutton ran a 4.66 40 at the combine.Originally posted by hdhntr1:
Wasn't he caught from behind on a play? I saw him as quick at getting up to speed and changes in direction but felt his top end was not quite there. Better than Sutton.
4.7 40 guys don't run sub-11 second 100 meter sprints
I read 4.66 was Tyrell Sutton's combine 40 time. Maybe the source was wrong.Originally posted by gocatsgo2003:
Actually, Tyrell ran a 4.75 at the Combine and a 4.64 at NU's pro day.Originally posted by Gladeskat:
He was caught from behind twice that I recall. He did not have great top end speed as far as RB's go. That still doesn't change the fact that he had sub-11 second speed in the 100 meter dash in HS, that he outran three teams on KO and punt returns as well as Nebraska on an 80 yard TD run. There is no way in my mind he was only a 4.7 40 guy when he was at NU. You think he was faster than Sutton, well, Sutton ran a 4.66 40 at the combine.Originally posted by hdhntr1:
Wasn't he caught from behind on a play? I saw him as quick at getting up to speed and changes in direction but felt his top end was not quite there. Better than Sutton.
4.7 40 guys don't run sub-11 second 100 meter sprints
Venric is definitely able to get up to speed quite quickly and make cuts without losing that speed (an important part of being an effective returner). The fact remains that he never had elite top-end speed. The other issue is that Mark's sub-optimal times came with a measurement of 5-6 172.
That said, I would have expected something at least in the high 4.4s. I'm guessing the injuries he built up over the past two years that led him to play a grand total of seven games in the past two years were just too much and took the edge off his speed. There's something more to the story here for sure.
He was the most explosive return man we have had since I have been following the team. Miles Shuler has track speed but there is no comparison in explosiveness and the ability to accelerate and cut at full speed.