knapplc Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Greetings, Husker Fans!! Since our beloved Huskers are not bowling this year, let’s turn our thoughts to players of yesteryear. Many of you have seen this ESPN list, their version of the top 25 college players ever, and have found much fault with it. Well, here’s our chance to show what we know. This bowl season we’ll be running a “battle” of the top players college football has ever seen, and at the end I have every confidence that our top 25 will be far, far superior to ESPN’s. Here’s how it’ll work. In this thread we’ll compile a list of nominees. This will give us our pool of players. From that I will create a March Madness style bracket of 32-64 players (depending on how many players we have nominated), with seedings. Top seeds will be matched against lower seeds, and will work their way up through the bracket in head-to-head votes. I will start four threads at a time, each containing a one-on-one battle, with a poll for voting. Individual battles will run for 48 hours, with the winner moving on to the next round. Ties will automatically go to the highest seed. Who is eligible: Any player who has ever played Division I-A college football, any position, any era. For simplicity’s sake please indicate the team and year(s) each player played in your nominations. Feel free to nominate as many players as you like (within reason – don’t go crazy on me). You are allowed – even encouraged – to lobby for your favorite player in a battle. Many people may not know why you should vote for Player A over Player B. Maybe Player A competed in a tougher era, or against tougher opponents, or was injured during half his games – whatever. Let your fellow voters know why they should vote for your guy, and be prepared to discuss the merits of your hero over theirs. That’s most of the fun of these battles! NOTE – This is NOT a HuskerBoard contest, and no prizes will be given to HuskerBoard members. This is just for fun, and to generate some conversation. So with that, let’s start the nominations process. I’ll get it kicked off with ESPN’s list – they have many names that should be included in our brackets. During nomination either post your nominee or second someone else’s. Read through the nominations and seconds, and don’t bother seconding a guy who’s been seconded several times already – they’re going to be in at that point. The ESPN List: 1 Red Grange 2 Barry Sanders 3 Herschel Walker 4 Doak Walker 5 Sammy Baugh 6 Jim Thorpe 7 Tony Dorsett 8 Bo Jackson 9 Roger Staubach 10 Vince Young 11 Charles Woodsen 12 Earl Campbell 13 Glenn Davis 14 Hugh Green 15 John Elway 16 Tom Harmon 17 Bronco Nagurski 18 Jim Brown 19 Dick Butkus 20 Charley Trippi 21 Archie Griffin 22 George Gipp 23 Johnny Rodgers 24 Reggie Bush 25 Ernie Nevers I’ll keep the Master list updated as we go… Link to comment
knapplc Posted December 10, 2007 Author Share Posted December 10, 2007 The Master List Alex Karras Archie Griffin Barry Sanders Bernie Kosar Billy Sims Bo Jackson Bob Brown Brian Bosworth Bronco Nagurski Calvin Johnson Carl Eller Charles Rodgers Charles Woodsen Charley Trippi Charlie Ward Dan Marino Dat Nguyen Dave Rimington Dick Butkus Doak Walker Earl Campbell Eric Crouch Gale Sayers George Gipp Glenn Davis Herschel Walker Hugh Green Jamelle Holieway Jim Brown Jim Thorpe John Elway John Hannah Johnny Rodgers Keyshawn Johnson Larry Czonka Larry Fitzgerald Lawrence Taylor Marcus Allen Mike Ditka Mike Rozier OJ Simpson Orlando Pace Rashaan Salaam Red Grange Rickey Williams Roger Staubach Ron Dayne Sammy Baugh Sterling Sharpe Steve Emtman Terrell Suggs Tom Harmon Tommie Frazier Tony Dorsett Tony Mandarich Trev Alberts Troy Davis Vince Young Warren Sapp Will Shields I alphabetized the list and seconded everyone nominated so far. I can't see anyone who clearly doesn't belong at this point. Link to comment
LouisianaHusker Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 I nominate Ron Dayne, RB, Wisconsin, 96-99. NCAA career rushing leader, 6397 yards (Div 1, FBS) 1863 as a freshmen 1421 as a sophomore 1325 as a junior 1824 as a senior Winner of the 1999 Maxwell and Heisman. 2 time Rose Bowl MVP. Link to comment
papersun87 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 ^ Ron Dayne = seconded Nominations: Tommie Frazier, QB, Nebraska, 92-95 Danny Woodhead, RB, Chadron State, current (all-time NCAA leading rusher) Link to comment
knapplc Posted December 11, 2007 Author Share Posted December 11, 2007 Three good nominations. Dayne added and seconded, Frazier and Woodhead seconded. Speaking of Woodhead, have you seen the calves on that guy? They're like softballs! Link to comment
chester Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Three good nominations. Dayne added and seconded, Frazier and Woodhead seconded. Speaking of Woodhead, have you seen the calves on that guy? They're like softballs! Danny Woodhead???? Are you serious? Nothing against him, but let's be real. We are talking about the Greatest Players of All Time. Woodhead is a very, very good player. But there is no way he can be considered with the likes of H. Walker, Bo Jackson, Barry Sanders, Reggie Bush, etc. Link to comment
kstatehater Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Three good nominations. Dayne added and seconded, Frazier and Woodhead seconded. Speaking of Woodhead, have you seen the calves on that guy? They're like softballs! Danny Woodhead???? Are you serious? Nothing against him, but let's be real. We are talking about the Greatest Players of All Time. Woodhead is a very, very good player. But there is no way he can be considered with the likes of H. Walker, Bo Jackson, Barry Sanders, Reggie Bush, etc. It does say College player, are we being specific to D 1, because if not Woodhead has to be on the list being what he has done. NCAA all division all-time leading rusher, 2nd in all-purpose yardage, tied for 1st for in TDs, 2nd place in points, 4 time Harlon Hill nominee, and a finalist this year after winning it last year all of this after missing almost 3 whole games this year. As far as where he compares to the names you mentioned we will find out in the coming years, but as far as a college player he's one of the best ever. He should have been a Husker anyway Link to comment
LouisianaHusker Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Three good nominations. Dayne added and seconded, Frazier and Woodhead seconded. Speaking of Woodhead, have you seen the calves on that guy? They're like softballs! Danny Woodhead???? Are you serious? Nothing against him, but let's be real. We are talking about the Greatest Players of All Time. Woodhead is a very, very good player. But there is no way he can be considered with the likes of H. Walker, Bo Jackson, Barry Sanders, Reggie Bush, etc. Reggie Bush is proving this year that Houston made the right decision in not drafting him with the first pick. IMO, Bush was nothing more the a complementary back and White was the real work horse of that USC offense. Link to comment
knapplc Posted December 11, 2007 Author Share Posted December 11, 2007 It does say College player, are we being specific to D 1... My bad. In my haste to spread love towards Woodhead I neglected to mention he's not eligible - we're limiting this to Div. IA for the sake of simplicity. I don't know enough about ANY player from DII to make anything like an educated guess on their worth. Sorry about Woodhead, he's off the list. Link to comment
chester Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 It does say College player, are we being specific to D 1, because if not Woodhead has to be on the list being what he has done. NCAA all division all-time leading rusher, 2nd in all-purpose yardage, tied for 1st for in TDs, 2nd place in points, 4 time Harlon Hill nominee, and a finalist this year after winning it last year all of this after missing almost 3 whole games this year. As far as where he compares to the names you mentioned we will find out in the coming years, but as far as a college player he's one of the best ever. He should have been a Husker anyway I am not saying that Woodhead is not a very good player at all; his stats speak volumes. But, and this is a big but, he played Division II. Do you think he could come close to posting those stats against DI teams? No way. He may very well be the best DII player of all time, but he can't be mentioned as one of the all-time greats. Look at it this way, if you weren't a Nebraskan, would you consider him as one of college's greatest? Unless you paid very, very close attention, you probably would have never even heard of him. Think of that UNK qb awhile ago (I believe his name is Coleman?). He threw bombs all over the field and had a great career. Was he even mentioned as one of the top college qb's during his time? No. Woodhead had a great career and is an exceptional player, but he is no match for some of the game's greatest. Could he compete at the DI level? I certainly think so. But again, put him in the Big 12 or SEC and no way would anyone consider him one of the best. About the comment on Reggie Bush.... This is a poll for Greatest NCAA football players of all time. We aren't talking about what Frazier did after college that made him a great player. Why should we compare Bush's pro performances to what he did in college? Bush was an amazing athlete... just watch his college highlight reels on youtube. One more thing... this is kind of hard to start a poll from scratch (besides a basic guideline from ESPN). Maybe some of the moderators of the board could come up with a list of names and then start the debate. I believe rivals.com had a poll similar to this not too long ago. Possibly pick some names from those results and then let the debating begin. Link to comment
knapplc Posted December 11, 2007 Author Share Posted December 11, 2007 One more thing... this is kind of hard to start a poll from scratch (besides a basic guideline from ESPN). Maybe some of the moderators of the board could come up with a list of names and then start the debate. I believe rivals.com had a poll similar to this not too long ago. Possibly pick some names from those results and then let the debating begin. I just put the ESPN list up there because those guys (most of them, anyway) are obvious. We're all college football fans here. It can't be that hard to come up with a list of 32 or 64 names for this, can it? Link to comment
AR Husker Fan Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Seconded - Tommy Fraiser Nominated - Jim Brown, Syracuse. All-American, College Football Hall of Fame, arguably the greatest running back of all time. 'Nuff said... Link to comment
Eric the Red Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Seconded - Tommy Fraiser Nominated - Jim Brown, Syracuse. All-American, College Football Hall of Fame, arguably the greatest running back of all time. 'Nuff said... Seconded - Jim Brown Link to comment
Eric the Red Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Nominate - Brian Bozworth (OU), Trev Alberts (NU), Dave Rimington (NU), Lawrence Taylor (NC), Dan Marino (Pitt), Bernie Kosar (Miami), Charlie Ward (FSU), Sterling Sharpe (USCarolina), Larry Czonka (Syracuse), CHarles Rodgers (MSU), Calvin Johnson (G Tech), Larry Fitzgerald(Pitt) Link to comment
knapplc Posted December 11, 2007 Author Share Posted December 11, 2007 Nominated - Jim Brown Seconded - Jim Brown I'm not putting him on the list twice. I'll almost guarantee you he finishes higher than 18th in our voting. Link to comment
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