Check out this great article from Rivals.com that compares player heights, weights and 40 times when measured as recruits and how they later were measured at the NFL combine.
It reveals several fantastic myths that abound around college football and recruiting.
First, there is the nostrum that guys get faster as they get bigger. You hear this nonsense from college strength coaches all the time (bigger! stronger! faster!). Of course, strength coaches are always going to claim that guys will get faster as they go through their programs. That’s how they justify their employment. But in the end, it’s just basic physics. Players grow naturally to a point before their size and speed hit a plateau, then growth must be manufactured. In college, they put on extra muscle or bad weight and tend to get slower, not faster. Let’s not forget, too, that guys get beat up on college and that’s another reason they lose speed. Of course, when they get to the NFL, many ‘slow’ college guys are suddenly blazing fast again because they are now playing with guys who are even more beat up.
Second, the high school recruiting camps and combines where guys are measured are complete jokes. Players stand on their tiptoes and get hooked up on their 40 times by corrupt recruiting hacks with quick stopwatch thumbs. It’s tainted by hype and salesmen who have an interest in over-promoting these kids.
Later, they get into college and then sports information directors play with their heights and weights. At USC, adding up to 1.5 inches was standard operating procedure. So, we go through the shenanigans of high school, then college and THEN we get somewhat of a clearer picture at the combine, but even that might not be accurate, as the 40 times there are also suspect–see the weird combination of hand times and electronic times that are implemented. As this article notes, every 40 time measured on the list was NOT run in the same conditions as at the Indianapolis combine, so naturally there is going to be some major deviance.
This is why the only reliable indicator of speed, strength or athleticism is to find if a player has a track mark in his past.
Despite this article, we are now about to embark upon another round of recruiting hype. Kudos to Rivals for pointing this out, as it doesn’t make its profession look especially accurate.
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Adam Nettina
I wrote something similar about this on ITB a few weeks back. They did a combine in Atlanta earlier this month and only 2-3 kids were clocked under 4.5 when tested electronically. I think the average hand time was about two tenths of a second faster than the average electronic time, which should tell you a lot. The fact that Percy Harvin “only” clocked in a 4.41 at the combine should make peple skeptical of anything they hear about high school or college 40 times…
Mike P
I played football at all three levels and I can tell you from experience that high school times are worthless and college times are always 1-2 tenths faster than NFL scout times. There a couple of reasons, NFL scouts start the watch at the first visible movement, whether it be a finger or a foot. Additionally, they do not stop the watch until 100% of your body (hands, head, torso, legs, and feet included) cross the line. There was nothing more frustrating than the time lag between when my chest crossed the line and when I heard the “beep.” College times start with general body movement and end when your chest breaks the plane of the line. High school times are not worth discussing.
As for guys slowing down, I’m going to have to call shenanigans. While some guys do lose speed due to changing positions (RB to FB, TE to OL, S to LB) and having to gain disproportionate amounts of weight, most starters do get faster over college, even with the weight gain. Sure, there are a few guys who don’t make progress or are lazy and get slow, but most guys get faster provided they have gained lean mass in a manner that decreases their body fat % and that allows them to maintain flexibility. I gained 60 pounds in 4 years of college and got slightly faster. How? Simple, by increasing my squat from 405 (ass to ankles depth) to 700, my hang clean from 255 to 485, and running at least an hour per day in the offseason to allow my body to adjust to the additional weight. As long as your strength gains are proportionally greater than your weight gains, it’s really not hard to get faster while gaining weight, because you can exert proportionally greater force per pound than you could prior to gaining the additional muscle mass.