It’s a cliche to say that speed kills and so many people repeat it without properly quantifying it, but I found it noteworthy recently when I saw that UCLA’s incoming recruiting class probably amounts to one of the best speed upgrades in the country.
Here’s the list of the fastest incoming UCLA recruits, with their track marks:
Randall Carroll, WR–10.30, 21.04
Sheldon Price, CB–10.51, 21.29
Damien Thigpen, RB–10.64, 21.31
Richard Marvray, WR–10.88w
That’s a pretty good accomplishment to get four legitimately fast skill guys in one class, especially when your team isn’t known for being fast to begin with. I don’t think any other incoming class has three players with 10.64 or better speed. That can make a lot of difference between going 4-8 and 6-5.
In football, aren’t 40 times much more relevant than distances that are longer than a football field?
No. 40 times are unreliable and generally bogus. These are track marks with proper timing. Based on what these guys run in track, we can tell that they can run a certain speed in the 40.
That makes me feel pretty good about David Gordon’s 10.16.
Nobody named David Gordon ran a 10.16 recently. David Gordon’s best legal time is 10.58 and his best windy time is 10.52. He’s very fast, but he’s nowhere near 10.16.
http://parser.dyestat.com/search.jsp?athID=56370
Trey Franks who recently gave his verbal to Oklahoma took home the Texas 3A state 100-meter championship with a blistering 10.36 100 meter time.
True on Franks, but that time was wind-aided by a 3.7 wind. His best legal time is 10.73.
http://www.athletic.net/TrackandField/Division/Event.aspx?DivID=15963&Gender=M&Event=1
Not sure what the “a” means so I admit I could be way off.
I don’t think that time for Gordon is accurate. The list I provided says he was in 5A on May 10, while your link has him in 6A running the day before.
As a tiebreaker, here is the track and field news list, which along with Dyestat is the standard in keeping these records. He’s nowhere to be found:
http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/lists/display_list.php?list_id=6&sex_id=M&year=2009
“a” means automatic timing / “c” means converted from hand-held…ie adding .24 to events and relay less than 400 meters. I’d be skeptical about “automatic times from an Oklahoma Regional Meet that say 10.16.
Keep in mind that a legit 10.70 100 meters is fast enough for skill position players to transition to D1 football play. The Gordon kid while maybe not Olympic caliber is plenty fast to have an impact in a D1 football game.