Big 12: Overrated Players And/Or Concepts

Echoing Messr. Cook's sentiment's, it's difficult to single out many overrated players so we'll mix it up with one player and several "concepts" if you will. You know what's not overrated? This list. Dig in.

TEXAS

Watch, they'll go out and prove me wrong this year, but we need something to talk about, right? Texas has earned this though. This year aside, they start nearly every year in the top five and do well for themselves but rarely look like world beaters. I sort of predicted this a few years ago, that once the program got its title it'd get fat and happy and cruise for a good long while. Yeah, Vince Young's departure has something to do with Texas' step down from the elite, but there's more at work. They'll be talking about that 2005 team for several decades, it might as well have happened yesterday which makes it difficult to move on, psychologically. Once again they'll be a good football team this year, maybe even break into the top 10 at the end of the year, but they're no longer scary good on a consistent basis. Oh, and the helmets are overrated, too. Give me Michigan's, Florida State's, Alabama's or Notre Dame's anyday.

MICHAEL GOODSON, TB, TEXAS A&M

The much-hyped running back seemed to acclimate in his first year at Texas A&M. He made some nice plays and ran for 847 yards (6.7 average) in the run-happy Aggie attack. Expected to build on that and displace the jumbo-sized Jorvorskie Lane, Goodson completely dropped off last year. He averaged just 4.6 yards/carry and totaled just 711 yards and 4 touchdowns. He looked a little big and a lot out of the picture. Maybe he was misused or underutilized, but the production was simply not there for a guy with such speed and quickness. Whatever happened, it's tough to reclaim lost ability. Hopefully he finds it but his work gets all the more difficult this year as Texas A&M shifts to a pro style offense. He'll get more carries but also be facing more difficult fronts than faced the Aggies' old offense.

THE NFL

Speaking about the incredible depth of passers in the Big 12 in this week's The Sporting News, Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz had this to say: "We have the most depth (at quarterback) of any conference. I don't know if we have the most NFL potential because the guys are shorter and the NFL only looks at size. But from top to bottom, we have the best conference for quarterbacks." He speaks the truth. And you know what? To heck with the NFL. The fantasy football geeks and those who like neatly packaged three hour games love the NFL. To many of us however it gets less interesting by the year and its discrimination against odd bodied souls and creativity and innovation on both sides of the ball is why. I don't see a single NFL prospect out of Chase Daniel, Sam Bradford, Graham Harrell and Todd Reesing, but all of them are dominant passers in college football. We'll gladly keep them over on this side of the game.

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