Interesting Read on Team Speed

[DNOMYAR_5791]

Team Speed

For those of you that think that all of these 40 times are so fast at places like Colorado, Florida State, Miami, Va Tech etc. here is some insight as to why they are so fast; and why so many people think that Nebraska is slow.

For years, Nebraska has been timing their players electronically and on grass or the ever slower field-turf. A guy that runs an electronic 4.7 has good speed. 4.6 is the average for a guy running with RB's at the NFL combine. Anything 4.5 or faster is blazing speed.

I can tell you this. Yeah, Miami FSU and a few other teams still have incredible speed but maybe not as fast as you think especially when a lot of them get to the combine.

Here are some of the fastest Huskers per winter conditioning :
(run indoors on field-turf) All times electronic so you can shave off about .2 of a second and this is what their time would look like at FSU or many other schools...



IB Marquess Simmons 4.45 (4.25 hand held)
IB Josh Davis 4.51 (4.31 hand held)
IB Dahrran Diedrick 4.65 (4.45 hand held)
CB Willie Amos 4.41 (4.21 hand held)
CB DeJuan Groce 4.67 (4.47 hand held)
QB Jamaal Lord 4.57 (4.37 hand held)
WR Wilson Thomas 4.78 (4.58 hand held)
SS Lannie Hopkins 4.57 (4.37 hand held)
SLB TJ Hollowell 4.73 (4.53 hand held)
DT Seppo Evwaraye 4.99 (4.79 hand held)
DT LeKevin Smith 5.03 (4.83 hand held)
Eric Crouch(last year) 4.42 (4.22 hand held) he also ran a legit 4.41 at the combine.

The point I am trying to get across, is that Nebraska is not as slow as you may think, especially after you read the link to the article. Another thing is that you have to take many of these 40 times you read and hear about with a grain of salt.

One more example. Colorado had a CB by the name of Ben Kelley in the 2000 season that reportedly ran a 4.25 40 yard dash. Former NU RB Dan Alexander a legit 4.5 electronic guy broke a run early in the game against the buffs where Ben Kelly was right next to him and Danimal proceeded to run away from him into the clear for a long TD run. 4.25???? Sure buddy.

Team speed is a good stat to have a handle on but check out guys vertical leaps, pro shuttle times, strength numbers and their conditioning. You can have a bunch of paper tigers running around that clock in at 4.6 and they can't play for a damn.

 

[Hoops]

I think Miami looked a tad bit faster than Nebraska last year, amongst other things.

 

[DNOMYAR_5791]

Hoops: no kidding genius. Miami was clearly the superior team in that game; and would have done the same to any other team that night. What I am trying to do is illustrate how many teams fluff up their 40 times, and the validity behind it with the new standards of testing that Florida State just implemented. I used Nebraska as an example because they are one of the teams that do not fluff up 40 times, height ,weight etc (same stats even at football summer camps,) and they are stereotyped slow.

Miami has a huge talent gap over 95% of the teams playing Division 1-A football right now. Right now the only teams in their league as far as talent go: Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida, and maybe Georgia.

Nebraska is allowed to have a down year or two. Miami did in the mid and late 90's. Happened to Florida State too.

Let me convey this: The next time you hear an announcer say that some guy has 4.2 speed don't believe the hype.

 

[ChuckyTheGoat]

DNO:

You're a sharp guy. Thx for all the insights.

I've been doing a fair amount of research on playing surface. A few yrs back, Nebraska players were polled as to whether they thought FieldTurf was more similar to playing on grass or to playing on turf. 90% compared it to grass.

My question to you, Do you agree with that? Is the timing etc comparable between grass and FieldTurf?

It seems that the old, hard artificial surface is almost a thing of the past. With new technology, teams can play on a synthetic surface that doesn't wear out but is soft like grass. I've seen a lot of teams pull out their old turf and insert FieldTurf (or a comparable synthetic) in recent yrs (Illinois, Northern ILL for example).

 

[DNOMYAR_5791]

CHUCKY

CHUCKY

Field turf is the next best thing to grass. The players that I have talked to love it, largely due to the fact that it is nice to your knees. You really can't tell the difference from what I have seen. Field turf cost roughly the same to maintain as astroturf, and is much safer. As far as track speed it is much slower than astroturf and similar to a thick grass field, but there are different styles of field turf sprouting up out there. You will see many more teams going to natural grass and field turf this year within the big 12 and around the country.

So with a resounding yes I will tell you that a 40 time or 10 yard dash time on field turf or grass is much more realistic than running your time on turf or even the track as many schools do to fluff up their times. It is the definite wave of the future. Hope I have helped.

 

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Yep, you helped. I used to think a surface change made a big difference on how a road team would play. But with more FieldTurfs popping up, I think playing surface is becoming less of a factor.

It's something I'm going to research more this summer. But not all that many traditional, hard artificial turfs left.

 

[gridman]

Hawaii is supposedly switching to field turf this year. It is said to be terrific stuff and not hard on the knees.

As for speed, I usually don't pay much attention to all the "fluff" about "blazing" speed. To me, the most important thing is GAME SPEED. How many times have you seen slower footed guys pull down guys with "4.2" speed? Don't misunderstand me - speed is important but there are other intangibles come game time. Case in point - ever hear of a guy named Dwight Clark, who was deemed to be too slow at draft time?

Just my $.02 worth.

GM