Karan Higdon runs 4.49 at combine
The Hill family is fast
He posted an excellent time. He is exceeding expectations and making himself a lot of money this week. Good for him. I hope that he has a successful NFL career and can take care of his young family!
After the Senior Bowl practices I heard a few scouts and writers list him as someone who was rising up draft boards. The bizarre part was that I heard more than one person talk about how good he was out of the backfield as a receiver and how good his hands were. I was listening to Chicago Radio (so it was Bears-based), and they were looking for a Kareem Hunt style back (minus the personal probs obv) to fit the Matt Nagy (Andy Reid) style offense. Higdon was named immediately as that type of a powerful, quick-burst back who could catch the ball well. Either the scouts and writers were way off, or Higdon wasn't used properly at all at UM. I'm leaning towards the latter, because I never recall him having bad hands -- and Evans wasn't used enough in the passing game either (IMO).
i could see Higdon ending up being used like the Patriots use White out of the backfield.
God this is depressing lol
It's an overstatement to say he wasn't used properly "at all," but it's accurate to say that he and other skill position guys were not used properly for too high a percentage of the time.
Jives with reports that the game plan went out the window once the game actually started.
How the hell does that even happen?
Name spelling doesn't check out. Should be Blew Me.
That's the most frustrating football thing right now. Every year, its "We're going to throw the ball more", "Air it out", "Get the ball in space more", etc., and we've had the skill players (Evans and Higdon being examples) to do that... yet we never actually do it. Really hoping Gattis reverses that trend
Gary comes to mind here.
Higdon had an amazing "WTF" catch in one of the later games of the season (might have been OSU). The ball was thrown at his knee and he dove, readjusted, and got both his arms under the ball securing control as he came down.
It would have been a great play from a WR. He, like everyone else on the offense, wasn't utilized very intelligently last season.
I think it was Wisconsin but yes it was a great catch.
I think it was in the bowl game. Oh wait, he didn’t play in the bowl game.
Glad he put that extra time to good use by improving his speed and receiving skills.
At the combine today, a twitter writer posted that Higdon did not participate in receiving drills. This writer said it was not surprising, given he didn't catch many balls at Michigan - implying that he was sitting out the drills because he wasn't very good.
Whether that's true or he showed enough during senior bowl week and didn't want to screw that up, I'm not sure.
Happens all the time in the NFL, guys under perform in college sometimes. But once they concentrate on just their football careers some find their potential/ceiling. Tom Brady comes to mind,chad johnson was a wr in a option offense. Maybe a coaching change hinders their development. That's why they have the combine, and every year there are a couple players that come out of nowhere. And a lot of it is because of the 40. GM's just love a good 40 time.
Truly one of the traits that stood out to me this season was Higdons acceleration and explosiveness once he secured the ball or made a cut. Good for him!
Almost as fast as he bailed on the team after the OSU game *ducks*
(But seriously, good for him, hope he goes high and has a long, successful NFL career)
It was a business decision, and I can't knock any player for doing the same thing. If he'd of gotten seriously hurt in that one meaningless game, he could've cost himself millions of dollars.
That's fine but he should have declined the offer to be a captain.
He carried the ball over 450 times wearing the Michigan uniform. He was a great representative of the university his entire time here. Are you seriously going to hold a grudge against him for missing one meaningless bowl game? He has a child. If he got seriously hurt in that bowl game, lost out on all that money, would you chip in to help reimburse him for what he lost?
Karan does seem like a great person, but yes, that decision will tarnish my opinion of him slightly. And let's not forget that these guys are neglecting their obligation as scholarship athletes when they decide not to play. Just because guys all over the country are starting to do this doesn't mean I agree with it.
You may think the game was meaningless but I bet a lot of his coaches and teammates disagree with you.
Very well said. You could also make the argument that EVERY bowl game, and EVERY conference championship game are meaningless when taking into account a player's draft status and risk of injury.
If we played in the NC game and someone got hurt and their draft status dropped, would that have been a meaningful game and worth it???
Take a guy like Trevor Lawrence - every college game he plays until he declares for the NFL is meaningless when measured against the risk of losing out on his earning potential. He could sit on his couch and play video games for the next two years and still be a top 5 pick when he's eligible. Why should he ever play another game for Clemson at this point?
This is pretty faulty logic. If he can just sit out and be a top 5 pick then an injury won't change that either. He is better off staying in college regardless because he can improve, mature his body, enjoy his youth, get a degree, network, put more on tape, and win more with his teammates.
Higdon's situation is very different as he is not a top 5 pick.
Wow, Blarvey, you are not a smart human being.
I can tell you right now.. his teammates were not upset. The mentality is to get that money if and when you can. Remember, he could have left last year. The only people who are bent out of shape are some delusional fans that feel these guys owe us something. If anything other non-profit sports should be thanking the football and basketball players for generating the revenue to pay for their scholarships.
Take Zion Williamson at Duke, I would never put a duke uniform on again if I were him. A freak accident like that could end his career. He has done enough to show the type of player he is. I would not want to end up on ESPN 30for30
He doesn't owe us, the fans, anything. But I think he owed his teammates some kind of loyalty. He was a good player and seems like a good human being, so I wish him nothing but the best.
Don't the fans pay for his scholarship?
The fans pay to be entertained by watching him put his body in harms way. He has done that for 4 years, he doesn't owe you anything because you bought tickets to football games. He doesn't owe his teammates anything, it's a fucking GAME, not some noble battlefield or whatever the fuck y'all like to pretend football is. Most of these guys are trying to get paid to play this game and the only people they may owe anything to is their families.
maybe he shouldn't have been running meaningless toss sweeps against NW in 2015
As a senior captain against Ohio state I would have expected Michigan to rely on higdon a lot like we did against msu.
Instead we handed it off for 7 yards then benched him the rest of the drive.
I'd quit on my coach too if that was the case.
This was basically a joke, but I would have really preferred to see Karan workout and travel with the team, even if he only dressed as a backup for the bowl game (assuming Harbaugh would have allowed this). So I guess I'm in the "I understand it's a business decision, but Captain ought to mean something" camp.
So I'm assuming he was 6th?
Seems like a good performance and maybe about 0.1 faster than I would have guessed. Any thoughts on his draft stock? Mid-late round most likely?
Also, interesting that Evans lead all RBs with a 4.64 40 at the 2017 spring combine.
If Gary has a similar level of improvement from the 4.57 he ran.....
Obviously that won't happen, but I do wonder if Higdon has gotten that much faster/better at 40 technique or if the UM testing was just inaccurate.
You would assume that he's been doing nothing but training for the combine since he left school. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't doping like crazy, you can definitely increase speed.
Do you know what Higdon ran then?
All I have ever seen are the leaders at each position, which for RB was Evans with a 4.64.
FWIW, Evans was 1st in every category for RB/FB except powerball, which was Poggi.
I am not 100% sure that Higdon participated, but I never saw anything mentioning that he sat out.
Higdon ran in the spring combine and was faster than Evans. I believe he was in the mid 4.4 range.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/2017-michigan-football-spring-combine
Not according to the graphic in this thread which was posted by... stephenrjking
To sjk’s defense, you are re-posting data from 2017. If I’m not mistaken, the most recent spring combine occurred in 2018.
Tied for the 5th fastest time with Miles Sanders and Darrell Henderson (Memphis) at 4.49
Tied for 6th fastest individual.
Always shocks me when I see Weber with a decent time. Never looked that fast on the field.
I always thought he was pretty fast.
He showed speed when he was completely healthy (below) which wasn’t often for a fair amount of his career
Im gonna say Higdon Round 4 to Dallas Cowboys
Any reason for him not to run the other RB drills? Catching and cutting drills
Did he pull a muscle doing the other measurables?