OT- Greatest CFB Player you ever watched?

Submitted by FatGuyTouchdown on

Just trying to lighten the mood after the recent recruiting decommits, so who is the best player you have ever seen play college football? It can be from any team, conference position.

Couple quick rules:

1. Must have watched them play at least once (Doesn't have to be in person). 

2. Must be centered around actual on field play. This is just to prevent people from saying "Kelly Baraka, but man he couldn't stop smoking weed"

My choice: Cam Newton. I wasn't old enough to watch Woodson (Who I think will garner a lot of votes here). Dude absolutely annhiliated everyone in his path during that season at Auburn. Just one of the most unstoppable players ever. Big moment for me is when he trucked Patrick Peterson and carried him 30 yards in to the endzone. Newton was also the only player on the offense of the 2011 Championship team to play in the NFL. Just an otherwordly player.

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shoes

August 23rd, 2016 at 9:17 PM ^

Woodson and for all of us who have picked him there need be no "homer" qualifier. He was that great. Did it all on defense and a hush went over the stadium when he came in on offense.

I cannot argue with Vince Young in college.

AC is my all time personal favorite so I have to mention him.

Finallly I'll throw out a guy who deserves at least a mention and that is Tony Dorsett who along with Hugh Green on defense really elevated a Pittsburgh team to the NC.

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KC Wolve

August 23rd, 2016 at 9:23 PM ^

Probably Reggie Bush. He was just on another level even amongst the best at USC.

Going to drop a homer pick too though. I was at the first game Darren Sproles got in as a Freshman at KSU. We had heard about the "little guy" that had been tearing up at practice. It was a few games into the season and he went in and we all cheered. He took a toss sweep and it was like a video game. He didn't score but he got to the edge faster than I'd ever seen anyone, then juked a CB so bad he didn't even touch him. He was a blast to watch in college and has had a damn good pro career.

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Perkis-Size Me

August 23rd, 2016 at 9:32 PM ^

Damn difficult to narrow it down to just one, but if I had to narrow it down to who I've personally watched, Cam Newton. Was just flat out dominant in his one year at Auburn, and the comeback against Alabama is the stuff of legend. Only knock on him was a pretty subpar performance in the title game, but that doesn't take away what he did the rest of the season.

I'm tempted to also pick Reggie Bush, but you gotta go with Vince Young. Carried Texas on his back to a national title in what is arguably the greatest national championship game ever played. He did beat Michigan, but he also beat OSU and USC so he and I are square.



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MGoChippewa

August 23rd, 2016 at 10:09 PM ^

but when I think about guys who seemed like they were on a whole different level than their competition, Dan LeFevour comes to mind. Was he a better player than any of the guys mentioned in this thread? Nah. Was he special? Definitely. Three MAC titles, a top 25 finish, a huge upset W in East Lansing in 2009. Career #s: 64.4%, 12,905 yds and 102 TDs through the air, 2,948 yds and 47 TDs rushing and, for good measure, 58 yds and 1 receiving TD. And by accounts from people I knew in Mt. Pleasant, a good guy.   

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Mr. Elbel

August 23rd, 2016 at 10:09 PM ^

I agree with many that it's between young, bush, and newton. not old enough to actually remember watching Charles play, even though technically I did see him play.

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WNY in Savannah

August 23rd, 2016 at 10:12 PM ^

My favorite to watch was Anthony Carter. Can't say he was the best. I would argue that Charles Woodson was the best. Barry Sanders was also amazing his last year.

Vince Young was amazing in that USC Rose Bowl.  But remember, folks, if Carroll had called a better play on 4th down, USC would have won and people would not remember Vince's game the same way. Also, didn't Vince toss up a pass late that should have been intercepted a la Eli Manning in the Super Bowl? Vince had a little luck to help his perfomance look better. But yes, he was still amazing.

I will throw out one more crazy name: Antwaan Randle El.  Do any of the rest of you remember him at Indiana? That team was awful. People talk about Young winning by himself... I always thought if Randle El had played for a real team he would have been a Heisman winner easily.

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UMinSF

August 23rd, 2016 at 11:15 PM ^

That's a great call WNY; Randle-El was a fantastic player on a terrible team.  

I'll raise you Calvin Johnson. I've never seen a less accurate passer than Reggie Ball - he completed 44% of his passes his senior year!

Yet somehow, with everyone in the stadium knowing where the ball was going, Ball would hoist that thing as far as he could throw it, and CJ would haul it in.

If you never saw him play in college, you missed out. Wow.

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WNY in Savannah

August 23rd, 2016 at 11:55 PM ^

And I'll agree with you on Calvin Johnson (and also the post above on Thompson),  Great players on bad teams get overlooked too easily.  And great receivers with bad QB's or vice versa.  How many of the players mentioned in this thread were on bad teams?  We've been trained to think otherwise, but with football being such a team game, it's difficult to impossible to look really great with bad teammates.

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MaizeAndBlueWahoo

August 23rd, 2016 at 10:28 PM ^

So I Ctrl-F'ed Woodson on this page and got 65 hits.  But yeah, Charles Woodson.  Brian Griese was a yard away from Woodson registering a touchdown literally every conceivable way in one season - KR, PR, reception, run, INT, fumble....all he missed was the pass.

Vince Young was fricking incredible too.  I still think the Texas-USC Rose Bowl was the greatest college football game maybe ever.  And I know this is a pics-or-it-didn't-happen kind of claim, but when Young took the 4th-down play in for the winning touchdown, I knew that's what would happen before the play.  That's how damn good he was.

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Wolverine41

August 23rd, 2016 at 10:48 PM ^

Desmond Howard!?!

How is no one mentioning him?
Won heisman buy largest margin ever, had the best combination of quickness, elusiveness, speed, and hands I have ever seen in football.



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RLARCADIACA

August 23rd, 2016 at 10:56 PM ^

For Michigan it would be Anthony Carter in person. Outside of Michigan and the best gutty performance making him in my mind the Greatest was Archie Manning playing and running with a broken arm, Late 1970 and the Gator Bowl 1/2/71. I have not seen anyone play so gutty, so well with such an injury in my many viewing years.

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GoBlueFrom_RU

August 23rd, 2016 at 11:04 PM ^

Didn't see anyone say it and I'm sure I'll be rebutted on this but what about Johnny Manziel? Sure he's a screw up but he did some wacky stuff out there on the field

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Wide Open

August 23rd, 2016 at 11:30 PM ^

Drew Brees. Whenever that offense was on the field you knew he was getting in the end zone, but you didn't know whether it would be on 10 short throws or a long bomb. When they played at Michigan (1999?), there was an audible sigh of relief in the stadium when it started raining, meaning we could maybe slow him down.

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Ronnie Kaye

August 23rd, 2016 at 11:36 PM ^

While Woodson is definitely in the conversation, he seems overrepresented here. I think the OP underestimated how homerific this board really is.

I'll go with Barry Sanders. Nobody even approaches the production he had in his only season as a starter and it's not his fault his coach was so dumb to make return specialist/backup his first two years. Barry Switzer told his players not to hurt Thurman Thomas because the kid who would be coming in for him was far better.

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Ronnie Kaye

August 24th, 2016 at 1:07 PM ^

McCaffrey not really close. He averaged 6.0 per carry. Barry averaged 7.6 yards. Also, McCaffrey averaged 165 rushing yards per game. Barry averaged 239 rushing yards per game. Touchdowns, Barry scored 39 and McCaffrey had 13. The fact that McCaffrey is the closest and still not really close says it all.

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MichiganStudent

August 23rd, 2016 at 11:58 PM ^

Ever watched in person I would say:

1. Charles Woodson
2. Ron Dayne
3. Denard Robinson against teams that didn't know how to stop him



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Chitown Kev

August 24th, 2016 at 1:11 AM ^

In person: Anthony Carter

Overall career: Young, Woodson, Earl Campbell

For a game or a moment- Michael Vick (3rd quarter 2000 Sugar Bowl), Tim Biakabutuka against Ohio State

 

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TheBorg

August 24th, 2016 at 2:07 AM ^

Greatest CFB at Michigan, truncated career due to injury was - Tony Boles

Greatest CFB at Michigan, Charles Woodson

Greatest CFB ever, Herschel Walker.  Essentially, as good as Wheatley was, he was pedestrian compared to Walker.  He combined world-class sprinter speed with weight-lifter strength to be IMHO the greatest college running back and player.  Oh, and he was his high school valedictorian...an explempary student-athlete. I lived in Florida at the time and got to see him play twice in person.  I'll never forget his phenomenal skills at RB.

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South TX MFan

August 24th, 2016 at 3:18 AM ^

Vince Young. I got to see him play in person a few times and man he made it look so easy. His performance in the Rose Bowl against USC will go down as one of the greatest performances of all time. I think he should've won the Heisman that year as well.



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