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Which would you prefer - speed or skill?

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I want my recruit to have

  • Total voters
    74
  • Poll closed .
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NightmaresDad said:
a good coaching staff can teach skills. sure you can improve speed, but you can't turn a slow kid into a burner. Plus if you can improve speed, you can make a fast kid even faster. see Hawk and Carp.
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You can't teach instincts or vision, which are part of the skills "package". I think the poll question should have been more specific and said "natural" speed or skills.
 
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you're right mario. Ginn was awfully good in 04 without tons of skill at the WR position.

mili, I'm not sure what other kind of speed there is other than natural speed. ie Recruit A's strength is his skill (could be a number of things) vs Recruit B's strength is his speed (pretty straightforward IMO).
 
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I guess I try to boil things down to as near "black and white" absolutes as possible (even when doing so is never really possible) to arrive at my opinion.

So in trying to put it into that context, I thought to myself "would I rather have a bunch of super fast guys running around, but not very good at throwing the ball (if a QB misses his receivers, it really won't matter how fast they are), catching the ball (if your receivers can't catch the ball when it does hit them in the numbers...), hitting the hole, tackling well, etc.

Or would I rather have a bunch of slow guys who could make up for their lack of speed by being in position, tackling as a team, catching their opponant out of position, running great routes, etc., etc....I (using this rational) take the kids with outstanding skills."

My argument of course takes out the assumption of coaching a kid up, but at face value I take the skill over speed. And thus I have cast my vote as such.
 
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Skill. You can't take a 4.4 speedster and turn him into AJ Hawk or Chris Spielman. You can get a guy like Spielman or Hawk to shave a tenth or 2 off their 40. Speed doesn't help if you are running the wrong way....
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
Skill. You can improve anyone's speed. I'll take someone with exceptional vision and instincts over a pure speed burner any day. There are a ton of sprinters out there who will never be able to catch a ball consistently even if they practiced every day for 10 years. Hell, look at the best RBs of all-time: Jim Brown; Walter Payton; Emmitt Smith; Barry Sanders. Neither of them were anywhere near being speed burners, but rather had special physical skills (power, agility, vision) which made them the best. Jerry Rice is universally acknowledged as the greatest receiver of all-time, and yet he wasn't the fastest around. How about Santonio Holmes? Ginn eats his lunch in pure speed but we all know who's the better receiver...
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I chose skill as well, but I think we've got to give TGII a little slack in the receiving department, he played CB and QB in HS, he's only been playing receiver since he got to OSU, and towards the end of this year I really thought I saw him start to understand the receiver position better, running his routes a bit better, but most importantly getting open when his QB had to scramble out of the pocket. By the end of '06 I can see TGII being a better receiver than holmes was his junior year, if he works at it.
 
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supermario86 said:
speed because even a player doesnt become better he can still return punts, kicks, run screens, and stuff like that.
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Uh, in order to be successful at returning punts, kicks, and "stuff like that", there is more to it than pure speed...agility, quickness (vice speed), patience, and vision are as essential.

jwinslow said:
you're right mario. Ginn was awfully good in 04 without tons of skill at the WR position.

mili, I'm not sure what other kind of speed there is other than natural speed. ie Recruit A's strength is his skill (could be a number of things) vs Recruit B's strength is his speed (pretty straightforward IMO).
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And you saw what happened to Ginn early in 2005 when he started relying more on athletic ability rather than his total skills package. Once we relaxed and quit forcing unneeded moves, he allowed himself to use his vision and instinct to enhance his speed. His kick return TDs (including the two called back) featured him slowing down to use his vision to pick his spots before exploding into the open...the only exception was the Minnesota KO return where he just went into warp drive from the gitgo. Also, he was as fast in the beginning of his freshman season (when he was dropping passes all over the place and running weak routes) as he was at the end of the season (when he was making all the catches and running much improved routes)...that should show you that speed means squat without the talent to make it work. Just look at the Michigan game a few months back when Teddy couldn't catch any punts...speed means shit if you can't catch the ball.
 
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fair enough. I don't think I really want one without the other... tho there are certain positions which you do not need speed as much as skill. However, I feel that UM defenders have some skill but no speed, which is why they have so many NFL lbs that aren't great college lbs.

right, but I'd also say he was coached up a little bit, especially at WR.
 
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You can't define one and the other not have some sort of impact on it. You can have A.J's instincts and skill,but if he's slow as a turtle,he would have never seen the field..They have to have at least decent speed. Speed alone can stand as an impact. I don't think skills will...They are just as important,but you will never be in position to use these skills if you aren't quick enough to keep up with the speed of the game.

I'll also state that you can be the fastest human alive,but that doesn't make you a football player. I just don't believe someone's skills without some sort of speed will keep them on the playing field,because noone will know about their techniques or ability if they can't keep up with anyone on the field...
 
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