Write On Sports LLC - "College Success Breeds Professional Success for Football Players" by Troy Somero

College Success Breeds Professional Success for Football Players

2006-12-12 23:06:14 | By: Troy Somero

This December the NFL player who is running out of room on his bandwagon is Vince Young. After yet another incredibly clutch performance on Sunday in Houston, Young has emerged as a confident and decisive playmaker for the Tennessee Titans' offense. However, this should be no surprise to anyone that watched Young's career – particularly his performance in the Rose Bowl in January against another impressive first-year NFL quarterback in Matt Leinhart.

Both Young and Leinhart, among a slue of other NFL rookies, have exemplified the benefits of attending four years of college in order to hone their playing ability and to become smarter and wiser professional football players. Low Wonderlic scores and questionable 40-yard dash times aside, the recent trend in professional football is that players who complete four years of college become more dependable and more valuable professional athletes.

The top three quarterbacks drafted on the 2006 NFL Draft – Young, Leinhart, and Jay Cutler – are currently starting for their respective teams, replacing veteran quarterbacks who have lead teams to success in past years. The fact of the matter is that quarterbacks - and players in general - who complete four years of college are better prepared to make smooth transition to the NFL than players who do not complete four years of college.

This trend extends to other skill positions as well. Remember running backs Lawrence Phillips and Maurice Clarett? Unless you are an avid college football fan you would likely not remember these men other than for their off-the-field exploits. NFL teams took a chance on them in the draft, and the result was a wasted draft pick because of the lack of maturity and responsibility these players showed by not completing four years of college. In contrast, take a look at two successful first-round running backs from the 2006 Draft: DeAngelo Williams, and Joseph Addai. Both running backs played four years of college football, and both running backs are now starting and/or seeing significant playing time on playoff-caliber teams.

The experiences of men like Philips and Clarett may be extreme aberrations in the context of NFL Drafts, but the success of first-round draft picks with four years of college experience is the norm. LaDainian Tomlinson, the current record-holder of touchdowns scored in a season, was the fiftth-pick out of a mid-major Texas Christian program in 2001. He likely never would have been drafted if he came out of college early, and it was this college experience that enabled him to make a smooth transition to the NFL. The first overall 2005 Draft choice was Alex Smith, a quarterback out of a mid-major Utah program who solidified his place in college football history with a stellar senior season. Today Smith is the starting quarterback for the 49ers with little NFL experience pre-dating his starting role.

Out of the top four picks of the 2004 NFL Draft, only one of them has been a "disappointment" at this point in his career. Eli Manning, Larry Fitzgerald, and Philip Rivers are all solid NFL starters and all completed four years of college. The third pick in the draft, Iowa University OT Robert Gallery, has been a huge disappointment for the Raiders. In addition, he did not complete four years of college football. Perhaps an extra year would have helped him prepare for the pros.

In 2003 the first pick was Carson Palmer, a player who is one of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL, largely due to his four years of experience at a powerhouse USC program. The second pick in the draft was Charles Rogers out of Michigan State. He was drafted by the Lions, but now he is out of the league. He left the league just like he left college – with only two years of experience.

These are just a handful of examples of the greater influence of college football on professional football players, but they indicative of a larger trend in football: talented, proven college players make for talented, successful pros. On the other hand, NFL players without similar college experience are more of a crapshoot. For every Randy Moss (21st pick by Minnesota in 1998) there is a Sylvester Morris (21st pick by Kansas City in 2000 – look him up). Only the truly great athletes are able to jump to the pros and have successful careers with little college experience. Those players who fall victim too early to the words of agents and scouts are the ones who ultimate miss out on both the rest of their college lives and successful pro careers.

One of the best lessons from the 2006 NFL season is that a player's performance in college football is the best indicator of what his performance will be in the NFL. Players like Vince Young and Matt Leinhart are making immediate (positive) impacts on their teams in the pros because they made similar impacts in on their college teams. The more that owners, GMs, and coaching staffs focus on the "sure thing" (a.k.a. Troy Smith) instead of the "next great thing" (a.k.a Brian Brohm), the better off their teams will be at this point in the 2007 season.