I ask that tongue and cheek, of course. Couple serious questions:
1) Do football playeres coming out of HS get measured formally or even informally in the same metrics? I see 40 times listed on recruiting sites, and verticals and weight lifting prowess mentioned, but one wonders if it is not mostly or all anecdotal. I know there are some combines but many of those take place 18 months before they even get on campus. You often see disconnects between speed going in to college and 4 years later at the combine. Maybe they never were even that fast to begin with.
2) Can one really increase speed and vertical much from HS senior year? Don't most players lose speed/vertical because they add so much weight?
3) Is it not very tough to figure out who will maintain speed/jumping ability with more weight/muscle? Rivals I think listed Eifert as 4.6 in the 40 as a HS senior and here he is still 4.6 with 40lbs more. But I think I saw Te'o listed as a 4.5 in HS at 215lb. Maybe that was BS and he was never a 4.5.
4) Pro teams care about measurables....do good college coaches? Or do they just recruit good football players and not worry about measurables at that level.
Related to all of the above: I am always astounded by the great measurables one sees out of players at lesser schools and poor measurables from solid players at top BCS programs. It does make you wonder whether 1) they (measurables) matter at all in college 2) variance from school to school at age 22 related to inherent inability to project measurables with weight/muscle gain 3) college's don't really recruit at all by looking at measurables or 4) some schools have better S&C programs.
P.S. One of the best objective measures for me for football players is how well they do in other sports: track (dyestat), basketball, baseball, etc. These are indications of overall athleticism. For example, as I recall Harrison Smith was a decathalon champ in Tennessee. One can't be that surprised at his great combine performance last year given his well established athleticiscm off the field.
