SEC players you wish you could have seen play.

#1

shoney

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#1
I just watched that Herschel Walker SEC Storied episode again. I really wish I could have seen him play live and in person. I had season tickets from 1993 to 2010, so I have seen some great players. If I could find a time machine my first SEC great I would go see play is Herschel, so I guess I would set the Deloriean to 1980. I don't think I could stomach the Tennessee game though. Which SEC great would you want to see play?
 
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#5
#5
Don Hutson. He basically invented the WR position. It must have been crazy to see it happen.
 
#6
#6
Joe Namath. Want to see if he was as over rated in college as he was as pro. Only 173 pro TDs with 220 INTs, yet in the Hall of Fame.
 
#8
#8
Joe Namath. Want to see if he was as over rated in college as he was as pro. Only 173 pro TDs with 220 INTs, yet in the Hall of Fame.

That's a silly reason to pick him over all the greats there have been.


For me, i hate Auburn but I'd probably say Bo Jackson or maybe Archie Manning.
 
#9
#9
That's a silly reason to pick him over all the greats there have been.


For me, i hate Auburn but I'd probably say Bo Jackson or maybe Archie Manning.
Good point. Although I've seen most everyone significant from the mid-60s on (even Pete Maravich) so I am out of names.
 
#10
#10
before my time, but i always imagined what a healthy chuck webb was capable of. seemed like he could've been elite.
 
#11
#11
That's a silly reason to pick him over all the greats there have been.


For me, i hate Auburn but I'd probably say Bo Jackson or maybe Archie Manning.

Oh, my friend... if you weren't around to see the '85 Vol defense beat Bo into submission and watch Bo take himself out of the game without injury like a whipped pup then you need to watch Tenn vs Aub '85 sometime on youtube.

My answer to the thread's question would be Doug Atkins. An athletic 6'8 275 DE in the 1950's had to be quite a sight.
 
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#12
#12
Oh, my friend... if you weren't around to see the '85 Vol defense beat Bo into submission and watch Bo take himself out of the game without injury like a whipped pup then you need to watch Tenn vs Aub '85 sometime on youtube.

My answer to the thread's question would be Doug Atkins. An athletic 6'8 275 DE in the 1950's had to be quite a sight.

One of my all time favorite SI reads:

Rick Reilly said:
This was the AP and UPI No. 1 team, Auburn, and this was Super Bo—the running back so Bo-dacious that one Atlanta paper dressed him in a Superman outfit and ran the photo full-color, full-page. This was the Bo for whom Auburn had changed its entire offense. Out went the wishbone. In came the I-formation, just so Bo and the ball could get better acquainted, say, 20 or more times a game. After two games in which he averaged 248 yards a game, Jackson was ready to go and everybody was in Knoxville, Tenn. to see him, including 60% of ABC's television audience.

By the way, who was Bo playing?

"Some of the guys got to talking," Tennessee wide receiver Tim McGee had said two days before the game, "and we got to wondering, 'With the TV coming to see Bo and all, do you think they might show us ?' Then we said, 'Nah.' "

Trouble was, somebody had a lousy idea: Play the game. They shouldn't oughta have done that. Yo, Bo: Here's mud in your I.


Tennessee River mud, to be exact, which isn't far from where the Vols danced the Tennessee Waltz on Auburn's nose, scratching the paint on the souped-up, custom-built Bo O and knocking the S off Superman. Here's nobody's No. 1, Tennessee, tweaking the Tigers 38-20 in front of most everybody with a Heisman vote and a television, and leaving Jackson with only 80 yards on 17 carries. Whoaaaa, Bo. You even took yourself out of the game in the third quarter with a bruised knee and spent the rest of the afternoon on the bench. That was strictly Bo-rrrrring
....
While Jackson had 181 yards in the first quarter of his goosebumpy opener against Southwestern Louisiana, he had just 29 at the same juncture against Tennessee. The Vols' defense, playing somewhere on the outskirts of consciousness, bid Bo hello at every hole, turning Auburn's offense into an I sore. No matter where Bo went on this crisp fall day, he got to see the colors change: green to orange, green to orange.

The Vols Had A Ball - SI.com

1007_large.jpg


Agree with you on Atkins, would love to have seen him.
 
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#14
#14
Lee Roy Jordan

Jack Youngblood


Of course Bo, Herschel, and others would be higher on this list, but I have been fortunate enough to see them play in person.
 
#17
#17
I've seen the guy on tv but would love to have seen reggie bush play in person at USC. One of the most exciting players I've ever watched.
 
#18
#18
I've seen the guy on tv but would love to have seen reggie bush play in person at USC. One of the most exciting players I've ever watched.

I was at the Coliseum in 2005 for the Arky game. He was phenomenal, scored on a 70 yard td early in the game.
 
#21
#21
Joe Namath. Want to see if he was as over rated in college as he was as pro. Only 173 pro TDs with 220 INTs, yet in the Hall of Fame.


'twas a fundamentally different era. Especially in the AFL, which Namath played in from 1965-69, it was not uncommon for quarterbacks to complete fewer than 50% of their passes. Namath once responded to that criticism by saying "Sure, I could complete 60% of my passes if all I did was dump it off to my tight ends and running backs." That was the era of the "Mad Bomber," so to speak.

A case in point was the "Heidi Game," vs. the Raiders in 1968. In the fourth quarter of that game, "New York defensive end Gerry Philbin recovered the football at the Jets' 3-yard line setting up a 97-yard drive, consisting entirely of two Namath passes to Don Maynard, who was covered by Raiders' rookie cornerback George Atkinson. The 50-yard touchdown pass followed a 47-yard throw, and gave the Jets a 26–22 lead" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game). And, yes, both of those passes were bombs, not short or intermediate routes with significant yards after the catch.

Namath was the first pro quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in a single season and he did so in 14 games (1967). During his career, few quarterbacks put up the overwhelmingly positive TD pass/interception ratio seen today. For comparative purposes, consider the following stats for leading QBs of that period:

Johnny Unitas: 290 td passes, 253 ints.
Bart Starr: 152 td passes, 138 ints.
Fran Tarkenton: 342 td passes, 266 ints.
Lenny Dawson: 239 td passes, 183 ints.
Daryle Lamonica: 164 td passes, 138 ints.

In short, it really isn't fair to critique players of the past based on contemporary statistical standards. However, since you specifically asked about Namath's performance in college, he was selected first overall in the AFL draft after finishing a three-year career at Alabama in which he completed 203-374 (54.3 %) for 2713 yards, 25 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
 
#24
#24
before my time, but i always imagined what a healthy chuck webb was capable of. seemed like he could've been elite.

He's the best Tennessee RB I've ever seen play. I was at the Cotton Bowl when we played Arkansas, he put on a show that day.
 

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