This is the sort of thing that leads to serious comment flaming complete with people calling other people "loosers!!!!" so if we could just clarify: it's not that any of these players are actually bad. They're just not as good as popularly acclaimed to be, either by rave-prone announcers or star-dazed recruitniks or awards-granting committees or All Big Ten teams. All of these players would start on most teams in the league and said teams would be happy to have them; they just aren't all that with bag of chips and salsa and guacamole and etc etc etc.
| 1. James Laurinaitis, LB, Ohio State |
 It's not that Laurinaitis is a bad player. He's not. He flows well sideline-to-sideline and if you don't get a blocker on him he will find you and tackle you. He's good on his zone drops, too. But what he is not is an all-conquering "animal" -- ha! -- that can destroy you by idly considering ways in which he would like your head to implode. Nor does he have hypno-toad eyes which force quarterbacks to throw the ball directly to him, copious evidence from last year be damned. But don't tell this to Brent Musberger, whose orgasmic rendition of the James Laurinaitis show in this year's Texas-Ohio State matchup established the middle linebacker as the country's best... for some reason. Never mind that Texas wasn't actually that good at running the ball last year or that Colt McCoy was still in freshman embryo mode and was reduced mostly to checkdowns and screens. By the time these facts became clear, it was too late: the legend of Laurinaitis was born.Simply, if you get a hat on the guy he's done. Both Michigan and Florida eliminated him from their games just by blocking the guy and put up 39 and 41 points, respectively. He should improve this year, and I'd even put him on an All Big Ten second team behind true monster Dan Connor, but he is not the be all and end all of linebackers. |
