Montee Ball is a beast. That guy has a huge future in the NFL. He's insanely strong and fast. Wilson is also pro material. I think that guy will go on to do good things in the NFL. They played a great game, but we figured them out in the second half and got some big stops.
Ball was average, IMO. LMJ was better this game, and was completely overlooked. Ball 32 carries/164 yards/ 5.1 ypc/ long of 42 LMJ 25 carries/159 yards/6.4 ypc/ long of 29 Ball was pretty much shut down outside of one carry.
Wilson is 5'11". He has a great future ... in the CFL. I'm not bashing the guy, either, by saying this. He'll be a beast in that league.
LOL how could you watch that guy and think he's average? He took shots from linebackers and shrugged them off. Only Clay could actually wrap him up. The Ducks keyed on him and the Badgers were unable to full capitalize in the second half. Give credit to Coach Aliotti and the defense. This guy is a solid back. We faced other solid backs this season and shut them down so I wouldn't lay the blame on him. 164 yards is not average.
that tackle where Ball through Clay off of him, but Clay still was able to get him by the ankles was crazy. Two people giving it all they got and it was a draw. I believe that was the "Equal" part of the equal or opposite reaction formula.
Ball was fun to watch. He's a jukin', spinnin', stop and go nightmare. I don't think our defense or NA thought he was average at all.
I'll be interested to see what Ball's measurables are at the NFL Combine. For much of the first half, he wasn't being touched for the first four yards he had the ball. John Clay put up huge numbers last year. I think it's more of a system thing in terms of back production, and how good their O line blocks the run. I just didn't see an NFL burst out of him. Maybe I'm wrong, but I saw more Anthony Thompson than Barry Sanders out of how he runs. If he runs 4.5 or lower, I'll be very surprised.
He'd overtaken Clay as the starter by the end of 2010, and that was as a sophomore before he lost all that weight. He also scored, fwiw, more TDs this season than Clay did in his final two years. I'm not sure why he need to run a 4.5 or lower to be more than an "average" NCAA running back, and I don't see how 33 TDs in a single season--even if TDs aren't the best stat in the world--is anything approaching "average". As for his pro prospects... who knows? He could easily be as good or better than Blount, IMO, and he might turn out to be a superior pro to LaMichael. Ed O.
not saying you are wrong Ed-O, I very well probably am, since I'm using Musberger as a reference (yuck) but I thought they said during the broadcast that Ball was beaten out by a Freshman or something last year, and thats when he decided he needed to get better. Like I said I could be totally off. And cant say I followed anything of Wisconsin the last few years other than the MSU games this year and Rose Bowl last year lol
I linked to an article that states that he was the starter at the time of the Rose Bowl--although it might have been because Clay was hurt (the article is a bit unclear and I don't want to take that much more time to research it ). Musberger DID say what you said he said, but he pretty much ignored Clay as far as I can remember... and the three shared time pretty equally overall. White ended up with more yards than Clay or Ball, fwiw. http://espn.go.com/college-football/team/stats/_/id/275/year/2010/wisconsin-badgers Ball's emergence this season was helped by Clay's departure (he went undrafted after leaving a year early) but presumably more by his improvement than White taking a step back, although I don't know that for sure. Ed O.
If Ball would have had a productive second half similar to the first, the outcome of the game could have been different. His first half was the thing of legends. Second half...not so much. Kiko and Clay were huge in the second.
The OP said that Ball has a "huge future in the NFL". I'm not sure about that. LMJ had more 15+ yard carries than Ball did this year, and did it on 60 fewer carries. I just don't see the top-end speed to be a Chris Johnson, or the size to be a Steven Jackson. Maybe I'm wrong, but IMO, odds are that Ball will be more average player in the NFL than he'll be star. Sorry if people disagree, but the guy came out of nowhere this season because he didn't really split carries, yet he still only had one run over 50 yards behind a great offensive line. Hell, in 3 years and ~570 carries, he only has one run over 50 yards.
Ball averaged 6.1 ypc in 2010 He averaged 6.3 ypc in 2011 The biggest difference in one year was that he got the ball a lot more this year than last year. I'm not saying he's a bad back at all for college, but it's apparent to me that he lacks gamebreaking speed or size needed to be an elite NFL running back. With the numbers Ball put up, he should be a consensus Top 15 NFL pick. He's not, though, which makes me wonder about his NFL future.
I think the Badgers have a very effective offense and it showed.. They put up a ton of points and are clearly a top 10 team! That said, we have knock out punch big play players that don't just beat ya but leave ya wondering what to do? We could make adjustments at the half to them, they could not make adjustments to our offensive raw talent. That why 5* recruits like DAT are so coveted! They are a great team though and solid, no shame in their game!!
Ah, sorry. I glossed over that. I can see how you have huge questions about him at the NFL level. I was more reacting to what kind of a college player he is, and I think that he was outstanding this year. Ed O.
