Mr. Football Favorites?

[Boilernation]

15 hours ago, temptation said:

In no particular order…from my era (late 90s on)…

James Aldridge - Merrillville

James Banks - Ben Davis

Otis Shannon - Cathedral 

Jerimy Finch - Warren Central

Austin Robertson - Fort Wayne Wayne

Guys I thought were destined for long NFL careers who never panned out for one reason or another.

Aldridge: He was either injury plagued at Notre Dame or the classic example of the myth that a late bloomer will skyrocket in the recruiting rankings to sell clicks. I swear he went from 3 star to 5 star the day LSU offered and then all of the big boys started offering. I would be surprised if he had 100 total rushing yards at Notre Dame

Banks: He was obviously an unbelievably QB at Ben Davis that was virtually unstoppable. He was like Vince Young at Texas. Just give him the ball enough and you're not losing. But, what really stood out to me, was the way he shut down Jeff Samardzija in the 5A State game. Jeff could have easily played in the NFL after Notre Dame but wisely choose the MLB route. And he was no slouch at Valpo. He was only a Junior in that State Title game, but he was tearing apart teams during Valpo's road to the RCA Dome. It all came to an end when Ben Davis put Banks across the LOS from him. I don't know enough about Banks to know why he failed to make the NFL. A lack of work ethic and dedication were always the common rumors. I remember him being a pretty solid WR at Tennessee.

Shannon: See my opinion on a different post

Finch: The true miss. Started as a True Freshman on a very solid Florida defense. The story was an injury set him back, Florida wanted him to switch to LB, he didn't like it and transferred to IU. I remember IU's coaching staff taking heat for not playing him and they basically said in a polite way that he wasn't mentally prepared. Rumors of an extremely low IQ always followed this kid around. Physically, he was definately on a trajectory for the NFL before things went south in Florida.

Robertson: Similiar to Finch. Physical specimen. Mental midget. 

[FastpacedO]

7 hours ago, Boilernation said:

Agreed. I always thought of Shannon has a great HS RB whose insane numbers were more a product of his environment, i.e, 2 NFL OL and Cathedrals offense as a whole.

Banks was a much better all around player (could throw, run, kick, coverage, drive the bus, etc)

Shannon did enjoy the luxury of some outstanding Offensive Lineman (and a TE that went to the NFL as a D-lineman). His vision, stop and go, speed, footwork were amazing. His line would open him a hole and then when he got to 5 yards he could stop and jump cut or cut on the move and be back to full speed quickly. He also had tremendous power and leg strength at contact, his open field speed was very deceiving.

He wasn't the tallest RB. He also did on occasion when needed play defense as a DB in coverage. He also could throw the ball extremely well. In the 1999 4A State Finals (Goshen vs Cathedral) game trailing 21-17 he threw a beautiful halfback pass and on the next play ran it in from 2 yards out to take the lead 24-21 with 52 seconds left

[Grover]

10 hours ago, Boilernation said:

I honestly forgot about him. Wasn't he a move in for his Senior year because dad took a job with the Colts? I think it's easy for him to go unnoticed because he was only in Indiana for 1 season and played on an absolutely loaded CG squad.

His dad coached at Franklin College. 

[Bash Riprock]

10 hours ago, Boilernation said:

I honestly forgot about him. Wasn't he a move in for his Senior year because dad took a job with the Colts? I think it's easy for him to go unnoticed because he was only in Indiana for 1 season and played on an absolutely loaded CG squad.

Yes the team was very good....But Russ Yeast was special.  I will never forget his 5 TD performance against Cathedral an  Irish squad that was stacked as well with D1 players.  Russ Yeast won the Gatorade Player of the Year that season for the state of Indiana.  Had an excellent college career at both Louisville and Kansas State and as Grover mentioned, playing on Sunday's with the Rams.  Incredible young man, earning both his bachelor's and master's degrees during his college playing days.