Stolen from Reddit: What highly touted FB player have we ruined?

[TheRef]

What else can we contribute to Ole Miss's playbook on how to steer recruits away from MSU?

Sorry...feel free to move the thread or delete it altogether if you feel like it. I thought it would be a good panel for discussion. I was wrong, obviously. My bad.

[Jack Lambert]

William Prince. Just never seemed to utilize him. Was a stud rb in high school. Don't really know if we ruined him or just wasted him. When we signed him, all I heard is "he's another Eric Dickerson".

I don't think either applies. He just was at State when we had some really good running backs.

[HancockCountyDog]

I think the answer has to be Omarr Conner or Tyler Russell.

They both need a time machine so they can each other's coach. They both got screwed by the coach's offense they played under.

Conner would have been hell on wheels in Mullen's offense. Russell would have been the missing piece in Croom's traditional drop back style offense.

Its really amazing how well they would have each fit in those offenses. Now, Im not sure how well they each would have done, but based on what I saw, I think both would have thrived. Im not sure Russell would of had enough weapons, but still.

[Dawg61]

What else can we contribute to Ole Miss's playbook on how to steer recruits away from MSU?

That is next to our other playbooks called "MSU Players In NFL","MSU Winners of 4 of last 5 Egg Bowls" and "Look At Our Ridiculous Facilities". Those three books recruit much better than this harmless thread on a slow summer Monday.

[Tbonewannabe]

Robert Elliott had both knees rebuilt. Not many speed backs will make the NFL after that.

Dontae Walker was a cancer in the locker room. He would only do what he wanted to do. The only thing we didn't do was kick him off the team so maybe he could go somewhere else to get straightened out.

[Johnson85]

Conner would have been hell on wheels in Mullen's offense. Russell would have been the missing piece in Croom's traditional drop back style offense.

Conner would have been ridiculous under Mullen. Russell would have been a godsend to Crooms, but I doubt he could have done more than make it not an embarrassing offense. If I was going to drop Russell into an offense, it would be the 98 and 99 offenses. I like Madkin, but I think you put Junior and Senior Russell in that spot instead of Freshman and Sophomore Madkin (or even Junior and Senior Madkin), and I think we are in the Sugar bowl one if not both years.

[jumbo]

would love to see Conner is Mullen's O.

[Johnson85]

I agree with the one I saw on there, Dontae Walker

Two ways to "ruin" a player:

(1) Enable him. This is what happened to a lot of UM's recruits in the last decade. I think it happened with Dontae Walker and probably several others in the latter Croom years. I don't think we have ruined any since Mullen got here. There are some players, and Dontae may have been one, that just can't be reached until they hit bottom. We obviously didn't ruin Quay Evans. I don't think there was anybody that could have done more, and I'll be even more sure if Nick James has really turned a corner. Similarly, Stansbury didn't ruin Renardo Sidney. He may have ruined Ravern Johnson. Ole Miss may not have ruined Braswell, but he didn't have a chance that close to Batesville. He may not have done any better anywhre else.

(2) Misuse them. I don't think 'ruin' is the right word here. It should probably just be 'waste'. We wasted Omar Conner. We didn't waste Tyler Russell although it's true he probably didn't get to live up to his potential with the offense we ran and the OL and WR we provided him. We wasted Kevin Fant. Eric Moulds is kind of like Russell. We certainly didn't waste him, but he didn't reach his potential.

[War Machine Dawg]

Omarr Conner. Would have been really good under Mullen. Was the #9 QB. http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73...id=222837&pg=7

Derek Pegues. Was #41 overall player, didn't even sniff the NFL. http://mississippistate.scout.com/a....=1&nid=1215658

Omar Conner or Kevin Fant would be my pick.

Omar would have been a stud in a spread type of offense. I also think that he could have been a really good WR if we would have started him off there and just left him instead of moving back and forth between QB & WR.

Fant took an absolutely beating when he was here.

Damn, great choices. Forgot all about Omarr, DP, and Fant. I'd definitely take any of those 3 over JJ. Fant might be the toughest SOB I've ever seen play QB with some of the beatings he took thanks to his alleged offensive line.

[deltadawg99]

Would Brent Schaefer go under the ruined or bust category? He would have been a stud in a spread offense, but Eddie O decided to put him under center instead.

Masoli ruined himself, he was lucky to be playing anywhere but lucky for him OM had that Parks and Recreation grad program that he was so passionate about. ha

[Tbonewannabe]

Damn, great choices. Forgot all about Omarr, DP, and Fant. I'd definitely take any of those 3 over JJ. Fant might be the toughest SOB I've ever seen play QB with some of the beatings he took thanks to his alleged offensive line.

DP didn't play in the league because he ran something like a 4.8 in the 40 when they timed him. I think he just had a horrible trainer to get ready for the draft. It is like an interview and he bombed it bad.

Reminds me of Pig Prather, he just chose to do nothing for the draft and his work ethic showed. I remember watching the draft and he was the best available by Mel Kiper since the 3rd or 4th round. He got picked up by Cincy as a FA and immediately got cut.

[dickiedawg]

I wouldn't say ruined, but more of underutilized for Donald Lee. He could've created so many mismatches if TE's were used more effectively back then.

Yeah, Donald Lee turned out OK.

[bulldawg28]

What else can we contribute to Ole Miss's playbook on how to steer recruits away from MSU?

Robert Elliott had both knees rebuilt. Not many speed backs will make the NFL after that.

Dontae Walker was a cancer in the locker room. He would only do what he wanted to do. The only thing we didn't do was kick him off the team so maybe he could go somewhere else to get straightened out.

Donate wasn't a cancer nobody blamed him It was the coaches that gave him superstar status.

[Johnson85]

DP didn't play in the league because he ran something like a 4.8 in the 40 when they timed him. I think he just had a horrible trainer to get ready for the draft. It is like an interview and he bombed it bad.

Reminds me of Pig Prather, he just chose to do nothing for the draft and his work ethic showed. I remember watching the draft and he was the best available by Mel Kiper since the 3rd or 4th round. He got picked up by Cincy as a FA and immediately got cut.

I don't think anybody did anything wrong with Pegeus, either coaches or Pegeus. He was a good college football player but didn't have the freak measurables required to be an NFL player. 4.8 may have been a little slow for him, but I don't think he quite had NFL athleticism. Our strength and conditioning did leave something to be desired, so maybe that's all he was missing, but I don't think he stands out as somebody that didn't reach his potential.

Pig Prather was different because he was definitely a draftable prospect. If he had stayed in the same shape he was in during the season (or at least the prior season), he would have easily been drafted.

[Tbonewannabe]

Donate wasn't a cancer nobody blamed him It was the coaches that gave him superstar status.

I agree that it was the coaches that didn't keep him in line. He should have been kicked off the team before he even made it to Senior Day.

[bulldawg28]

I agree that it was the coaches that didn't keep him in line. He should have been kicked off the team before he even made it to Senior Day.

He was kicked off the team after senior day.

[quickstrike2]

We didn't ruin them, but I loved when we got CoEric Riley and Tony Burks. We absolutely had nobody to get them the ball though. Seemed like CoEric couldn't keep away from dumb penalties to stay on the field.

[BoomBoom]

Who was the lineman an NFL scout at the combine called the most out of shape player he had ever seen?

[Goat Holder]

Croom ruined Conner (and Henig's collarbone).

You could say King Jackie ruined a lot of guys there at the end, through lackluster recrootin and/or lack of discipline. But his guys always sort of ran wild - he just was always pretty good about controlling it until there at the end.

Mullen did not ruin Russell like others said, that's idiotic. He had a good career and owns some passing records - far from "ruined".

[AlSwearengen]

Omarr Conner. Would have been really good under Mullen. Was the #9 QB. http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73...id=222837&pg=7

Derek Pegues. Was #41 overall player, didn't even sniff the NFL. http://mississippistate.scout.com/a....=1&nid=1215658

Pegues was a good college player, but he didn't have the speed for the nfl.