10 Greatest College Players

[GregBar]

This is my list What do you think?
10- Tony Dorsett -Pitt
9- Jim Brown - Syracus
8- Charles Woodson- Michigan
7- Roger Staubach - Navy
6- Dick Butkus - Illinois
5- Earl Campbell- Texas
4- Doak Walker- SMU
3- Jim Thorpe- Carlisle
2- Archie Griffin- Ohio State
1- Herschel Walker- Georgia

I could have listed Payton Manning at 10 and moved everyone else up one as Herschel Walker is in a class by himself.

[jimpiano]

Originally Posted by GregBar

This is my list What do you think?
10- Tony Dorsett -Pitt
9- Jim Brown - Syracus
8- Charles Woodson- Michigan
7- Roger Staubach - Navy
6- Dick Butkus - Illinois
5- Earl Campbell- Texas
4- Doak Walker- SMU
3- Jim Thorpe- Carlisle
2- Archie Griffin- Ohio State
1- Herschel Walker- Georgia

I could have listed Payton Manning at 10 and moved everyone else up one as Herschel Walker is in a class by himself.

I don't see how you can compile any list of top ten college football players and NOT include Barry Sanders and Red Grange.

[GregBar]

I would put Barry Sanders in the top twenty but Red Grange I know nothing about he could be in the top 20 also.

[jimpiano]

Originally Posted by GregBar

I would put Barry Sanders in the top twenty but Red Grange I know nothing about he could be in the top 20 also.

In 1988, in what has been called the greatest season in college football history,[1] Barry Sanders led the nation by averaging 7.6 yards per carry and over 200 yards per game, including rushing for over 300 yards in four games. He set college football season records with 2,628 yards rushing, 3,249 total yards, 234 points, 39 touchdowns, of which 37 were rushing (also a record), 5 consecutive 200 yard games, scored at least 2 touchdowns in 11 consecutive games, and 9 times he scored at least 3 touchdowns. Sanders also ran for 222 yards and 5 touchdowns in his three quarters of action in the Holiday Bowl - a game that was not included with his season statistics.[2] Sanders won the Heisman Trophy as the season's most outstanding player.[3] In 2008, he was ranked #2 on ESPN's Top 25 Players In College Football History list.

As for Red Grange, he was immortalized by Grantland Rice:

A streak of fire, a breath of flame
Eluding all who reach and clutch;
A gray ghost thrown into the game
That rival hands may never touch;
A rubber bounding, blasting soul
Whose destination is the goal — Red Grange of Illinois!

ESPN ranked him #1 of all time.

[Scooby]

Barry #1
Red #2

[OverAndBack]

There are all sorts of subjective lists. Supposedly they announced #1 tonight during the Rose Bowl, but I didn't see it. Sanders was #2.

Herschel Walker was the greatest college football player I ever saw. YMMV, and Bo Jackson was an amazing runner (as was Sanders), but I was just aghast at the things Herschel Walker did on the football field.

[Texas Aggie]

I wouldn't put Barry over Hershel or Archie. Maybe not over Bo.

[HLin NC]

Doug Atkins

[OverAndBack]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

I wouldn't put Barry over Hershel or Archie. Maybe not over Bo.

Watching the highlights they showed from his senior year yesterday, I had forgotten how magic that guy was, but just different from Herschel and Bo.

Herschel always seemed to me like he was sent back from the future and was just head and shoulders above everybody else. He and Bo are probably the greatest athletes I've ever seen from a sheer power and destructiveness and unstoppability standpoint.

But Sanders' running was just...man, something to watch.

You couldn't put a piece of paper between probably the top 8 guys on the list, they're all great in different ways.

[GarthB]

Sammy Baugh belongs in the top 10.

[BuckeyeRef]

Your list is way better than ABC's. Seriously, Vince Young in the top 10. He was good, but not even close. I would add Red Grange somewhere in the top 5 and I would agree that Barry Sanders season was great. My problem with Sanders is that the list is the top 25 players of all time and he really only played one year. He would probably have the ranking for the best season of all time, but I look at people like Herschel Walker, Archie Griffin, Bo Jackson and they all had great careers.

[IceGator8]

I'd have a hard time not including at least one BYU quarterback. I think either Jim McMahon or Steve Young would fit the bill.

For a long time BYU quarterbacks took turns rewriting the record book.

[Rick KY]

I really find it hard to believe that 2 Heisman's don't earn you the top spot!
That being said, it is incrediably difficult to compare, and thus rank, great players from so many different eras, and they are all great players.

[bigjohn]

Orlando Pace? Korey Stringer?
Dave Remington?

Those are real football players boys!

[bluezebra]

Bronko Nagurski (Minnesota) is the ONLY player ever selected to TWO different positions on the same All-American Team. And he played BOTH ways.

Bob