Quick 6 McDaniels. Seems like he scored every time he touched the ball.
Quick 6 McDaniels. Seems like he scored every time he touched the ball.
WWDog
La Tech
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Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
Great job Prof!
First, I want to say Congrats to the Prof. He did a great job with his picks. I've got no problem with his 53-man lineup. They are all stars, and all deserving. I simply have a few suggestions that may have been overlooked simply because they played so long ago.
- Johnny Robinson was a 3-time All-conference DE in 1978,'79 & '80. He was a 4th round draft choice of the Raiders, and played 2 or 3 years in the NFL. I would definitely pic Robinson before Broha and IK.
- Willie Smith belongs on your list. Smith was a 2-time All Big West DB in 1994 & '95. He was our best lockdown corner ever, pre-Amik. He was Amik, before Amik. He had 5 INT's in 1994 & 8 INT's in 1995. He would have blown up the record book for career INT'S if he'd have had a senior year. His early death (between his junior and senior season) was very sad. He was definitely destined for the NFL.
- Dean Jackson was a 3-time All-Conference WR, including All-Big West in 1994 & 95, and All Indy in 1996. He & Chad Mackey were stars, and really.....I kinda feel like they started the whole "2nd generation" of great LA Tech WR's. First, we had our great WR's in the 1970's (Pat Tilley, Roger Carr, Billy Rykman, Scooter Spruiell, Rod Foppe, etc..). Then things seemed to cool for a while, until Dean Jackson & Chad Mackey arrived. Bobby Slaughter was certainly a bright exception, but our program didn't really love the forward pass until Jackson and Mackey arrived. Of course, they had an outstanding QB in Jason Martin to throw passes. It changed everything. It wasn't long before the next wave of great LA Tech receivers --Troy Edwards, James Jordan, DJ Curry, John Simon, etc....quickly followed.
- Bill Rykman, WR, rewrote Tech's pass receiving record book in 1976. Before that season, LA Tech only had 1 receiver in its' entire history that caught passes for more than 1,000 yards in a single season. And that was Roger Carr in 1972, who caught 40 passes for 1,018 yds and 5 TD's in a 13 game season. Along comes Rykman 3 seasons later, and he blows it up by catching 77 passes --I said SEVENTY-SEVEN PASSES-- for 1,382 yds and 10 TD's. No one at LA Tech had ever come close to this. It was definitely a new hallmark for LA Tech receivers. Rykman played 3 seasons for the Atlanta Falcons after being drafted in the 10th round of the NFL draft.
- "Downtown" Eddie Brown. Deserves a spot somewhere, just because of his nickname. LOL! Very exciting player at Tech. FWIW, I think he's widely considered the greatest Arena football player of all-time. However, my most exciting Tech player of all time is Phillip Livas, so I have no dispute with the KR pick.
Rykman was very, very good. All the QB had to do was get the pass within 6 feet of him and he somehow made the catch. Best WR I've seen at adjusting to the ball. He did not wait for the ball to come to him, which allows the DB to make a play. He would attack the ball...go get it. His two catches in "The Snow Bowl" against USM on the game-winning drive were nothing short of spectacular.
I remember Eddie Brown's nickname as "Touchdown." That's what we called him. He scored a TD four different ways in our 35-31 win over Tulsa.
Livas helps, but if we're running the spread, I'm carrying an extra WR (probably not carrying 3 TEs).
Oh...great catch T-Mo. Monroe Neville grad Larry Anderson was a cornerback and kick returner for 7 seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts. He was also a two-time Super Bowl Champion while playing with the Steelers in 1978 & '79. Anderson was inducted into the Louisiana Tech University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988. This was a big oversight by all of us. LOL!
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor
Quick six couldn’t have won the Tulsa game like Joe did.
You're right. All of these guys were before my time, so I don't have the eye test to rely on. I was just looking at production and trying to compare their status in Tech lore over different eras.
Robinson was listed as a NT by the NFL and the Raiders, so I assumed that's what he played at Tech. At 260 pounds, I thought he was a little light in the britches for a 3-4 and that I had some better options who also played at a high level at Tech and had NFL experience. If he was actually an end, then maybe it's good to put him ahead of Broha or IK.
Willie Smith is a major oversight, and probably the one change I would make in hindsight. I saw he only played two years at Tech (or recorded stats two years), but I didn't know about why that happened. Corner and the interior offensive line are our two weakest spots, in my opinion. Outside of Amik, Doug Evans and Tramon Williams, I was really looking for corners. Willie Smith should have gotten that spot.
Dean Jackson was not on my radar. He led the team in receiving once in 1994, but he didn't have a TD that year. Mackey was the leading receiver in 1993, '95 and '96. Jackson is not in the top 10 for receptions or yards in a season or career, and Mackey's '95 and '96 seasons dwarfed Jackson's (175-2,719-19 vs. 77-921-5), so when I was looking for a receiver from that era, I thought Mackey was clearly the better option.
Ryckman was another one whom I heavily considered, but he was behind Slaughter and Henderson for me. We are extraordinarily deep at wide receiver when you consider those guys John Simon, Delwyn Daigre, James Jordan, Tommy Spinks, Sean Congelosi and more. And Eddie Brown pales in comparison to those guys at WR and Livas as a returner.
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor
The only year that Sports Reference has stats for Larry Anderson (1977), he had five interceptions and four return TDs. He's one of six players in Tech history with a 100-yard kickoff return, and he ranks second all-time in punt returns and punt return yardage. According to the media guide, he did not get 10 interceptions in his career, but he did have an 82-yard INT return in 1974 which ranks 6th in school history. He was first-team all-Southland in '76 and Defensive Player of the Year in '77. Seems like a big oversight on my part, though incomplete defensive stats did play a role in that.
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor