coolnerd said:
Tate has a legitimate point and who the hell is anyone in the Sharkpool to tell him he should just be happy to be anything. He was speaking hypothetically about a choice he would make if I could do it over again.
And I don't think the body type and skill sets of RBs and Safeties is as different as many are making it out to be. In HS many players play both ways and often play these exact two positions. The athleticism required for the two positions is very similar and while the skill set is obviously different much of that can be developed through coaching/drilling and repetition.
The likely starting RB for the defending national champs is a former 5 star recruit who spent his first 2 years at FSU as a safety. Tate says he had the opportunity to play the position in college so it's not like he's just talking out of his ####.
I talk to a lot of HS and youth coaches through some of the things I'm involved in and some have noted that they are seeing a slight but noticeable shift where some of the better athletes who traditionally would have wanted to play RB to have the ball in their hands are now more interested in being WRs or DBs.
Based on things like longevity and the way salaries are trending I think there is a very real possibility that the pool of elite young players wanting to play RB could somewhat diminish over the next few years.
Why is that? Because they feel as Pop Warner and HS Players that they will have less value when they hit the NFL, or is it because of something else, like the propensity for RBs to get concussions?
Nothing that deep...
These kids have not grown up watching RB centric football. RBs just get the ball and run up the middle. WRs in many if not most youth football teams get to run patterns and those bubble screens. A so-called WR gets the ball 8-10-12 times a game and have more chances to make big plays. Much cooler to play WR and DB than be a boring RB.
Pretty much. When I played HS football in the mid 90s most teams were still very run heavy. You had some teams experimenting with the spread but nothing like they do now.
And kids pay attention to stuff more than we think. I coached at a HS that had a lot of kids go D1 in football and basketball. One of them could have gone D1 in both and ended going with football after only playing it his Senior year of HS. Me and another bball coach speculated that he would be perfect as a LT but he didnt want to play OL in HS prefering to play DL and TE. Then the other coach showed him how much premiere LTs make in the NFL. Long story short, after a year in prep school then playing in college he ended up in the NFL and had many starts as a LT and landed a pretty good contract. Kid had the tools to be a premiere LT IMO but it didnt work out long term for a number of reasons. But my point is that he ended up playing LT in part because of taking this type of stuff into consideration.
With the way football has changed to focus more on passing at every level, playing RB simply doesnt have the allure that it did just 10-15 years ago.
