John Clay: undrafted
To be honest, I forgot about this guy. With a 4.87 speed in the 40, it was apparently easy for other teams to do so as well.
Sounds like the lockout has really cooked this guy's chances of catching on.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/07/after-leaving-wisconsin…
This is the 2nd RB that Bielema has forced out at Wisconsin. First, PJ Hill, now John Clay.
Each back had a younger and more physically talented player behind him.
I really don't care much about Wisconsin, but I find this to be the beginning of a trend.
The guys also seem to start off smaller and faster, then get progressively heavier and more Ron Dayne-like toward the end, which works in college but obviously hurts them in the pros. It will be interesting to see if some RBs take notice and recruiting becomes harder.
forced out? Is there any facts besides hearsay to back that statement up. Clay is a great runner, and coaches love depth. Why would Bielema want him gone?
No its much more hearsay. I have a bunch of friends that attend Wisconsin-Madison and thats what they have been telling me. They say that Bielema basically told Clay and Hill that they would not be the sole starter anymore, their playing time would be reduced, and it would probably be wise for them to move on.
I don't have any proof of those statements, just campus chatter from big football fans in Wisco.
Clay was never the sole starter.
It's pretty easy to hate a Wisconsin Winnebago, especially when gerg has 6 men in the box against it.
"especially when gerg has 6 men in the box against it"
I'm hoping this whole "The 3-3-5 only puts 6 guys in the box" and "the 3-3-5 can't stop power running teams" myth disappears sometime soon. And it sure as hell wasn't Greg Robinson's fault that we were running the 3-3-5.
We had crappy coaching and subpar athletes. That adds up to bad defense, period. If you don't believe me, ask 2009.
The DC before him didn't have much success either. I'm sure that the 3-3-5 can work, but you have to have coaches who know how to run it. As well as quality players to run it. How many times did we not force a fourth down in third and long. You should be able to force a fourth down in that alignment.
I like to act like I don't know who GERG is and what a 3-3-5 D is . I think the first step to recovery here is to block out last season completely on D. I woke up one night screaming at JT Floyd in a dream because he was 60 yards off the WR at the line of scrimmage in a game.
100% agree on the subpar athletes and crappy coaching. I just get frusturated at the idea of a 3-3-5 in a confrence like the Big ten.
TCU disagrees that a 3-man front can't succeed against Big Ten teams.
I can't believe he ran that slowly in the 40. I remember seeing him run at the Wisconsin State Indoor track meet when I was in high school and he ran 6.59sec in the 55 meter dash. To give you some perspective Denard ran 6.81 in the 60 meter dash. Granted he was probably 50lbs lighter at that point.
Given the time you quoted, Clay would have been at best a 4.6 forty time 50 lbs ago. The 55m dash time quoted would also have put him over 3 yards behind denard at the finish line.
I wouldn't be afraid to take a chance on them if I were an NFL team. I also can't believe Dane Sanzenbacher didn't get drafted. Even though he was from tsio he has amazing hands.
I read all of these stories in the local Madison paper about Clay losing pounds after the season in order to get in shape for pre-draft workouts. I'm paraphrasing here, but Clay thought losing the weight actually made him lose power/thrust in his legs, thus the bad 40 times. Say what? Did he quit doing weight and speed training with his legs while losing the weight?!
My question for Mr. Clay: Why didn't you stay in better shape?! Seriously...he's the one who made P.J. Hill enter the draft prematurely when P.J. saw the writing on the wall that Clay was probably going to be the go-to guy during Hill's senior season. History repeated itself very quickly. And now he'll have to pay for his tuition if he wants to go back and finish his degree.
a year ago i would have thought he would be a solid nfl running back for sure, definitely one who would be drafted. Now, while im sure he could contribute to a team he would have to bust ass to prove to someone that he can be an assett to even make the squad. If he gets back to serious training i think he could be an undrafted steal. As for sanzenbacher - he had mid round talent but has had multiple concussions that caused many teams to back off. His forty time was decent (i think 4.5??) but had one of the best shuttle times at the reciever position. Im with you in thinking he could play, especially in the slot position, but the concussions have "tagged" him much like daquan bowers of clemson. He played the same position and took over for guys like anthony gonzalez and brian hartline - both of who came in and contributed as rookies and looked just about the same as college players. He will sign with a team and i look for him to actually see the field and get some quality playing tome for someone next season. He makes big plays at big times and reminds me of a jordan shipley type, im sure he is on some teams radar once undrafted players can be contacted.
was fat and slow. Not suprising that he went undrafted. It didn't help that his backup RBs had a lot of success running the ball when Clay is on the bench. It is a testament of how good of a OL Wisconsin really is, they open massive holes for RBs to run through. You don't get that much success with 3 different RBs without a great OL in front of them.