[The Contrarian]

As I have mentioned before on this site, forty times are highly subjective, to say the least. As have been mentioned by others on this thread, the coach has done the timing, and, obviously, this is even beyond subjective.

Clearly, though, running a great forty is most definitely not the only criterion for being a good running back. He must also have agility, strength, substantive intuition of where to run, (following blockers, etc.) strength, and endurance.

The postings on this thread are entertaining, and kind of like the Op Eds in the daily newspapers, subjective opinions.

Apparently I did not edit the above correctly, so I will continue with another post regarding this subject.

Referencing the young man that ran the forty at the Marshall camp, KP Skyles, he was timed by Bill Legg, assistant Marshall coach, not his own coach or some kid with a stop watch. But, he was timed with a stop watch, not Lazer timed.

I know the above is fact, for I was there, and heard the time announced.

Now, let us look at a couple comments posted previously, and I am going to paraphrase: if a young man is that fast he would score every time on a sweep.

If the offense does not execute, the speedster doesn't go anywhere, and moreover, let us consider the angle that the defensive man may have.

I think I remember reading one post that mentioned a player ruining a 4.3 should gain 5,000 yards. First, I don't know of any players in KY that can run a 4.3. Second, one man does not make a team; I don't care how fast, talented, strong, etc., he needs ten additional guys on the field.

One more comment before I close, and I am going to use KP Skyles as an example. I saw most of Sheldon Clark's game last season, and I am going to mention a couple things I saw, not once, but numerous times, Skyles no more than got the hand-off, (BTLOS-2 yds.) he was downed by two, three, or four of the opposing team's player's. When this occurs, I don't care if the player can run a 4.0 forty, he's not going anywhere. And if you think I am exaggerating, get someone to show you the DVD of last season's Prestonsburg game.

The second situation that would impede any of the Sheldon Clark running backs from being prodigious yardage producers is, the offense SC runs. But, just maybe, they will open it up some this season. We shall see.