Toby Gerhart

Westside said:

Contrary to some here, I believe if Toby wins the Heisman or puts up monster yardage numbers this season, a team will take a chance on him. When he dominates in camp and the pre season and continues his success in the regular season, the media will take notice. He will be our version of Jackie Robinson. He will open a flood gate of whites at running back, reciever and defensive backs. A team with a guy like Toby who can play wants to make money. Green is the bottom line. This guy is key for starting a trend. Just my thoughts.

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White tailbacks have dominated in NFL camps and the pre-season before ... including Danny Woodhead this year, and what has been the result? in most cases, the White tailback was cut!

the caste system is a hard nut to crack, and it will take more than one player to crack it.

If toby wins the heisman or at least comes close a team will have to draft him early. It would look incredibly strange if the heisman winner wasnt drafted right of the bat. Im only 19 so my history isnt the best, but has a heisman winner ever not been taken early in the draft?

He is obviously a very talented back. Brian Leonard was drafted in the second round and is getting almost no carries. He did start some games in 2007 due to a black being injured. Where Toby gets drafted is not really an issue. It depends on if he will receive a decent number of carries every game. Another fear we have is that he could be moved to fullback.

speedster Eric Crouch won the Heisman Trophy as a tailback-playing-quarterback at Nebraska, and he wasn't drafted until the 3rd Round ... and projected as a safety/wide receiver before being completely jerked around by the NFL.

Luke Staley, as has been mentioned numerous times on this site, won the Doak Walker Award as the nation's top running back and he wasn't drafted until the 7th Round ... and never had a carry in the NFL.

of course, these were White athletes ... so they probably shouldn't count as potential NFL players anyway, right?

SI writer ranks him as only the 9th best Heisman candidate, but then makes some very anti-caste comments. "Don't let his 235-pound frame fool you; Gerhart has the wheels to speed past opponents, which he did on the first of three TD runs against a good UCLA defense." He even implies that he's the best RB in college football.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/gene_menez/10/05/week-6/1.html#ixzz0TCFYx1Ne
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/gene_menez/10/05/week-6/1.htmlEdited by: Fightingtowin

SuperSpeed23 said:

If toby wins the heisman or at least comes close a team will have to draft him early. It would look incredibly strange if the heisman winner wasnt drafted right of the bat. Im only 19 so my history isnt the best, but has a heisman winner ever not been taken early in the draft?

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Well, all the Biletnikoff Award winners of the past decade have been drafted early, except one, the only White winner. And the only White winner of the Doak Walker Award went in the 7th round. . . Anything anti-White is both possible and likely when it comes to the NFL.Edited by: Don Wassall

SuperSpeed23 said:

If toby wins the heisman or at least comes close a team will have to draft him early. It would look incredibly strange if the heisman winner wasnt drafted right of the bat. Im only 19 so my history isnt the best, but has a heisman winner ever not been taken early in the draft?

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Superspeed, no not every Heisman winner was taken early in the draft. Troy Smith (black) QB from Ohio State wasn't drafted until the 5th round in 2007. He's still a backup QB for the Ravens.

BTW, this will surely not be the case for Gerhart, he will probably get drafted in the first round, second round at worst, whether or not he gets the Heisman. Edited by: Electric Slide

Yes you are right Electric Slide. However Troy Smith is very short for a quarterback at 6'0 and that is probably part of the reason he was drafted in the 5th round. It is like having Michael Vick with less running ability. At least he is on an active roster unlike Luke Staley, Danny Woodhead, and Mike Hass.

Jimmy Chitwood, Eric Crouch helped dig his own hole. The minute the league asked him to be a reciever, he should have made big stink about it. What is he going to lose? Nothing. He should have went on ESPN and stated clearly, I am a quaterback not a DB or reciever. Either draft me as such or not at all.

Can you imagine trying to play reciever in the NFL when you have never played it before. Imagine 230 lbs safeties with you in their cross hairs coming over the middle! I suspect this was running thrue Eric's mind. It would for anyone.

He should have been like the Valerie the Russian in the infamous Sopranos episode called the "Tree Barrens". When Paulie and Chrissy(NFL) tells the russian to dig a hole for his burial before they shoot him. The russian begins, then thinks "f..king Americans(NFL)" and suddenly cracks Chrissy in the head with the shovel, then pokes Pualie in the balls with the shovel. The russian then escapes, they never found him in the wilderness.

Eric should have had this attitude! But he bowed down and soon out of the NFL. What a shame, I always think what could have been with him holding his ground.

Westside Crouch probably would have been most successful at runningback. He had the speed, lateral agility, and vision to play the position. I think he would have made an excellent scatback in the NFL. If he didn't play runningback I think he would have been at least a decent quarterback.

A favorable article that's out today from a sports writing in the San Mateo Journal. I'm surprised with all the anti-Caste commentary Toby is getting!

Here's the link: http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=117544

Giving Gerhart his due October 06, 2009, 07:30 PM By Nathan Mollat, Daily Journal Staff

Who is the best running back in the Pac-10? USC's the latest running back du juor Joe McKnight? Cal's Heisman hopeful Jahvid Best? Oregon State's reigning newcomer of the year, Jacquizz Rodgers?

All fine backs, but right now, after watching Stanford beat UCLA to go 3-0 in Pac-10 play, the best running back on the West Coast is Stanford's Toby Gerhart. His numbers back it up. He's the fourth-ranked Division I rusher in the nation, averaging 130 yards rushing per game and he has amassed the most rushing yards with 630. The perfect combination of speed, power and quickness, Gerhart can run over and through defenses or run away from them.

Against UCLA, he gained 134 yards on 29 carries, scoring three times in the process. Although a big guy who tends to run a little tall, his quick feet and uncanny ability to swivel his hips and transition from going side-to-side to upfield in a blink of eye is incredible.

The numbers also show that McKnight, Best and Rodgers are not even ranked in the top-15 of rushers in Division I right now. Best is ranked 18th, Rodgers is 20th and McKnight is slotted at No. 24.

With a surprising Stanford team atop the Pac-10 standings and right now the front-runner for the conference's Rose Bowl bid, why is there not more hype for Gerhart as a Hesiman Trophy candidate? Edited by: Electric Slide

WA 33 Agreed.

Well Toby has moved up 2% in ESPNs poll. Hopefully some of this positive press is paying off.

Electric Slide said:

A favorable article that's out today from a sports writing in the San Mateo Journal. I'm surprised with all the anti-Caste commentary Toby is getting!

Here's the link: http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=117544

Giving Gerhart his due October 06, 2009, 07:30 PM By Nathan Mollat, Daily Journal Staff

Against UCLA, he gained 134 yards on 29 carries, scoring three times in the process. Although a big guy who tends to run a little tall, his quick feet and uncanny ability to swivel his hips and transition from going side-to-side to upfield in a blink of eye is incredible.

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I didn't know white guys could do that

Electric Slide said:

SuperSpeed23 said:

If toby wins the heisman or at least comes close a team will have to draft him early. It would look incredibly strange if the heisman winner wasnt drafted right of the bat. Im only 19 so my history isnt the best, but has a heisman winner ever not been taken early in the draft?

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Superspeed, no not every Heisman winner was taken early in the draft. Troy Smith (black) QB from Ohio State wasn't drafted until the 5th round in 2007. He's still a backup QB for the Ravens.

BTW, this will surely not be the case for Gerhart, he will probably get drafted in the first round, second round at worst, whether or not he gets the Heisman.

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It's seemed like in the 90's a bunch of white qb's didn't measure up to the monolithic scouts' views. Toretta and Detmer were drafted late. Charlie Ward would have been a mid round pick but he said he was going in the first or he was leaving for the NBA. As for Gerhart if his long shot Heismann chances came in I suspect he will get a marginal bump in the draft. The scouts are too biased for anything more than that.

Here's a quick and complimentary article from SI.com that addresses white stereotypes:

"Tunnel Vision: Toby Gerhart, a deceptively fast back who is quieting the skeptics, has Stanford out front in the Pac-10"
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1161006/index.htm

i always wondered what this term meant. "deceptive speed". who is he deceiving? why is he not allowed to be fast? i am big and i am fast, noone in the rugby world would ever call me deceptively fast... you're either fast or you're not.

also, i never heard this term used to describe a black player, although i hope to be wrong here.

UCLA's black LB actually gave Toby a better, and closer to truth description:

"He's strong, he's got good vision and his feet are quick," says UCLA linebacker Reggie Carter. "And if you don't get your body in front of him, you can't bring him down. He's a complete back."

i also like Toby's self confidence:

""The big question people have is about my top-end speed," says Gerhart. "I think I am pretty darn fast. When the NFL combine comes around, I will post a good [40-yard dash] time." Gerhart is confident in part because he has never trained for football year-round. He drops 10 to 15 pounds to play outfield on the Cardinal baseball team, then puts the weight back on."

if he can post 4.5 time, there's absolutely no excuse not to draft him early. and since he never actually blocked (as opposed to Hester, Hillis and Leonard, who, even in college played at least half of their careers at a fullback) he may have a shot at staying at RB.

also, he's getting tons of positive press now, nation is definitely taking notice! go Toby!!!

PS check out this highlight video, not sure if it was posted before. check out Whalen's blocking on some of those long runs!Edited by: backrow

Rivals has him as running 4.5 so he should be able to pull it off. I know he has added some weight since then but I don't think it will hurt him.

The thing I don't understand is that even though Toby is leading the nation in rushing yardage, the media constantly refers to his YPG average, which is 4th right now. I don't remember such treatment of black RBs, but perhaps I'm mistaken. I've yet to see Toby referred to as the number one rusher in the country by any national outlets. Shouldn't the total measure be total yards instead of yards per game. That's usually how they treat WRs. Maybe this will change as the season rolls on, but I believe it is being done on purpose to make Toby look to be "among the best" and not the number one runner in the FBS.

this i've heard before, do all teams play equal amount of games? if they don't, that actually makes a bit of sense. and some media outlets did call him a nation's leading rusher. (how great is that!)

Gerhart leading the nation goes totally against the caste system. One superb athlete was allowed to slip through the cracks and is now dominating on the college level. Edited by: whiteathlete33

Teams end up playing the same number of games by seasons end, but the bye weeks do make everything unequal till the end of the season. I hadn't really thought about that very much. Toby has played in the same number of games as all but one of the top 10 rushers by total yardage. I hope the Toby train keeps getting faster and more powerful!

On a somewhat sad note, this Saturday marks the mid-season point for a lot of teams.

whiteathlete33 said:

Gerhart leading the nation goes totally against the caste system. One superb athlete was allowed to slip through the cracks and is not dominating on the college level.

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WA33, i think you meant "is NOW dominating"

Yep, the edit function under post options works wonders!

Yes I did. Thank you for pointing that out. I am working on my typing skills and trying to get 100 wpm. I make some errors though.