Vai Taua and Luke Lippincott have put up VERY SIMILAR "EFFICIENCY" carrying the ball this season. Vai is slightly ahead in efficiency as a rusher (8 YPC to 7.7 YPC) and Luke is slightly ahead as a receiver. Vai has 1185 yards rushing while Luke has an also very impressive 1028 yards. They both have 9 rushing TDs. This is also very impressive, since this is Luke's first year back from his torn knee a year ago.
Let's examine the "baffling" difference here:
Vai Taua is ranked 20th for 2011 draft prospects as a 7th round/ FA prospect out of 102 RBs (and his stock is still rising) and Luke Lippincott is still completely unranked out of a whooping 124 RBs by NFLdraftscout for 2010.
Vai is projected to run a 4.57 40 by NFLdraftscout, while Luke is known to have run in the 4.5 40 range (hand-timed) before and would probably run very similar to Taua at the NFL combine. Lippincott is a consummate one or two cut and go runner with a powerful style and great vision and X-Y agility and is a complete back.
I'm curious, what's the issue here with a "SUPPOSED" 124 RBs being better than Lippincott (who has broken 1,000 yards this year on a whooping 7.7 YPC, with 2 games left for an 8-3 team and leads all Nevada RBs in total TDs right now)?
I think we know the answer! But will Luke Lippincott get to play a legitimate "race card" when Taua gets drafted and he doesn't even get a sniff of the NFL combine? If I were an NFL scout, I'd say both these guys have the ability to be a 6th or 7th round draft pick- but somehow one is likely to get drafted and the other somehow isn't even on the radar as a top 124 tailback prospect. Baffling!
