Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
In all likelyhood, prolly not.
David Ball -- WR
- Thread starter Don Wassall
- Start date
Jimmy Chitwood
Hall of Famer
bigman, you are absolutely correct. but in the caste system, since when do "facts" matter?
but here is an article that focuses on Ball's athleticism. or read the copy/pasted version below...
Ball leaps into record book
By ALLEN LESSELS
Union Leader Sports
Monday, Sep. 25, 2006
HANOVER - There was that one time, at least, that David Ball's passion for jumping caused him problems.
For the most part, his fondness for flying, his joy of jumping, has served Ball well through the years.
Fittingly, it helped him when he went up and over a Dartmouth defender Saturday at Memorial Field for his record-matching 50th touchdown reception as a University of New Hampshire wide receiver. That catch pulled him even with the great Jerry Rice, who holds the record for I-AA career touchdown receptions, and with Louisiana Tech's Troy Edwards, who holds the mark in I-A.
Ball gets his next shot at sole possession of the record Saturday night when his 3-0 and No. 1-ranked Wildcats play at Delaware in their first Atlantic 10 game.
Chances are, his ability to leap tall defenders in a single bound will come in handy there, and if not then, the weekend after that, or the weekend after that, as UNH chases another I-AA playoff berth and a national title.
But there was that one time.
Ken Ball, David's father, related the story before he and a bunch of friends and family and former teachers and coaches and kids from Barre and Orange, Vt., filed into Memorial Field to watch a record be reached Saturday afternoon.
Seems the young David loved to leap, too. Loved to take aim at the top of doorways and see how far his springs-for-legs would take him.
So this one time, he heads for the casing of the door between the kitchen and living room. This time, though, he landed on the braided rug over the wooden floor and the rug took off.
"It took him to the front door and his arm went straight through the plexiglass," Ken Ball said. "It wasn't supposed to break, and it snapped like a bear trap."
The plexiglass, that is, not his arm.
"It did cut him and it took 30 stitches," the dad said. "You could see his tendon. It came real close to cutting that."
David was seven years old at the time.
The accident didn't ground him for long.
His jumping took off when he started wearing weighted shoes and really working at it between eighth and ninth grades. Jumping  and dunking the ball  was one of his strengths in basketball and he still owns the Vermont high jump record.
Jumping was a big part of what brought him to UNH  on a partial track scholarship. And what quickly convinced UNH football coach Sean McDonnell that this kid could help his football team. A lot.
So Saturday he gets way up towards the corner of the end zone at Dartmouth and nails the record.
"It was right in front of me, too," Ken Ball said yesterday from his home in Orange. "I saw the mismatch, saw the corner was wide open. I was surprised he caught it, actually. He was mugged on the way to the ball. The kid was all over him. But he got free and got up and over the guy to get it."
Once again.
Ball had two touchdown catches in UNH's opening win over Northwestern, none a week later against Stony Brook. Talk of the impending record seemed never-ending.
Then came Saturday.
"He's back on track," Ken Ball said. "I hugged him and he seemed a lot more relaxed in my arms. I whispered in his ear, 'How you doing?' He said, 'Relieved.' It's been a lot of hype and pressure."
Delaware is where the remarkable resurgence of the UNH football program began.
The Wildcats were coming off a 5-7 season when they opened the 2004 campaign in Newark, Del. The Blue Hens were coming off a national championship and celebrated that night. But not for long.
UNH starting quarterback Mike Granieri went down with a serious knee injury late in the first half and Santos, an untested redshirt freshman, came on in relief. He and Ball hooked up for a 44-yard touchdown for the winning score early in the fourth quarter and UNH went on to shock Rutgers the next week.
Things football haven't been the same in Durham since.
Saturday's game at Delaware starts a tough three-game stretch against three teams from the South Division of the Atlantic 10. UNH plays 3-0 Richmond at home on Oct. 7 and 2-1 James Madison at home on Oct. 14 for Homecoming.Edited by: Jimmy Chitwood
Ball leaps into record book
By ALLEN LESSELS
Union Leader Sports
Monday, Sep. 25, 2006
HANOVER - There was that one time, at least, that David Ball's passion for jumping caused him problems.
For the most part, his fondness for flying, his joy of jumping, has served Ball well through the years.
Fittingly, it helped him when he went up and over a Dartmouth defender Saturday at Memorial Field for his record-matching 50th touchdown reception as a University of New Hampshire wide receiver. That catch pulled him even with the great Jerry Rice, who holds the record for I-AA career touchdown receptions, and with Louisiana Tech's Troy Edwards, who holds the mark in I-A.
Ball gets his next shot at sole possession of the record Saturday night when his 3-0 and No. 1-ranked Wildcats play at Delaware in their first Atlantic 10 game.
Chances are, his ability to leap tall defenders in a single bound will come in handy there, and if not then, the weekend after that, or the weekend after that, as UNH chases another I-AA playoff berth and a national title.
But there was that one time.
Ken Ball, David's father, related the story before he and a bunch of friends and family and former teachers and coaches and kids from Barre and Orange, Vt., filed into Memorial Field to watch a record be reached Saturday afternoon.
Seems the young David loved to leap, too. Loved to take aim at the top of doorways and see how far his springs-for-legs would take him.
So this one time, he heads for the casing of the door between the kitchen and living room. This time, though, he landed on the braided rug over the wooden floor and the rug took off.
"It took him to the front door and his arm went straight through the plexiglass," Ken Ball said. "It wasn't supposed to break, and it snapped like a bear trap."
The plexiglass, that is, not his arm.
"It did cut him and it took 30 stitches," the dad said. "You could see his tendon. It came real close to cutting that."
David was seven years old at the time.
The accident didn't ground him for long.
His jumping took off when he started wearing weighted shoes and really working at it between eighth and ninth grades. Jumping  and dunking the ball  was one of his strengths in basketball and he still owns the Vermont high jump record.
Jumping was a big part of what brought him to UNH  on a partial track scholarship. And what quickly convinced UNH football coach Sean McDonnell that this kid could help his football team. A lot.
So Saturday he gets way up towards the corner of the end zone at Dartmouth and nails the record.
"It was right in front of me, too," Ken Ball said yesterday from his home in Orange. "I saw the mismatch, saw the corner was wide open. I was surprised he caught it, actually. He was mugged on the way to the ball. The kid was all over him. But he got free and got up and over the guy to get it."
Once again.
Ball had two touchdown catches in UNH's opening win over Northwestern, none a week later against Stony Brook. Talk of the impending record seemed never-ending.
Then came Saturday.
"He's back on track," Ken Ball said. "I hugged him and he seemed a lot more relaxed in my arms. I whispered in his ear, 'How you doing?' He said, 'Relieved.' It's been a lot of hype and pressure."
Delaware is where the remarkable resurgence of the UNH football program began.
The Wildcats were coming off a 5-7 season when they opened the 2004 campaign in Newark, Del. The Blue Hens were coming off a national championship and celebrated that night. But not for long.
UNH starting quarterback Mike Granieri went down with a serious knee injury late in the first half and Santos, an untested redshirt freshman, came on in relief. He and Ball hooked up for a 44-yard touchdown for the winning score early in the fourth quarter and UNH went on to shock Rutgers the next week.
Things football haven't been the same in Durham since.
Saturday's game at Delaware starts a tough three-game stretch against three teams from the South Division of the Atlantic 10. UNH plays 3-0 Richmond at home on Oct. 7 and 2-1 James Madison at home on Oct. 14 for Homecoming.Edited by: Jimmy Chitwood
whiteCB said:
Maybe he'll even win the Belitnikoff award and go in the sixth round to the Saints.
After what happened to Mike Hass, I predict that he won't be drafted and if he is he will suffer the same fate as Hass. After all Ball did this at the IAA level and while Hass was a IA. That will be the excuse as unreasonable as it is.
Leonardfan
Hall of Famer
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Yea I am such a skeptic these days after the Hass treatment. Ball can break Rice's records, have an exceptional work out and put up amazing numbers and be nothing more than an afterthought on draft day even though he did everything better than jerry rice.
white is right
Hall of Famer
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2006
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From what I have seen of white recievers these days. With decent 40 times he will be a late second day pick. Ie 5th round or later. He will need to clock a 4.3 or less to be a first day pick. There is a bias against white recievers,while not as bad as tailbacks its very obvious that scouts will look for excuses to downgrade a white prospect unless his numbers are through the roof like Jones.Leonardfan said:
Kaptain Poop said:
my thoughts exactly. i try and not get excited about any prospect that isn't 1A, because that gives the system a perfect excuse for screwing the player in question over. if he gets drafted, say in 5th round or so, chances are that he will make a team, otherwise it's a longshot... i mean after what happened to Mike Hass, i lost what faith i still had...
hedgehog
Mentor
I have a weird feeling the scouts and experts at ESPN are going to him the "He should put on about 30lbs and play tight end" treatment.
I think the pro scouts are salivating at the prospect of signing him as a free agent, watching him look great in a couple of pre-season games and then putting him on the practice squad where he will be invaluable as a training tool for DBs and as an example to the athletic WRs in the ways of route running and catching the ball.
Jimmy Chitwood
Hall of Famer
Ball had 7 catches for 126 yards in a 52-49 win over Delaware. He had no touchdowns. Some highlights of the game were shown on ESPN but no mention of Ball and his pursuit of the record. Hopefully he will get some attention when he breaks the record next week.
Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
Congratulations to David Ball, the best receiver in college football history!
He had 9 catches for 60 yards and that record BREAKING TD today!
He had 9 catches for 60 yards and that record BREAKING TD today!
New Hampshire may "be forced to erect an auxiliary press box to accommodate all the NFL scouts and media that want to see Ball," according to this article:
[url]http://sports.bostonherald.com/college/football/view.bg?arti cleid=161486[/url]
I like Draft Daddy's comment about the treatment that Ball is inevitably going to receive from the enforcers of the Caste System in football:
DD.comment: Soon you will read "enlightened" draft guru's -- that charge people to read their stories -- write that Ball "lacks athletic ability, but works hard and has great hands".
Well, having watched Ball play quite a bit, the part about his hands is correct. We'd also assume he works hard, considering he went from a walk-on to an N.F.L. prospect. But as the link above notes, Ball is a tremendous athlete -- great leaper and has incredible stamina. So let's make no mistake about this, this kid is a legit N.F.L. caliber athlete.
The one issue going forward, however, is his foot speed in the 40 yard dash. Even Ball has acknowledged he's not sure how fast he'll run, but will do everything he can to train for that all important 4-point-something second sprint that scouts are infatuated with.
[url]http://sports.bostonherald.com/college/football/view.bg?arti cleid=161486[/url]
I like Draft Daddy's comment about the treatment that Ball is inevitably going to receive from the enforcers of the Caste System in football:
DD.comment: Soon you will read "enlightened" draft guru's -- that charge people to read their stories -- write that Ball "lacks athletic ability, but works hard and has great hands".
Well, having watched Ball play quite a bit, the part about his hands is correct. We'd also assume he works hard, considering he went from a walk-on to an N.F.L. prospect. But as the link above notes, Ball is a tremendous athlete -- great leaper and has incredible stamina. So let's make no mistake about this, this kid is a legit N.F.L. caliber athlete.
The one issue going forward, however, is his foot speed in the 40 yard dash. Even Ball has acknowledged he's not sure how fast he'll run, but will do everything he can to train for that all important 4-point-something second sprint that scouts are infatuated with.
Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
The CSTV announcers are talking about David and had an interview with him. One guy said "lets be honest, he's dropped a couple of passes in the first half." The other guy said, "one thing he can always remember is that he broke Jerry Rice's record, even if he doesn't play in the NFL, which he probably won't." Then he quickly said he bet a lot of people thought Wayne Chrebet wouldn't play out of Hostra. His co-anchor said "yeah, there are a lot of I-AA guys who play in the NFL."What an exchange that was!
That's really pathetic, but it's very rare when I listen to a football broadcast that doesn't have lots ofpejorative comments and stereotypes about white athletes coming from the broadcast booth.
I tuned in the Wisconsin-Penn State game for a few minutes just a bit ago. Wisconsin WR Luke Swan caught a pass, followed by a graphic on the screen of how he had caught 4 for 85 yards the previous week. The play by play announcer then said how Swan had recently received a scholarship and that upon receiving it Swan was as happy as "someone who hit the lottery." Swan is a junior, which means the former walk-on in a sense did hit the lottery by receiving a scholarship at any point in his college career as whites at many positions simply are not recruited by I-A programs.
The play by play announcer then added the obligatory racist qualifier about Swan: "He's not the fastest or the flashiest guy but he gets the job done." Isn't getting the job done all that counts? Why does he say the other crap other than because the player in question is white and he feels he has to? We hear endless variations of this routine ascribed to just about every white football player. It's so engrained in the media and repeated so often that white athletes and white fans simply absorb it and believe it, especially so because most of the time it comes from white authority figures.
I tuned in the Wisconsin-Penn State game for a few minutes just a bit ago. Wisconsin WR Luke Swan caught a pass, followed by a graphic on the screen of how he had caught 4 for 85 yards the previous week. The play by play announcer then said how Swan had recently received a scholarship and that upon receiving it Swan was as happy as "someone who hit the lottery." Swan is a junior, which means the former walk-on in a sense did hit the lottery by receiving a scholarship at any point in his college career as whites at many positions simply are not recruited by I-A programs.
The play by play announcer then added the obligatory racist qualifier about Swan: "He's not the fastest or the flashiest guy but he gets the job done." Isn't getting the job done all that counts? Why does he say the other crap other than because the player in question is white and he feels he has to? We hear endless variations of this routine ascribed to just about every white football player. It's so engrained in the media and repeated so often that white athletes and white fans simply absorb it and believe it, especially so because most of the time it comes from white authority figures.
That's logical, a black receiver runs a 4.6 forty and plays in one of the weakest leagues in the country. He puts up astronomical numbers and becomes a frst round pick and becomes the NFL's all time leading receiver. Then a white guy comes along with better speed, jumping ability, and overall athleticism. He plays on a dominant 1-AA team and shatters those records. No NFL chance for him. Makes perfect sense.
Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
David ended up with 8 catches for 107 yards and 2 TDs, but New Hampshire lost to UMass 28-20. Rhode Island and Maine are left on the Wildcats schedule and then most likely the playoffs.
Triad said:
Yeah and then these idiots are considered "experts" who know what they're talking about. If these guys were so smart and intelligent when it comes to football they would actually sit down watch film of a guy and then come up with an opinion. Instead these dummies use "caste facts" as like to call them and just automatically consider a black guy good and fast and a white guy a lucky hard worker. If a white guy does work hard and happens to be athletic then by saying he's a hard worker discredits that fact that he's athletic becuase he's implying he's athletic by a result of hard work and not natural ability. Just like the way they always describe and talk about the black players as being fast, quick, and athletic but they have those traits by virtue of natural ability. This is unlike that of the white guy always having to work to get to that same level athleticly. It's illogical b.s.
Perception is reality.Edited by: whiteCB
Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
David had 10 catches for 112 yards today, but no TDs. Thats 930 yards and 11 TDs in just 9 games, with 1 game and the playoffs to go.
Ball is preparing for his Pro Day. I really like his attitude as expressed at the end of this article:
"Everything's looking pretty good," Ball said. "I know myself that the Combine was a good experience. I got to size up my competition. They're very good athletes, but I'm right in there with them. They haven't separated themselves from me at all. It's not like this is going to be something where it's going to be a dream come true if it happens, this is something that I've been preparing for, that I'm athletic enough and good enough to do."
[url]http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2007031 4/SPORTS/703140301/1004/SPORTS[/url]
"Everything's looking pretty good," Ball said. "I know myself that the Combine was a good experience. I got to size up my competition. They're very good athletes, but I'm right in there with them. They haven't separated themselves from me at all. It's not like this is going to be something where it's going to be a dream come true if it happens, this is something that I've been preparing for, that I'm athletic enough and good enough to do."
[url]http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2007031 4/SPORTS/703140301/1004/SPORTS[/url]