Bergin for Burlsworth Trophy, best walk-on
- Thread starter DaCat
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One of the best ever? Depends on what you call one of the best and how wide a definition you have in mind. Top 3, definitely not. Not even the best walk-on at his position.
Probably should be a poll on this, and I'm probably forgetting people, but the best walk-on in the last 25 years would either be Austin Carr, Zeke Markhausen (really, Austin over Zeke), or most likely Barry Gardner.
Of course, if you go way back, a guy named Otto Graham probably takes the cake.
Probably should be a poll on this, and I'm probably forgetting people, but the best walk-on in the last 25 years would either be Austin Carr, Zeke Markhausen (really, Austin over Zeke), or most likely Barry Gardner.
Of course, if you go way back, a guy named Otto Graham probably takes the cake.
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We definitely need a top walk-on vote.
Don’t count out Adam “The Commish” Crum, Brian “Catsup” Heinz, or JB “I can’t believe it’s not” Butler.
Barry is the best walk-on I've seen. He was a beast and drafted in the 2nd round. As a frosh he was not even that big, but he was a relentless worker from what I could tell.
I seem to recall this too. At any rate, he was a scholarship player, and I think by today's rules would be counted against the football number, no? Kind of like Napoleon Harris, I would guess. Just to make the conversation interesting, let's not include Otto in the walk-on category. Then who do we have?
1. Barry Gardner - 2x All B1G first team, led nation in tackles as senior, nice NFL career
2. Austin Carr - outstanding senior season, fledgling NFL career
3. Zeke Markshausen - oustanding senior season
4. Chris Bergin - productive career, starter for 2+ seasons
5. Adam Crum? JB Butler? - multi-year starters on OL
I would include Randy Dean and Sam Valenzisi for consideration. Randy was good enough to play a few seasons for the Giants, starting a couple of games, and Sam was good enough to be a non-consensus All American.
According to Wikipedia, Graham attended NU on a basketball scholarship . He began playing FB during his sophomore year. However he continued to play basketball and was first team All American during his senior year.
Bergin is again a semifinalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, which seems likely to go to Stetson Bennett of Georgia.
(Incidentally, my wife is headed to bed early so I’m scouting for tonight’s run of MACtion, and I’m highly disappointed that EMU’s Hassan Beydoun was not so recognized.)
(Incidentally, my wife is headed to bed early so I’m scouting for tonight’s run of MACtion, and I’m highly disappointed that EMU’s Hassan Beydoun was not so recognized.)