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greatest football player never to play at MSU that we had legit shot at?

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Buford T. Justice

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Nov 17, 2008
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I was thinking about this the other day when I was watching something about Ndamukong Suh. Who is the best football player we had a legit shot at getting, but lost (let's say we were in his final 3 teams)? I can think of:

Keyshawn Johnson - All-American at USC, #1 overall NFL draft pick, actually signed a LOI on signing day with Jackie Sherrill.

Ndamukong Suh - All-American at Nebraska, #2 overall NFL draft pick, we were in his final three because relative (sister I think) was a student at MSU.

Cam Newton - Heisman trophy, national championship, #1 overall NFL draft pick, considered us out of high school, got outbid out of JUCO

Are there any others? Odd topic I know, but I was curious and tired of talking about Mullen to Appalachian State.

Steve McNair, Jerry Rice, Brett Favre were all great, but they weren't extremely accomplished coming out of high school and we didn't strongly recruit them.
 
Shmuley

Shmuley

All-American
Mar 6, 2008
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Goes back a ways, but I think Hugh Green probably belongs in the discussion.
 
thatsbaseball

thatsbaseball

All-American
May 29, 2007
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If we had gotten Green and "Rooster" Jones that would have been hands down the greatest recruiting class ever at MSU.
 
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maroonmania

Senior
Feb 23, 2008
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Well Cam Newton has to be No. 1 given he won a NC and the Heisman.. Keyshawn Johnson could also be in the conversation.
 
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esplanade91

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Dec 9, 2010
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LaMichael James almost came here too. Don't think he was the best but damn...

It would either have to be Johnson or Newton. I'm probably going to get fried for this but there's no way Suh becomes the player he is (abilities, I don't mean an awful person) under lazy *** Croom. If Pegues can come in and be that fast and that good, but leave running a 5 40 and never even making the practice squad cut... Suh would have done the same.

Jackie sent several offensive guys in the first round from his time at Pitt all the way to MSU. Laugh, but we essentially always had 2,000 yards passing even if it was ugly.

A monkey could coach Newton. That one goes without explanation.
 
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UpTheMiddlex3Punt

All-Conference
May 28, 2007
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I was going to say Jerry Rice because I believe that no D1-A school even offered him and had we done so, we probably had a good shot at getting him. On the other hand, we were still running the wishbone at the time and he might have stayed away because of that.
 
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Railin Jemmye

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Oct 29, 2012
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Cam Newton is the only answer here. It's why I'll always hate him AND Auburn. I hated them before, because they were so similar to us but just better. Then they harbored elitism of the flagship schools due to the Cam deal, which makes them worse than the enemy.

We would have been 10-2 with a Heisman winner AT WORST had he come to school here. And if you look at the luck Auburn had that year, safe to assume we could have been better, perhaps playing for the title. I still believe we had the better overall team outside QB.
 
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FlabLoser

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Aug 20, 2006
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esplanade91 said:
LaMichael James almost came here too. Don't think he was the best but damn...

It would either have to be Johnson or Newton. I'm probably going to get fried for this but there's no way Suh becomes the player he is (abilities, I don't mean an awful person) under lazy *** Croom. If Pegues can come in and be that fast and that good, but leave running a 5 40 and never even making the practice squad cut... Suh would have done the same.

Jackie sent several offensive guys in the first round from his time at Pitt all the way to MSU. Laugh, but we essentially always had 2,000 yards passing even if it was ugly.

A monkey could coach Newton. That one goes without explanation.
Click to expand...


Brick Haley under Croom produced some of the best DL people we have had in modern history save a couple years under Sherrill.
 
was21

was21

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May 29, 2007
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NCDawg said:
And I never liked Sherrill after that, even when he was our coach. Green and Jones would have helped our team tremendously.
Click to expand...
at that time, the word was that they were "enticed" by some girls at Pitt.
 
was21

was21

Senior
May 29, 2007
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NCDawg said:
And I never liked Sherrill after that, even when he was our coach. Green and Jones would have helped our team tremendously.
Click to expand...
I liked winning under Sherrill but never cared for him personally.
 
PBRME

PBRME

All-Conference
Feb 12, 2004
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I've heard someone here tell the story about Archie coming to campus and asking for a scholarship. We told him we didn't want him and he ended up with Ole Miss. Maybe someone with more knowledge on the situation can verify or deny what I heard.
 
maroonmadman

maroonmadman

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Nov 7, 2010
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We actually did show some interest in Jerry Rice and I believe we made him an offer but were going to play him as a defensive back rather than wide reciever. A few other D-1 schools had similar ideas which is why he went to MVSU, they were the only ones recruiting him as a reciever in a pass happy offense. The rest is history.
UpTheMiddlex3Punt said:
I was going to say Jerry Rice because I believe that no D1-A school even offered him and had we done so, we probably had a good shot at getting him. On the other hand, we were still running the wishbone at the time and he might have stayed away because of that.
Click to expand...
 
57stratdawg

57stratdawg

Heisman
Dec 1, 2004
148,232
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esplanade91 said:
LaMichael James almost came here too. Don't think he was the best but damn...

It would either have to be Johnson or Newton. I'm probably going to get fried for this but there's no way Suh becomes the player he is (abilities, I don't mean an awful person) under lazy *** Croom. If Pegues can come in and be that fast and that good, but leave running a 5 40 and never even making the practice squad cut... Suh would have done the same.

Jackie sent several offensive guys in the first round from his time at Pitt all the way to MSU. Laugh, but we essentially always had 2,000 yards passing even if it was ugly.

A monkey could coach Newton. That one goes without explanation.
Click to expand...

We were never really in the running for James or Suh. They both visited, but never has a realistic shot either. They were basically begged to visit, and ultimately caved.
 
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MaroonState

Redshirt
Aug 23, 2012
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Could have won the sec and maybe nc with mcnair at qb but sherill recruited him as a db at first and was turned off by that. I think we finally offered him a qb spot but decided to go with alcorn since they recruited him as a qb the whole time. Oh what could have been.

QUOTE=Buford T. Justice;807572]I was thinking about this the other day when I was watching something about Ndamukong Suh. Who is the best football player we had a legit shot at getting, but lost (let's say we were in his final 3 teams)? I can think of:

Keyshawn Johnson - All-American at USC, #1 overall NFL draft pick, actually signed a LOI on signing day with Jackie Sherrill.

Ndamukong Suh - All-American at Nebraska, #2 overall NFL draft pick, we were in his final three because relative (sister I think) was a student at MSU.

Cam Newton - Heisman trophy, national championship, #1 overall NFL draft pick, considered us out of high school, got outbid out of JUCO

Are there any others? Odd topic I know, but I was curious and tired of talking about Mullen to Appalachian State.

Steve McNair, Jerry Rice, Brett Favre were all great, but they weren't extremely accomplished coming out of high school and we didn't strongly recruit them.[/QUOTE]
 
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dahmer17

Redshirt
Aug 25, 2012
75
0
0
Thinking we almost had Keyshawn Johnson. would have been at same time as Eric Moulds.
 
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