Recruit Chris Whaley in Action

While it is fun to watch TD runs, I saw what I wanted to see at 1:40 when he blasts a sizable tackler with his shoulder and doesn't seem to even lose speed. He seems very aware of the positions of his downfield blockers and takes good advantage of them.

I'd like to see a highlight film include more five yard runs to see how a back finishes and how hard he is to bring down. In these highlights, I was often impressed with his line. That's not a knock on Whaley at all, I think he will be a good one.

Thanks for posting the highlights. Damn fine first post.
 
Is it just me or does it look like he is a man playing against Pop Warner players. He looks huge compared to most of the other guys on the field.
 
I hope he runs as well against okie and aggy as he did against Mexia and Groesbeck. These days, the Goats and Blackcats can make an ordinary runner look like Ricky or Adrian.
 
Nope...he'll run the ball twenty or more times a game from early in his career, plenty enough times to keep him at running back weight. Whaley will NOT be anything but a pure running back at Texas.
 
First time seeing the guy. Nobody seems to touch him. Has great vision and seems to be thinking beyond the immediate tackler. He looks slow, but no one catches him and in fact he runs away from everyone. We'll see.
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I was impressed with his presence of mind with the ball. Always protecting and shifting the ball away from the tacklers.. Very disclipined already.
 
I really can't make the call that he was all that impressive, looks big and somewhat speedy. I would like to also see video of him lowering his head and taking someone out on short yardage. To me he looks like a defensive end in the making.
 
He's big, seemingly strong. Seems like that was very weak defense. He has good balance and can cut well. Just hard to assess the speed. If he's got any, he's pretty good. Otherwise, he's not going to be seeing that much open field past the LOS. Someone said 4.5; is that legitimate?
 
Good post. These were impressive clips of his runs - powerful, quick to the hole, good vision, good cuts, good use of his blockers... man among boys. Having said that, at times I thought he looked a little slow but he outran everyone and nobody caught him from behind. Some of my perceived slowness may be due to the film speed or my cloudy head this morning. I also thought the defenses he is shown against did a poor job trying to tackle him - lot's of arm tackling and in some cases some guys looked like they didn't want to tackle him - can't blame Whaley for that!

Kid has great potential - the future is bright. Let's get him on the 40 Acres and see what he can do in burnt orange
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My personal opinion is that Chris Whaley will not play RB at Texas. He is not fast enough and I would not be surprised if he ends up being closer to 250. And don't forget that those clips were against 3A competition. Not knocking 3A but the talent level in the schools he is playing is not nearly the talent of larger schools.
 
My opinion is that there is nothing on that film that screams "ELITE RUNNING BACK". What you can see from that limited bit of film is that he is one heck of an athlete, and is an obvious take for our coaches.

In that film, he does not show a great first step or elite speed. While he looked good, it was more of a highlight reel for his O-Line than it was for Whaley. The one skill that really stood out was his vision. He moved really well behind his line and cuts to the backside hip of defenders in the open field. That one move added a lot of yards to the runs in the film, but it's not going to work against college DB's who take better angles and have better feet.

I am not kicking dirt onto the grave of his RB career, there was just nothing in that film that is really impressive. That could easily be a function of plays that the guy put on the film rather than Whaley's actual skill set.

Playing his senior year, and having a redshirt season with division 1 coaching can change a lot of things. He obviously has a great set of physical tools, and he has time to improve. Even if does not play RB for us, he has the physical talent to play DE or somewhere else.
 
Wow, all you guys saying he's slow, no good first step, not playing against 5-A defenses, etc., remember he's a junior and those are very poor-quality videos. If you watch the other players, they all appear to be running with lead boots on. Whaley is considered one of the top five or six national RB prospects for '09, and scouts don't base that solely on some camera-phone clips.

Personally, I thought it was every bit as impressive as Darrell Scott's HS videos. Same type of power runner. But I'd like to see some clips shot with higher-quality TV cameras.
 
It never ceases to amaze me how down people are around here. The kid has the potential to be as good as AD... he's got size, speed, heart and amazing football sense. Yes it's against 3A talent, but he is A LOT better than everybody on the field in those clips. If you can't see that you have no business giving your opinion about how good he could be because your eye for talent matches Stevie Wonder's.

I'm amazed at how well he bounces outside or chooses a different hole than where the play was designed to go. That is an intangible that makes a great football player. Plenty of guys have freaky athletic talent but don't have that extra sense.
 
Mixed feelings about the video. The opposition did look slow and like they didn't want to tackle, but then again that could be Whaley making them look that way. I liked the ESPN summary on Whaley it matched the video.

Needs more body lean but he is freakishly huge. I am sure that he will get better as a RB and if he needs to lose a little weight I am sure Mad Dog can get if off his ***. So far looks pretty impressive, but I would like to see him in an All American game against bigger Ds.

Anyone seen the kid in person to know if he is a legit 4.5 runner?
 
He is 220-230. He's not Henry Melton. He's not going to play somewhere other than RB.
Sure, he's playing against 3A competition, but he is at a 3A school. WHat the heck is he supposed to do? Move? Everyone in the entire stadium knows he is getting the ball and he still gets it done. Let the coaches decide if he is an RB. I'm sure MB and GD will not say to each other tomorrow "Hey, did you see that 'mamasboy1973' said Whaley is too slow to be a RB? Maybe we should rethink this offer..." Or " Hey Coach Boom, 'neverplayedadown' said "Whaley's gonna be 275. We better get him over to D-End right away".
 
Not sure of his speed--but I like his patience to let things unfold and ability to get up in there when the hole opens
 
My first & last impression: potential Larry Johnson type of RB. Guys that big have deceptive speed and oh are they painful to tackle.
 
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