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Dr. Saturday

Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:45 pm EDT

Wake me when Terrelle Pryor's fake 40 time eclipses speed of sound

By Matt Hinton

I'm pretty much sold on Terrelle Pryor as the awe-inspiring heir to Vince Young's torch as the lanky, multi-faceted, absurdly fast quarterbacking beast of every defense's nightmares. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer added another dimension to that today when it reported that Pryor is the fastest player on Ohio State's team, an innocent enough proposition until you get to the details:

His [Pryor's] 40 time was a speedy 4.33. Sophomore receiver Lamaar Thomas said he ran a 4.37 and no one else ran under 4.4 when the players were timed early this summer. ...

"I'm not so sure he might not be one of the fastest guys in the conference," OSU coach Jim Tressel said of Pryor. "I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Our other guys aren't slow."

If that time is correct, it would make Pryor not only the fastest Buckeye, but surely one of the fastest humans on earth. Consider that a 4.33 40 is significantly faster than any quarterback has run for the electronic clocks at the NFL Combine in the last four years, including Pat White (who turned in an official 4.55 in February at 197 pounds), and in fact more than a full tenth of a second faster than any running back or cornerback ran at this year's combine. Only one player at that entire event, Darrius Heyward-Bey, came in with a faster time (4.30) than Pryor's alleged 4.33. Of Pryor's six non-lineman teammates in Indianapolis -- a group that included Beanie Wells, Malcolm Jenkins and Brian Robiskie -- only one, cornerback Donald Washington, came in under 4.5 (4.49). In 2007, Ted Ginn Jr's "official" workout times ranged from 4.37 to 4.45, which knocked the scouts out. Ginn then weighed 178 pounds. Pryor's usual analog, Vince Young, reportedly ran the 40 in 4.58 seconds in 2006 at 228 pounds, on what was apparently considered a "fast track" in Austin. Some plausible (though hardly foolproof) speculation has suggested that a 4.33 is a hair faster than the time Usain Bolt turned in on the first 40 yards of his world-record 100-meter sprint in the 2008 Olympics, or than any other world-record 100-meter sprinter has turned in on the first 40 yards going back to Ben Johnson in 1988.

Terrelle Pryor is listed at 235 pounds. His long, gazelle-like stride does make him deceptively fast. But a legitimate 4.33 at 235 pounds would make him an actual gazelle. A human being of that size moving at that speed is not yet conceivable. This is not Florida-level fake, but still: Totally bogus.

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1812 Comments

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  1. threestepdrop13
    1. Posted by threestepdrop13 Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:40 pm EDT

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    I read a similar artical a week or two back (memory gets a little foggy), but I think I remember it saying that TP posted the fast time, but it was like a 4.43. Sounds like a bit of confusion somewhere, although there is no doubting his deceptive speed and athletic ability. Not to mention his 6'-6" 235 lb frame. He is an amazing athlete and definitely deserves the hype given; but now he needs to prove the hype correct. But, I don't see any way that he ran a 4.33 Forty either.
  2. Goodrich T
    2. Posted by Goodrich T Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:41 pm EDT

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    "A human being of that size moving at that speed is not yet conceivable."
    So are we just going to forget that Bo Jackson ran a 4.12 40 weighing at 225 at 1986 combine? Is Pryor comparable to Bo Jackson... no chance.
  3. Jeff K
    3. Posted by Jeff K Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:42 pm EDT

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    I've said it before, I'll say it again:
    If Pryor and Robert Griffin run the 40 at the same NFL combine, I guarantee Griffin's 40 time will be better.
  4. HMC
    4. Posted by HMC Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:49 pm EDT

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    Awesome! Maybe he can catch his own passes too! OSU 09-10!!!
  5. bignasty9600
    5. Posted by bignasty9600 Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:57 pm EDT

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    You can't compare 40 times to 100 times. Bolt is warming up because he's running further...he would run faster if he just had to run 40 meters. It's the same with a guy running 100m faster in the 100 than he would as the first part of the 200m.
    I hate when people say that. It's such a dumb, illogical analogy. If any of those guys were really that fast...I'm sure they'd give the Olympics a go, don't you think? If you don't have to train and you're faster than the fastest man in the world?
  6. Lucas H
    6. Posted by Lucas H Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:59 pm EDT

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    I wonder if he can trade in any of those pretend tenths of a second for real points in their annual "get beat at the end of the season bowl" game they will go to.
  7. e80ohio
    7. Posted by e80ohio Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:07 pm EDT

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    Yea lucas because they've been playing such terrible teams as MNC winners Fla, LSU and MNC snubs UT. Here's to hoping the Vest can pull off a win in week 2 and set up another run to the MNC to further infuriate the anti-OSU crowd.
  8. The Somnambulist (kyle)
    8. Posted by The Somnambulist (kyle) Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:08 pm EDT

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    While Bo Jackson's time is undoubtedly freakish, plus he's a tremendous athlete. He wouldn't have that time today because he wasn't clocked via electronic timing.
    I severely doubt this man's clock time too. Interesting article.
  9. TIMOTHY N
    9. Posted by TIMOTHY N Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:12 pm EDT

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    Football 40 yard dashes are timed with the first motion of the runner, which must obviously include the delay in the reaction time of the timer as well as removing the reaction time of the runner. Track times are taken with the starting gun, and it includes the reaction time of the runner to the gun, usually around 0.1-0.2 seconds.
  10. kass0809@...
    10. Posted by kass0809@... Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:42 pm EDT

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    After reading this an the UF article earlier, I don't think I will ever believe a 40 time ever again.
  11. DCwhiteowl
    11. Posted by DCwhiteowl Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:11 pm EDT

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    just have to wait in see what he runs in the actual combine. I'm a huge OSU fan but i'm having trouble with this too. I thought i heard 4.43 also before. Also, Bo Jack was all JACKED up on the roids. But 4.12, if true that's fuqin fast man.
  12. pantsmcpants1
    12. Posted by pantsmcpants1 Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:18 pm EDT

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    The actual time is less important than the relative times to his teammates. The 6'6" 235 lb QB is the fastest player on OSU's roster. And there are certainly future NFL WRs and CBs on the team, because there always are at OSU.
    So he is at least, very very fast. And 6'6" 235 lbs...
  13. carsos
    13. Posted by carsos Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:36 pm EDT

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    You want size + speed at unhuman combination - check Calvin Johnson.
  14. AgnosticTheocrat
    14. Posted by AgnosticTheocrat Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:37 pm EDT

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    @12
    Good point. Lamar Thomas and Brandon Saine are among the fastest players in the country, so the fact that Terrelle Pryor was faster is still indicative of freakish speed for his size. Plus, let's not forget that Usain Bolt is 6'5". While TP is obviously not as fast as Bolt, just because he's as big as he is doesn't mean that a sub 4.4 forty is out of the question. He's certainly faster than Vince Young, if not as bulldozer-like.
    The fastest people in the world are all 6'1+, not the midgets on crack we're used to at WVU or Florida.
  15. AgnosticTheocrat
    15. Posted by AgnosticTheocrat Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:53 pm EDT

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    One other point, Usain bolt ran roughly 110 yards in 9.7 seconds. The first 40 yards are the slowest, while the middle yards are the fastest. If broken down evenly, he runs roughly 3.55 seconds per 40 yards. If you backload it, say 3.25 seconds for the last 40, 2.45 seconds in the middle 30, that gives Bolt a 4.0 40. He's even faster if you make his last 40 or middle 30 slower. Is it really THAT inconceivable that a man an inch taller and 25 pounds heavier is 3 tenths of a second slower?
    (One last note, in football electronically timed 40s, the timer begins as soon as the player lifts his foot off of the pad. This means that reaction time is not a factor. In sprinting, reaction time can add as much as .2 seconds to the 40. So it's conceivable that Usain Bolt runs even faster than a 4.0 forty. Again, this makes it even more reasonable to accept Terrelle Pryor's time, since if he were racing with sprinter rules he'd be running closer to a 4.5, at least .5 seconds slower than 6'5", 200 pound Usain Bolt.)
  16. Scott C
    16. Posted by Scott C Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:56 pm EDT

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    You people and your Olympic stuff are ridiculous. Pryor is no where near that level of speed. That doesn't mean he can't run 4.33 (although I too highly doubt it). Some 20 years ago when James Jett played for WVU he ran a 4.08. And he was only fast enough to be an alternate (or whatever they are called) on the Olympic relay team. Now consider how many times the 100 record has been broken since 1988 and realize that 4.08 was one of the slowest on the team. Times continue to get faster as health, training, nutrition, etc all continue to improve and athletes start on programs at earlier ages. Not too long ago, anything in the 4.4's was astonishing and you'd only see a single digit number of players in the country run that. Today, every team has at least one and some have quite a few.
  17. kevin s
    17. Posted by kevin s Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:00 pm EDT

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    As an Ohio State fan it's been pretty widely understood that when OSU runs pro days or camps or whatever their timed 40s usually tend to be at leas .05 to .1 faster than at the combine or whatever.
    Regardless...While TP probably didn't run a 4.33 I'd say it's within that ballpark and within reason to say that he may have run around a 4.4 or less. The fact that he was faster than every one of his teammates at Ohio State does say that he's one of the fastest players in the conference. TP, much like Ted Ginn Jr., has very deceptive speed in that while it looks like he's just jogging, he's actually blowing past people on the field. This is due to the long legs both players have and the extremely long stride of both. It is definitely not crazy for a naturally gifted person who has an extremely low body fat percentage and is 6'6" 235lbs to run a sub-4.4 40. The longer the legs the longer the stride...Most great sprinters are tall with longer legs (that is if the player has good running form). 40 times are all about acceleration really. Bolt's sprint is not. While the first 40 yards may have football players (and there's been oodles of football players to at some point run a sub-4.4 40 time at some time) fairly even to Bolt, he is not done accelerating while the football players are. Bolt's top speed is reached after 40 yards and from 40 yards on...There's nobody in the world that can catch him. If it wasn't for TP being an extraordinary athlete with great speed we wouldn't have been talking about him so much before he came to OSU....He certainly wasn't such a big deal and #1 recruit because of his prowess in the passing game. Oh and Vince Young's game was that he was fast enough to beat linemen and most linebackers but he wasn't the fastest guy one the field. Vince was just so tough to bring down and shifty enough with good change of direction that you could only ever just get an arm on him and he was big enough to run through that. TP hopefully will be that but faster in the open field one day. TP, I would say, is definitely faster than Vince and his 4.58 though.
  18. Dave
    18. Posted by Dave Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:02 pm EDT

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    Didn't Chris Johnson get an official time of 4.24 at the NFL Combine? I'm not saying I believe Pryor's time, but it's not beyond belief.
  19. rushpod
    19. Posted by rushpod Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:05 pm EDT

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    yea yea yea.........who cares how fast he is........ohio state still cant beat any sec team in any championship.....in any sport.......
  20. ss42k
    20. Posted by ss42k Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:32 pm EDT

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    One can't compare Pryor's 40 time to anyone's 100m time in a track event. Why? The 40 is timed differently than the 100m. The FB player starts his run when he wants, and the timer starts his stopwatch when he sees that the player has started. The 100m dash runner starts when the gun sounds, which is when the timer starts for the event. The 100m dash runner is going to be physically in contact with the blocks and the timer running. The 100m dash runner loses 100ths of seconds at that point of the race.
    When 100ths of seconds are significant, as in an FB player's 40, the way it's timed makes a difference. Not to say that Pryor's time is accurate, only to say that the comparison to track isn't useful. I'd also suggest that he's probably not really 6'6" tall nor does he weigh 325lbs. These numbers are likely fudged as well. I recall that many, many college BB players who must have shrunk when they get measured by the NBA.
  21. DJ Vicky
    21. Posted by DJ Vicky Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:34 pm EDT

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    Willie Gault can still run a 4.40
  22. DJ Vicky
    22. Posted by DJ Vicky Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:38 pm EDT

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    Pardon me I mean a 4.30
    I think that's more amazing than Pryor's "impressive" speed.
  23. Hector A
    23. Posted by Hector A Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:59 pm EDT

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    dont believe those 40 times that the coaching staff put out.....i follow the hurricanes and even i laugh when they put out 40 times...supposedly we have 4 canes that run in the 4.2s.......
  24. BHALL
    24. Posted by BHALL Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:47 pm EDT

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    i think its just funny this article is even written....honestly who cares?? lets just play football

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