Notable players going pro (or somewhere) before their time.

In Shonn Greene's case, we really didn't know him before this season, because he wasn't around. Even Iowa fans didn't know him; Greene hadn't played much in 2006 and couldn't be counted on to make it out of academic purgatory, anyway. The starting running back at the end of Spring practice was a walk-on named Paki O'Meara. And because Iowa wasn't on national television very often, most of the country didn't even know All-American Shonn Greene except as the short, squat stat sheet monster who had the exact same very good-not-great performance week after week, until it added up to the best rushing performance in the country (pending Donald Brown's bid for 2,000 yards in the International Bowl on Saturday). Even SEC fans only introduced to Green in the New Year have to respect him for grinding through South Carolina's 12th-ranked total defense in an old-school thumping in the Outback Bowl, cementing his status alongside Rudi Johnson as the great "one and done" backs of the decade.

Knowshon Moreno hasn't made any decisions, but among the current crop of draft-eligible running backs, Greene will probably be the first one off the board, even if his lack of open field speed drops him to the second round. The NFL is a between-the-tackles league, and you can't get 235 pounds packed into a 5'10" (maybe) frame every day.

At the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Josh Freeman, a physical monster with the world at his feet out of high school. Three years, 20 losses and a fired head coach later, Freeman is just ready to be done with the college thing.

If not for leading back-to-back stunners over Texas in 2006 and 2007, Freeman's career might be a complete bust. His raw numbers to the right look decent enough, and he improved every year. But broken down a little further, Freeman's numbers this year were dramatically inflated by the Wildcats' September cupcakes and no-defense bottom dwellers like Texas A&M and Iowa State. Against winning teams, he threw twice as many interceptions, half as many touchdowns and saw his efficiency rating drop by almost 40 points compared to his stellar numbers against losing teams. There was a little talk of the savior of the program being benched after he left KSU's loss to Nebraska.

But, oh, the traps of potential. The same gargantuan size and arm strength that made him a top recruit will likely also make Freeman one of the first quarterbacks of the board in April -- maybe, if Matt Stafford returns to Georgia, the first quarterback off the board, albeit not until the third round.

Also declaring their eligibility after their teams' very different bowl experiences were a pair of SEC cornerbacks, Vanderbilt's D.J. Moore and the exceptionally-named Captain Munnerlyn of South Carolina, along with teammate Eric Norwood, who, as it happens, spent much of their Thursday bouncing off Shonn Greene. Also throw LSU defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois into the mix, off two disappointing seasons: One for being suspended for the entirety of 2007 before dominating the BCS Championship game, and another for failing to follow up that performance with anything resembling it this year.