By
The Dartmouth Staff
It's an awkward time for "Toe to Toe." With the Red Sox in the process of engineering an amazing comeback vs. the Rays, and the deciding game of that series happening after our column was due on Sunday, Ryan and I were forced to improvise. Naturally, the topic was football, and seeing as we've exhausted our quota of prediction columns, we decided to do a player focus on Reggie Bush, with one of us taking the position that he'll eventually live up to the hype, and the other contending that he's overrated
The debate over the merits of Bush's career to date is probably the most interesting of any young player's to date. His career at the University of Southern California was nothing short of awe-inspiring. The key cog in what was arguably the most well-rounded collegiate offense in history, Bush shouldered loads of athletic responsibility with ease and, in 2006, put together a season no college football fan will soon forget, highlighted statistically by an unheard of 8.9 yards-per-carry average.
A look at his highlight reel from that season provided an endless medley of astonishing bursts, improvisational genius and defender's broken ankles. He took home the Heisman Trophy in easily the most lopsided vote of the award's tenure. Just about every draft guru and player personnel executive dubbed him the draft's premier talent, and the last few games of the 2006 NFL regular season were jokingly dubbed the Reggie Bush Sweepstakes for the teams with the worst records in the league.
In short, he was nothing less than invincible -- his place in college football lore was assured and his future success on the professional level a seeming absolute certainty. The latter has proven far from true.
The first piece of the Reggie-Bush-is-overrated puzzle -- one that just about everyone, myself definitely included, failed to put in place -- came when the Texans passed on him with the first overall pick. Instead of considering the fact that the Texans had to be onto something in order to make such an audacious and publicly unpopular move, the Bush bandwagon got even more self-righteous and battered the decision into oblivion.
The logic behind the Texans' controversial decision is, at least in hindsight, pretty easy to grasp. The Texans' didn't see Bush as anything remotely resembling an every down back -- a fact that's been convincingly proven since -- and were much more enamored with the equally impressive athletic gifts of Mario Williams, and he played a position more traditionally worthy of the top selection.
Bush's rookie season actually just deceived us more. Williams' nearly led the league in quarterback hurries, but his promise was swept under the rug in the public eye because he only accumulated 4.5 sacks and was at times inconsistent. Bush put together some big plays, particularly towards the end of the season, and was deemed to be on sufficient track to the stardom so many predicted he would attain.
This brings us to the next piece of the Reggie-Bush-is-overrated puzzle we all failed to put in place. Two facts from his rookie season should have clued is in. First, by all accounts, Bush was poor running the football.
It took him until the playoffs to run the football for more than 20 yards on one play, and his running duties were littered with ineffective runs in which he would dance at the line of scrimmage instead of hitting the hole with any degree of authority. Secondly, it was painfully obvious throughout much of Bush's first year that the Saints were forcing him the ball, particularly as a receiver. He caught a whopping 88 balls but collected only 742 yards. Something was clearly amiss. Not only was Bush unable to even approach competency in the primary duty of the position for which he was drafted, but he also needed an excess of opportunity to make big plays in the passing game.
In the seasons since, these concerns over Bush's ability to be productive have only crystallized into firmly held opinions. He's still struggling mightily toting the leather, and has not evolved into a transcendent play-maker as a receiver out of the backfield, instead just putting together a similar stat line to his rookie year. He's been very impressive as a punt returner, but as we all know, success in that arena is fleeting and very difficult to maintain as a consistent, integral part of a team's success. His receiving ability is also inarguably a plus, but again, it's characterized by stretches of inconsistency and a complete lack of dominance.
Lastly, as a running back, he is one of the league's worst.
The bottom line is, though Bush will have a good career, he'll never even approach the level of stardom most foresaw him attaining. To be honest, I think his best career move would be to switch to wide receiver, given how much he's struggled as a traditional between-the-tackles runner. It's unlikely to happen, though, and it seems as though Bush is destined to a career characterized by flashes of brilliance and long stretches of "ordinary."
