Leinart staying at USC

[GoSkins!]

Originally Posted by Defensewins

He is holding back his development in a serious way for selfish reasons.."so he can say he won three titles and 2 Heisman trophies.
The main reason I do not like his choice is... a players body only has so much football mileage in it. The average NFL football players career is something like 3.5 years. He is trading one year of college for one year less of NFL. Not a smart trade off. Plus an NFL title has more weight than a NCAA title.

These were the comments I thought were a little off base.
Selfish? For what? Staying in college and holding off from the NFL for one more year is not selfish.

Also, good NFL QB's have a longer shelf life than 3.5 years. So, are we concerned about the money one more NFL year will deliver or the chance for more accomplishments at the NFL level? In my opinion, money wont be a problem for him and where he wants to accomplish things is certainly a choice that he can make.

I disagree with the idea that because the college defenses are easier to exploit, he needs to jump right into the NFL. Take for example Calculus. To really be able to exploit Calculus, you have to have a total mastery of Algebra, Trig, and other Math fundamentals. If you are pretty good at the lower level stuff, you can usually learn Calculus, but you really can't exploit what it can do. In other words you end up going through the motions, getting the problems right, but not really learning how to open it up to it's full potential. I think that playing QB is the same thing. You have to have a complete mastery of the basics at every level below the NFL to fully exploit the NFL QB position. It all about how comfortable can you get in a complicated system and I disagree with someone saying that the best option is to jump ahead. At best, jumping ahead is a crap shoot.

I do agree with you guys that the NFL is where he will really develop his skills. The talent is, of course, much better and there are few powderpuff teams (if any). Performing at the pro level will determine if he is truely a great player. When he decides to make that leap, we will see. If he is a Ryan Leaf or a Heath Schuller (sp) , he will be glad he set the records in college so that he can look back at those successes.