Who are some guys that have changed your perception about them while they played at KU?
I can't find the specific article, but was recently reading something that said one of the hardest things to change with a football fan is their perception. I know I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to this, but once a perception about a player or coach or team sets in, it is hard to change that perception.
I think about a guy like Dexter McDonald who struggled his junior year turning his head around, but was much much improved his senior year on this (can't find the specific numbers I had on that, but he was better than JaCorey Shepherd at this his senior year even though Shepherd had a better senior year). He still had a couple of instances of this his senior year (as all CBs do), but even now when people talk about him you still hear people refer to this instead of mentioning the improvement. I think you can argue this is true some too with Montell Cozart. Disclaimer I am not saying he is a good QB or anything like that at all, but you still hear people refer to his freshman game on an ice rink against ISU with the deer in the headlights look, but hear very few people talk about him getting knocked out of the South Dakota State game then coming back, playing against Rutgers with the flu, and just getting the crap beat out of him last year and fighting through it until his season ending injury. I think it is fair to say he has gotten tougher, yet people still talk about his freshman year.
I find this interesting because like all sports, you see guys make tremendous leaps from year-to-year. These players do change and can change quickly. Joe Dineen is a great example of this from this past year.
For me personally, one guy that really changed my mind from year-to-year was James Holt his senior year. The total tackles were pretty similar between his junior and senior year, so it wasn't really about that. His sacks did jump up quite a bit his senior year, but it wasn't about that either. I thought there was a huge difference between his junior and senior year in the angle he took when going after the ball carrier. I thought it was pretty bad his junior year, but really good his senior year. Granted, there could be a bias in my perception there of course, but that is one guy I remember changing my perception about him while he was at KU
I can't find the specific article, but was recently reading something that said one of the hardest things to change with a football fan is their perception. I know I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to this, but once a perception about a player or coach or team sets in, it is hard to change that perception.
I think about a guy like Dexter McDonald who struggled his junior year turning his head around, but was much much improved his senior year on this (can't find the specific numbers I had on that, but he was better than JaCorey Shepherd at this his senior year even though Shepherd had a better senior year). He still had a couple of instances of this his senior year (as all CBs do), but even now when people talk about him you still hear people refer to this instead of mentioning the improvement. I think you can argue this is true some too with Montell Cozart. Disclaimer I am not saying he is a good QB or anything like that at all, but you still hear people refer to his freshman game on an ice rink against ISU with the deer in the headlights look, but hear very few people talk about him getting knocked out of the South Dakota State game then coming back, playing against Rutgers with the flu, and just getting the crap beat out of him last year and fighting through it until his season ending injury. I think it is fair to say he has gotten tougher, yet people still talk about his freshman year.
I find this interesting because like all sports, you see guys make tremendous leaps from year-to-year. These players do change and can change quickly. Joe Dineen is a great example of this from this past year.
For me personally, one guy that really changed my mind from year-to-year was James Holt his senior year. The total tackles were pretty similar between his junior and senior year, so it wasn't really about that. His sacks did jump up quite a bit his senior year, but it wasn't about that either. I thought there was a huge difference between his junior and senior year in the angle he took when going after the ball carrier. I thought it was pretty bad his junior year, but really good his senior year. Granted, there could be a bias in my perception there of course, but that is one guy I remember changing my perception about him while he was at KU
