Eleven Warriors

while denard is faster than anyone on either michigan or ohio state's roster currently, no way he competes with bolt.  he has a couple of things working for him (great acceleration, not too tall) and a couple things that work against bolt (him being 6'5" and never seeming to be spectacular in the first half of his 100m races).  but bolt is used to reacting to a starting command, and denard has proven to be only slightly above average in terms of track speed.  his strength is in keeping some of that speed with pads on.  i bet it would be closer than most think, but literally 5 yards after the finish line, bolt would pull away at an exponential rate. 

Theres no way in hell. Denard is fast, but not the fastest player in college football. Bolt would toast him in a 40 on grass or anywhere for that matter.  Imagine Bolt showing up on the UM campus and calling him out. Denard would shit down his leg.   Desmond Howard says he thinks Denard would win.  lol   I would love to see this happen.  Didn't Chris Johnson call out Bolt then back out? I thought I read that somewhere.

This is why Chris Johnson and Bolt never raced. Johnson wanted to do a 40yd and bolt wanted to something like a 60yd race, probably because bolt knows his first 40 isn't the greatest its his last 60 that is crazy. And by his first 40 not as fast he still probably runs a 4.3 or something. I wish they would do a 40 split in the olympic races just so we could see what they run.

I used to love watching Tim Dwight run, Nothing like watching a 5'8'' white boy outrun the Menver Broncos on that kickoff return in the superbowl.

2009- 10 carries 31 yards

2010- 18 carries 105 yards

2011- 26 carries 170 yards

54 carries for 306 yards.  He's fast, but OSU has plenty of guys that know how to get to him. 

No.

Thought all the jawing might have died down some up there. The recruits apparently were delivered a message to shut up since they haven't popped off in a while. But now the starting QB starts something else. At least wait for a couple winning seasons in a row to mouth off. After that you may have earned the right. Until then please shut it. Understand it's not FB related but still gets out there. Do not get all the look at me that team does. Can't help but bite them in the butt at some point. Imagine John Simon ranting about being able to outlift the olympic lifters. Would be ridiculous along with a waste of time even if feasible, don't you think?

Below is a repost of a comment I made on the Monday Skull Session.  It appears to be more appropriate here.

Looking at the evidenced provided by an earlier link and since it is wiki, I found the author's calculations to be a little flawed and decided to run through what I thought would be a better analysis on my own.

The following analysis is on Usain Bolts world record time of 9.58 seconds in the 100 meter dash where he did not let up at the end.  I used the information at the following link for my calculations.  http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/08/analysis-of-bolts-958-wr.html

Bullet Points
1) Approximately 20 meters  = 21.87 yards
2) Usain was aided by .9 meters/hr wind (estimated it reduced time by 0.05 seconds)
3) Usain Bolt’s reaction time was recorded at .165 seconds
4) Usain Bolt ran first 20 meters in 2.89 seconds
5) Usain Bolt ran second 20 meters in 1.75 seconds
6) Usain Bolt ran third 20 meters in 1.67 seconds
7) Usain Bolt 40 meter split = 4.64 second
 

First Method to calculate 40 time by using 20 meter split times.

1st 20 meter split time – reaction time + 2nd 20 meter split time *(40yards - 21.87 yards)/21.87 + wind factor

40 time = 2.89sec – 0.165sec +1.75sec*1.094/ (40yd-21.87yd) +0.05 = 4.226 seconds (if wind factor is ignored then he is at 4.176 seconds)

Second Method to calculate 40 yard time by subtracting additional distance time off of 40 meter split.
 

40 meter split – reaction time + wind factor – average time of 2nd and 3rd split / 21.87 yards *3.74 additional yards ran = 4.233 seconds (if wind factor is ignored, he is at 4.183 seconds)

The breakdown of Usain Bolt’s world record time he set in 2009 in Germany seems to put him at 4.23 seconds for the 40 yard dash using starting blocks.  Does anyone know if Chris Johnson used starting blocks when he was recorded at 4.24 seconds?   The only number I estimated based on no documented evidence was the wind factor of 0.05 seconds, but I thought it was reasonable and if the wind is greater than 2 meters / hr, the time won’t count for a world record.  A wind factor was used because I believe the combine times are indoors and don’t have the benefit of being aided, unless they have the heat turned up that day.
 

So considering Usain Bolt’s world record was set in 2009 and he hasn’t matched it since, it is reasonable to assume that he may currently have a slower 40 time than his WR pace.  Also, if Chris Johnson’s combine time was established without the use of starting blocks, that seems to make it that much more impressive.  I’m willing to give Chris Johnson the benefit of the doubt that he may be able to beat Usain Bolt if he is still at his combine performance level.

As for Denard, this seems to be a reporter lead scenario, and my assumption is it wasn’t a boast as much as a tongue in cheek response.  He probably was just having fun with the reporter.  Regardless, could he beat Usain in the 40 yard dash?  I don’t know since his time hasn’t been clocked in a combine like setting as far as I know.  The fastest time I’ve seen for him is 4.32 seconds, but I’m not sure how that was calculated, so there is really nothing to be able to attempt a comparison.  My guess is Usain would beat Denard, but it probably would be closer than this forum expects.

Steensn, I agree with you, that would be interesting to see a video.  Ginn would be interesting too, probably one of the fastest to ever play the game.

As for another eyeball test, one can look at Olympic sprinter Justin Gatlin.  Justin's fastest 40 time at the NFL combine in 2008 was 4.42 seconds.  Justin ran this when he could run the 100 meter in 9.77 seconds.  So Justin's 100 meter time is 0.19 seconds slower than the 9.58 seconds run by Bolt.  So given these facts, let's estimate Usain Bolt's potential combine 40 using Justin's time as a benchmark.  Since they tend to be neck and neck around the 40 yard mark, this seems fair.

1st Method to calculate 40 yard time by averaging the gap between Gatlin and Bolt over the 100 meters and then applying it to Justin's 40 time.

40 time = 4.42 seconds - 0.19 seconds/109.361 yards * 40 yards = 4.35 seconds

2nd Method to calculate maximum 40 yard time assuming the entire gap between Gatlin and Bolt was acheived in the first 40 yards

40 time = 4.42 seconds - 0.19 seconds = 4.23 seconds

Since this incorporates an Olympic track sprinter's time in an NFL combine type scenario, it really seems to be lending creedence to the fact that Chris Johnson may have been able to take Bolt in a combine type setting.  I don't know about Denard though, but still believe it would be closer than people believe, maybe even in the track scenario.  Keep in mind, all these calculations are based on the fastest time ever recorded.