He was going to make the school forget Adrian Peterson. That’s what Jamaal Charles told the media when he arrived at the University of Texas after Peterson had spurned the Longhorns for Oklahoma. Bold stuff, but Charles did enough to back it up that at times, you at least had a momentary lapse of memory if you were a fan.

I grew to appreciate Charles’ confidence when I watched him perform at Texas. In fact, there were decisions he made at the line of scrimmage that cold only be described as bold arrogance. He didn’t just challenge defenses, he was challenging himself. Kind of a personal competition to see if he could get to that huge cutback lane all the way across the formation even when it wasn’t the wisest decision.

As a teammate this would probably frustrate me. As a fan, I got the feeling Charles sometimes got bored with taking what was in front of him. He wanted to stretch himself and take what he could see. Charles is now one of the most exciting runners in the NFL, but for the first couple of years it was far from a guarantee that it was going to happen. Here’s one of the evaluations I did on Charles when I evaluated him for the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. For additional samples of player evaluations go to this page on this blog.

Game Stats vs. Arizona State 12/27/2007 Continue reading →