John Harris discusses the 'Ultimate 11' college football jawdroppers

Key notes from John Harris interview

• This assignment was something I was really excited to put together. I wanted to make a list of the best college players that made their opponents look silly. The players that could just make your jaw drop, excluding quarterbacks. I put together an Ultimate 11 of the best jaw-droppers I've seen in college football.
   
• I always felt that Dante Hall was much better in the NFL than in college, so he didn't make the list. I remember the first time I saw Leeland McElroy, though. I had heard so much about him, and in the days before the internet, that said something. He could do so much on the field and make really great players look silly.
   
• I finished the Ultimate 11, and I kept looking at Adrian Peterson in the honorable mentions. I had to go back and look at the highlights again. There was no way I could leave him out. I put him and Darren McFadden together tied at No. 8.
   
• I had a period in my life where I worked in accounting and was doing football on the side. A buddy of mine came in and told me about this new thing called YouTube. He asked me if I had heard of Noel Devine. He electric to watch. Devine had a lot of messy years in college at Florida, but when he was on the field, he was jaw-dropping.
   
• At No. 8, I had Desmond Howard. Desmond did things in space many couldn't do and many hadn't seen. He shook defensive backs and made them look ridiculous.
   
• The one guy I think I have too low is Devon Hester. He just never had a real position. As a kick returner, he was electric and fascinating to watch because he could alter a game at any point.
   
• No one was going to take over Reggie Bush at No. 1 for me. He was the most exciting and electric player I have ever seen play college football. I am so glad he is back in the college game and back with USC because he deserves to be around this game.
   
• I tried to figure out the cutoff, and Raghib "Rocket" Ismail as a junior in 1990 is where I drew the line. He was up for the Heisman in 1990 as a kick returner and wide receiver, which should tell you what he could do on the field. When someone says to kick it to them to see just how good you are is the greatest indication for me how good a player is. Bo Schembechler's last year at Michigan, he wanted to see Rocket beat them, and he did with two punt returns for touchdowns at Michigan Stadium in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game. Rocket was special, and for someone like me that wanted to play college football, he put the fear of football in me.
   
• The "BIG Offense" Ultimate 11 was awesome to put together because, to quote Gabriel Iglesias, “they are not fat, they are fluffy, with different levels of fluffy, with the biggest being ‘DAMN.’” Those are the guys I wanted to put on this list. I have two lists on here. There's the BIG offense, mainly because I've always been enamored by the really big guys that played on offense, and there's the lightning offense made of the big guys that were freaks of nature with their athleticism. I could basically use 41 personnel with all the running backs and fullbacks I included. 
   
• I think when you think of big offensive players, it starts with the Hefty Lefty, the Pillsbury Throwboy: Jared Lorenzen. I don't think we ever really knew how much he weighed, but it never mattered with how he played.
   
• Jerome Bettis and Ron Dayne are the big running backs I couldn't leave off, and big fullbacks like Owen Schmitt and JC Copeland are what makes this offense tick.
   
• I needed some really large offensive linemen, and I know for the longest time the University of Texas had really massive linemen. Leonard Davis was one that came to mind. There's one in college football right now in Minnesota in Daniel Faaelele, who is 6-9 and basically 400 lbs. There were a few A&M running backs — Jorvorskie Lane and Ja’Mar Toombs — I included as honorable mentions as well.
   
• The second list I made for good measure was the lightning package, headlined by Cam Newton as one of the scariest and biggest quarterbacks in the game. I had Derrick Henry in the group as well with big wide receivers like DK Metcalf and Calvin Johnson. This was the group that was just the most talented big players I'm sure kept their opponents awake at night.