The Next Jerry Rice

The comparisons to Jerry Rice are coming in left and right. They both played in Division 1AA; Wide Reciever David Ball from New Hampshire and NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice from Mississippi Valley State. This past season (2006), Ball broke Rice’s collegiate touchdown record of 50 touchdowns, Ball shattered that with 58 TDs in his career. Reportedly Ball’s lack of speed (his 40-yard time as a sophomore was 4.6 seconds, the same time Rice put up his senior year) and his lack of size (at 6’2”, 200 pounds, he’s the same height and weight as Rice) are all further reasons that people are calling Ball the next Jerry Rice. Heck, Ball even has the same agent; he hired Ralph Cindrich of Debartolo Sports and Entertainment in Pittsburgh, the same man who represented Jerry Rice.

Ok, let’s stop the madness here, we need to quit comparing every small school star receiver with average speed to Jerry Rice, just the same as we need to stop comparing every short stocky, talented running back to Barry Sanders.

But back to Ball, he did have a phenomenal career and it should be mentioned. He has received tremendous media coverage after breaking several NCAA receiving marks. Besides breaking Rice’s TD mark, Ball also finished second among the NCAA leaders with 4,655 receiving yards and he tied Rice’s mark for 100-yard receiving games with 23. He also finished second all-time among the top I-AA players with 28 games with at least one touchdown catch.

In 2006, Ball led the Atlantic 10 Football Conference with 13 touchdown receptions and was ranked among the top 10 in the nation in nearly every receiving category. His 93 receptions in 2006 broke his own University mark of 87, which he set last season. In addition, he completed his third straight campaign with over 1,000 receiving yards after compiling 1,114 yards in 2006 and averaging 85.7 receiving yards per contest.

His other major honors and awards this season include being named the recipient of the Harry Agganis Award as the most outstanding senior in New England, a Walter Camp All-American for the third straight season, an AFCA All-American and an Associated Press first-team All-American. He finished fifth in the voting for the Walter Payton Award and he was named first-team All-Atlantic 10.

Ball will be part of the 2007 NFL Combine, that alone, for a small school prospect, tells us that he is thought of as an excellent NFL Prospect, and with a good showing I predict he could be a 5th or 6th round pick in the 2007 NFL Draft.