Guys on that team I liked a lot:
-I thought Dyral McMillan was underrated and ran hard before Edge being Edge took over. When Edge started to run you just immediately knew he would be a star.
-loved Mercier and Ty Wise. Guys were both undersized but so so tough and productive. They would have been our best OL last year.
-I always thought Covington, with his skill set, deserved more patience and playing time than Clement, whom Coker/Butch preferred probably because he seemed tougher.
-Denny Fortney always annoyed me. He had this barbed wire tattoo on his arm at a time when tattoos weren't highly prevalent and it looked cheesy to me because he sucked. Fake tough guy stuff.
-Wayne had a great year, and while his statistics didn't improve too much over his career all the little things he was getting better at each game/season.
-Couldn't stand Leonard Myers. Thought he was overrated despite his hype. Starks was a steal out of JC. Easily the best cb.
-Fulcher was another eventual underrated tight end who gets forgotten. Very solid tight end.
-Butch always had a lot of those rock solid players. People always comment on the stars and hall of famers but he would get the Ty Wise/Merciers/Fulchers and guys like Markese Fitgerald or James Lewis who were very good at what they did, but got forgotten. Very little actual filler and ***** boys on those teams.
-Specific to '97, it hurt a lot. That 47-0 loss to FSU killed me back then. I used to take losses so hard to the point that growing up my parents had to calm me down. So that season crushed me.
-One more addition: Butch had (and still has) his game day issues but man: we haven't had teams as mentally tough as those kids back then. Even that depleted 5-6 team played so hard and tried their best. That effort and intensity blew away anything we've seen for the past 15 years. Like it or not.
-I always thought Derrick Ham would be better than he became, too. Guy was a specimen from what I can remember.
