I wouldn't call these fellows overlooked - just from earlier eras....
Hard to be overlooked when you're a perennial NFL all-pro like some of them were....and some of them were all-americans here, too...
And Williams was the
#1 DT in the country out of Carol City....
Willie Smith. Look him up.
Pete Banaszak
Chuck Foreman
Dennis Harrah
Lester Williams
Burgess Owens
If you go back to the 30's-50's you have even more with Jim Dooley, Don Bosseler, Al Carapella, and a bunch more. The heyday teams with Ottis Anderson, Bubba Franks, Brett Perriman, and Eddie Brown don't nearly get their dues because so many great and usually better players have played their own positions. There's a ton of underrated guys but with our history some guys are going to get overlooked.
When people think of our RB's, Banaszak and Foreman get brought up after Mike James and Javarris James and I know that's a prisoner of the moment but still.
Harrah probably should be in the Pro Hall of Fame and the everyday Miami fan in the street doesn't know he exists.
Burgess Owens, from what I've read, might've been the best cover corner the school has ever had and people will name Demarcus Van Dyke before him.
Lester Williams might be a stretch but again the current fan doesn't know who he is.
The older guys are big examples of just time causing some great players to be forgotten.
When I think underrated, I judge it by how the fanbase looks at you. Nobody would say that Banaszak is better than Portis, Gore, or McGahee but the fact that the overwhelming majority of fans haven't heard of him shows that he is underrated.
If I took 100 Miami fans, how many of them would know who Lester Williams is? Anything under 85 is a travesty.