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  1. Davey OBrien

    Great tradition of smaller players making big impacts extends way back into the SWC.

    Greatest small man in Tech football history might be Tyrone Thurman at 5’3″ and 150 lbs. Thurman was a wishbone halfback for Midland Lee and got a chance in Lubbock when the Raiders hired his high school coach, the late Spike Dykes, as a coordinator.

    Gerald McNeil of Baylor was generously listed at 5’7″ and 140 lbs. His 150+ career catches as a Bear might not seem like much in today’s game, but when you consider the eras that he and Thurman played in their impact might have been more significant than any of the smaller players that followed them.

    The greatest “small man” due in SWC and quite possibly college football history was at SMU for Hayden Fry. Ines Perez has to be one of the smaller quarterbacks in SWC at 5’4″ and 140. That is 2″ taller than when he graduated from CC Miller.

    His counterpart in that backfield is a huge man in so many ways as Jerry LeVias was actually only 5’7″ and the reason why he ended up at SMU was he was too small to merit a scholarship from any of the traditional black powers such as Grambling, etc…..

  2. […] Jalen McCleskey was the best perimeter weapon in the league last year, although he was more than that, but I’m betting on Turpin having a big year now that he’s healthy and eligible and all that. If Turpin beats him out for postseason first team he can probably also steal his belt as the league’s “most outstanding tiny person.” […]

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