Mo Claiborne Notched a FOUR on the Wonderlic

RTR91

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Nov 23, 2007
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I've read some pretty good arguments that natural selection no longer plays a role in the human world. However, we're slanting towards NS...
It's taken 5 pages before a thread about a player making a horrible grade on the Wonderlic gets threatened to move over to the NS. Longer than normal.
 

Ole Man Dan

Hall of Fame
Apr 21, 2008
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Re: Mo Claibornce Notched a FOUR on the Wonderlic

And before you guys go knocking too hard on "student"-athletes, a word of caution that "earning" a college degree these days is only slightly more difficult that ordering dinner at the McDonald's drive-thru. Not coincidentally, the value of said degree is about the same, too.
Simple formula: Pay your money every semester + Show up to class a few times per semester + Wait four to five years = College degree with your name on it.

WOW...
Your example is pretty close to what can happen when academics are ignored, for athletic achievement. We've all seen it.
(Ref: Brent Fulwood, former Auburn star)
 
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Ole Man Dan

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Forget what this says about his draft potential. This is an embarrassment for higher learning. When 10 is reported as the cutoff score which suggests the taker is literate, it's kind of hard to explain a 4 by a guy who spent 3 years attending classes.
Who sez he attended classes?
 

Black Warrior

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I think we're redefining the word "DUMB" here. Most of us could throw darts at a punch card and get more right than that.
 

Giant Squid

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If we held the "standard" of a student-athlete to where we should there'd be a signficant drop in quality of play. I'm not suggesting we don't but I'm just saying I very seriously doubt Mo is a rare case. I'd venture to say there are A LOT of elite players, who make the quality of college football what it is in our conference, that have no business in a college classroom.
This is cold, hard truth. It bothers me, and it always has, but as far as I can tell there has never been a time when academic standards weren't comprised in the name of winning football games. You can go all the way back to the 1800's and find complaints about college teams bringing in ringers who didn't even attend the school.
 

bamabelle1991

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Jan 1, 2009
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When asked about his Wonderlic test, Upshaw said "I got higher then a fo!" RTR! J/k that's just sad!
Just barely, though. I believe I read he scored a 9. Regardless, he is going to be a BEAST in the NFL and Upshaw's Wonderlic score won't matter one iota. Now, Claiborne may be a different story. I don't think he will fare as well as Upshaw in the NFL. JMHO.
 

TIDE-HSV

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One is led to wonder just how seriously some of the prospective draftees take the Wonderlic. Being a skeptic, it seems to me to be like the combine and the pro days - one more weapon to bargain down the players' agents. OTOH, being a lawyer, that's just the way I think...
 

Bama_Dawg

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May 17, 2005
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Response: Because we are discussing how someone only correctly answered 4 out of 50 high school level questions and graduated college, that is the topic. Not his future in the NFL.
Your posts can address whatever issue you want them to :) My post was addressing your claim that "Only in our country will we keep digging and manipulating until we can come up with dumb ='s better. Very sad."

Why do you believe the study was made? It took some time and resources. Do you think it helped those that select the players? Certainly not. It was written for us that laugh at these wonderlic scores, to teach us that they really don't matter sometimes.
But in the broader sense, this article is discrediting the test solely because people are making pitiful scores on it, why else write it?
Are you suggesting the study was politically motivated? If so, what's your evidence for that? And wouldn't they have still published the article if it had shown exactly the opposite -- i.e. that the Wonderlic perfectly predicted future NFL performance?
 

HartselleTider

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Jan 11, 2012
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The scholarly study done by the professors on the correlation between Wonderlic and NFL success makes sense. How does a low Wonderlic actually identify the better cornerbacks?

Because cornerback isn't an analytical position. It's a position based on technique, reflex, athletic ability, fluidity of hips, COD, and recovery speed. A high score on the Wonderlic is just as much of a red flag as a low score, particularly for CB's. It means you're subject overthink instead of react, thus not playing the game to your full speed.

Darrelle Revis only scored a 10.


I think items like this are where Gardner's Mulitiple Intelligence Theory in psychology gets it's strongest reliability and viability. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that Morris Claiborne was the best CB in college football last year? The NFL wants shutdown cornerbacks, not chemists. Kids like Claiborne score high in a different type of intelligence... bodily kinesthetic intelligence.

Emmitt Smith couldn't even put a coherent sentence together, which is why he was fired from ESPN.


I think it's also important to understand that the Wonderlic wasn't designed to be administered on athletes. There's a lot of word association, logic and reasoning on it, not necessarily a predictor, but more of a benchmark. A lot of players score high on these type of tests but can't play football to save their life.

It appears that Morris Claiborne was one of the few at LSU that never got into trouble or follow the crowd. He was a good kid who made good decisions both on and off the field. Perhaps he has a learning disability? Maybe test anxiety? Some of the most intelligent and successful people on the planet suffer from test anxiety.

I won't be surprised when this kid is a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate by the end of his rookie season.
 

CapstoneTider

Suspended
Dec 6, 2000
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That is not necessarily an end all statement as this is also a highly debatable topic too, and not by just me :)
 

CapstoneTider

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Dec 6, 2000
7,453
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Learning Disability - is a classification including several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors. The unknown factor is the disorder that affects the brain's ability to receive and process information.

Factor #1 Could not concentrate if teacher was hot and wore short skirt.
 

WMack4Bama

Administrator
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Nov 7, 2008
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One is led to wonder just how seriously some of the prospective draftees take the Wonderlic. Being a skeptic, it seems to me to be like the combine and the pro days - one more weapon to bargain down the players' agents. OTOH, being a lawyer, that's just the way I think...
The fact that the scores are to be held strictly confidential leads me to believe that some guys who are projected to go high don't take it too seriously. Every year something embarrassing like this leaks out, and every year somebody gets fired because of it
 

WMack4Bama

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 7, 2008
11,483
1,219
232
Tuscaloosa, AL
The scholarly study done by the professors on the correlation between Wonderlic and NFL success makes sense. How does a low Wonderlic actually identify the better cornerbacks?

Because cornerback isn't an analytical position. It's a position based on technique, reflex, athletic ability, fluidity of hips, COD, and recovery speed. A high score on the Wonderlic is just as much of a red flag as a low score, particularly for CB's. It means you're subject overthink instead of react, thus not playing the game to your full speed.

Darrelle Revis only scored a 10.


I think items like this are where Gardner's Mulitiple Intelligence Theory in psychology gets it's strongest reliability and viability. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that Morris Claiborne was the best CB in college football last year? The NFL wants shutdown cornerbacks, not chemists. Kids like Claiborne score high in a different type of intelligence... bodily kinesthetic intelligence.

Emmitt Smith couldn't even put a coherent sentence together, which is why he was fired from ESPN.


I think it's also important to understand that the Wonderlic wasn't designed to be administered on athletes. There's a lot of word association, logic and reasoning on it, not necessarily a predictor, but more of a benchmark. A lot of players score high on these type of tests but can't play football to save their life.

It appears that Morris Claiborne was one of the few at LSU that never got into trouble or follow the crowd. He was a good kid who made good decisions both on and off the field. Perhaps he has a learning disability? Maybe test anxiety? Some of the most intelligent and successful people on the planet suffer from test anxiety.

I won't be surprised when this kid is a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate by the end of his rookie season.
Thanks!!!!
 

CapstoneTider

Suspended
Dec 6, 2000
7,453
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0
The fact that the scores are to be held strictly confidential leads me to believe that some guys who are projected to go high don't take it too seriously. Every year something embarrassing like this leaks out, and every year somebody gets fired because of it
I can't envision how anyone going through the draft process could not take any aspect seriously. It would seem that you would be mentally stimulated being on the verge of signing a potential million $ contract and incapable of not taking something seriously that is part of the process. Not taking a portion seriously would be as great or greater red flag than the score on the wonderlic test :). Plus you have counsel and an agent. I would think that most of the potential draftees would be hyper serious. IMO.

This is different from strategically skipping tests or combines which is usually orchestrated by your selected council.
 

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