FSU footballer runs 44.38

I am a bit shocked actually, I'm pretty sure that is the fastest open 400 ever ran by a football player, and he's a freshman, damn~~~

The most accomoplished footballer/400m cat was Ollie Matson back in the early 50's, he won the Olympic bronze and a silver on the 4x4,

He is in the pro football Hall of Fame, a fantastic running back.

Footballers

Alvis Whitted

Rod Jones

Johnny Thomas

Russell Carter

Travis Hannah

Terry McDaneils

all ran the 400 just not that fast

Only one close was Larance Jones he was world ranked and had a 44.8 PR.

So this kid really is......special.

The 400m and football seem to contradict each other in my opinion. Very often do you see good 100/200 football players, but the higher you go up in the distance, the more weight tends to matter. Also, football favors high top end speed for very short periods of time (generally significantly less than 100m), so it's interesting to see a football players in a speed endurance event. Makes me think he should hang up the cleats and focus on the oval.

He is a WR, so this actually tracks. Receivers are usually taller and almost always leaner. A body type like DK Metcalf is rare at receiver. They are usually more like Davonta Smith, 6'-6'6" and like 170 to 210 lb. Same with Defensive Backs, they are usually fast guys who aren't big enough to be a RB, or tall enough to be a WR.

It is actually how my school composed our track team. The football coach was the throws coach, and "required" the varsity football team to run track. RBs were the short sprints. WRs/DBs were the long sprints, both those groups did jumps, Linemen/Linebackers were the throwers, QBs threw Jav. XC covered 800m and up, and the weird jugglers did PV.

It was the perfect formula.

My HS had a solid 4x4. I think they ran 4:17 or 4:16, well over a decade ago. All four of them were football players, all of them were receivers. One of them also ran the 800 in 1:58. The football program was pretty serious, they often trained twice a day and most of those guys were crazy fit.

Our 4x100 was almost all football players as well, a mix of receivers and RBs.

A rival school had an all star linebacker. Big dude, like 6'3" 230lbs. Muscular but also had 20 extra pounds of fat, not crazy lean. I'm pretty sure he won state in the discus. Anyway, they let him run an open 200m for "fun" once and I think he ran 21.9 or so. Nuts to witness, he embarrassed a lot of schools' top sprinters that day.

I’ve long been a proponent of coaches who make the football team compete in track & field during the spring. The gains in athleticism far outweigh the small risk of injury. It fills in the off-season training gap for the team and the kids are set up with an excellent conditioning base heading into summer training where they transition back to more football-specific training. “Track speed” is real!

This is super impressive. Only a freshman and he killed it.

espn.com

Micahi Danzy - Florida State Seminoles Running Back - ESPN

View the profile of Florida State Seminoles Running Back Micahi Danzy on ESPN. Get the latest news, live stats and game highlights.

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ESPN has him listed as a RB. He’s also a bit tall and underweight for that position (6’1 185 lbs). I wonder how he sees his athletic future considering he had 2 carries last season. It seems like most football/track guys tend to prefer the gridiron regardless of the discrepancy between football production and track results. Just look at Devon Allen.

Easy. Xavier Carter

FSU lists him as a WR

seminoles.com

Micahi Danzy - 2025 - Football - Florida State University

Micahi Danzy (19) WR - 2024: Appeared in four games while preserving redshirt…gained five yards on two rushes and caught one pass for 38 yards…made Florida S...

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Also according to his HS TFRRS he was a 10.5/20.8/45.8 in high school.

My high school ran 3:10 in 1967. I was much younger.

I ran one season of track on the same team as him, it was always fun to watch him hawk other teams down in the 4 x 400 back when he was running 47s. I think Micahi could go on to be a top Olympian if he continues focusing on track because his consistent year after year improvement is fantastic.

Wow. What a spring for the 400m. The US now has five of the top 10 men's 400m times (pretty normal) - and all five are under 44.4 - a time that only Quincy Hall beat in the 2024 Olympic Trials and would have gotten sixth in the Olympic Finals (Bailey was 44.58).

World rankings list gives 13 US athletes under 45.00 so far.

Granted, only one sub-44 so far, but it's May in a season with late championships and neither Norman, Hall, nor Benjamin have raced as far as I can tell.

After a few years, it seems like the US is back to dominating the 400m. Hope they'll finally take down the WR in the 4x400. And please, please can we make sure the US mixed 4x4 is so far ahead of the Dutch that Femke Bol is irrelevant?

That’s a pretty bad 4x4, even for football players.

The average height & weight of a NFL receiver is 6'0" 200 lbs.

sportskeeda.com

What’s the average height and weight for an NFL WR? Establishing baselines ahead of 2024 NFL Combine

Nick Igbokwe

With the 2024 NFL Combine around the corner, looking at one of the most important offensive positions on the gridiron is only fitting.

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Someone like Ja'Marr Chase is right on the money (6'0" 201 lbs).

Someone like Mike Evans at 6'5" 235 lbs would be considered to have elite size.

Someone like Xavier Worthy at 5'11" 165 lbs would be severely undersized & makes up with that lack of size with blistering 40 speed (4.21).