FanPost

A Wide Receiver Addendum: Chris Vaughn

I just heard from Mike Rutherford, bassist for Genesis...um, no, sorry, this Mike Rutherford runs the Louisville Cardinals site for SBNation, CardChronicle (catchy name). He gave me some insight into recently-signed wide receiver, Chris Vaughn.

Here's what he had to say:

Vaughn was highly-touted enough to sign with Notre Dame out of high school, but wound up at Louisville after some disciplinary problems forced him to leave South Bend after his freshman year. At U of L, he was suspended for one game during his sophomore season after being arrested for shooting paint balls into a crowd, but that was the only trouble he was ever in here.

His talent was easy to spot in practice and led to high expectations for his junior and senior seasons when the Cardinal receiving corps was fairly depleted. When Louisville's top two receivers went down with injuries before the start of last season, Vaughn was specifically called out as a guy who needed to step up. Instead, he continued to show flashes of brilliance but maintain totally pedestrian numbers. His Cardinal career was summed up perfectly during his Senior Day game against West Virginia when he made a tremendous catch downfield on a key 3rd and long and then promptly picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty two seconds later.

To sum up: there's certainly talent there, but you'll never be able to spot it if whatever wasn't clicking during his college career doesn't miraculously slide into place relatively soon.

After the troubles he's had with Robert Meachem, I don't understand why Payton would want to take on another problem-child receiver. On the other hand: if I recall correctly, Marques Colston was regarded as a player with work ethic issues coming out of Hofstra. I don't know if he changed after being drafted, or if the rep he had was undeserved; but there's a bit of hope that coming under Sean Payton's tutelage may help straighten out a talented player.

Thanks, Mike!

This FanPost was written by a reader and member of Canal Street Chronicles. It does not necessarily reflect the views of CSC and its staff or editors.