College Football: As the Pros See Them

From end to end, the starting line averages 239 lbs. per man. The fullback runs the 100 in 10 sec. flat, and he is only the third fastest man on the team. The four backs, between them, have accounted for 25 touchdowns. It is the best college football team in the U.S.—but it exists only on paper. All season long, perched in some remote corner of the stadium, immune to the blare of the band and the frenzy of the fans, the professional football scout sits with notebook and binoculars, looking for tomorrow's men among today's boys. Last week, as they prepared to back their choices with cash (and lots of it) in the annual players draft, the scouts of both professional leagues took time out to compile their dream team of the nation's top prospects. TIME's pro-picked 1963 All-America:

∙ QUARTERBACK: Roger Staubach, 21, Navy, 6 ft. 2 in., 190 lbs. At first, the pros were lukewarm about Staubach (TIME cover, Oct. 18). "He's a scrambler, a rollout quarterback," said one. "He doesn't play the pro game." But 1,738 yds. and 15 TDs later, Roger is the No. 1 choice of 17 out of 22 pro teams. Says Coach Buddy Parker of the Pittsburgh Steelers: "For his position, the best college player I've ever seen." The "book" on Roger: "Very accurate, shifty, strong, great peripheral vision, unmatched at hitting secondary receivers. A perfect pro quarterback." There is one catch: Staubach may never play pro ball. He has another year to go at Annapolis and four more in the Navy. Sighs one pro scout: "It's too bad we can't get him married off so he'd have to quit the Academy." Muses another: "Maybe he's got flat feet?" After Staubach, who? In the year of the quarterback "it's a tossup," says one scout. Nevertheless, the majority choice is Southern Cal's Pete Beathard, 21 (6 ft. 2 in., 205 lbs.). "A winner all his life," reads a report. "Capable of throwing the bomb." Scouts fret that Miami's George Mira, 21 (5 ft. 11 in., 180 lbs.), may be too small, but he will be a high draft choice ("He'll have a lot of money waved in his face"), as will Boston College's Jack Concannon, 20 (6 ft. 3 in., 200 lbs.), "a Paul Hornung-type back."

∙ HALFBACKS: Mel Renfro, 22, Oregon, 6 ft., 195 lbs.; and Paul Warfield, 20, Ohio State, 6 ft., 178 lbs. "The days of the pony back are over," says one scout. "And by pony I mean everyone weighing much under 200 lbs. With these big defensive lines, you have to run big, fast bull elephants." Oregon's Renfro is just what the zoologist ordered. He runs the high hurdles, is a 9.7-sec. dash man, plows into tacklers "with reckless abandon and no regard for his personal safety." Ohio State's Warfield will have to put on pounds, but he is "the complete pro prospect—with the instinctive savvy to do the right things and be in the right places." Pittsburgh's Paul Martha, 21 (6 ft. 1 in., 184 lbs.), is almost certain to be drafted in the first round as a flanker or a defensive halfback.