Opinion by Greg Hansen : Staying at UA would be a classy decision

Here is the problem: Without doing any research, I can list eight Arizona running backs from the Pac-10 years who were better than Henry, and none played in the NFL:

Gary Taylor, Clarence Farmer, Ontiwaun Carter, Billy Johnson, David Eldridge, Brian Holland, Reggie McGill and Art Greathouse.

The UA's David Adams, who played in a few strike-era games for the 1987 Dallas Cowboys, was 5 feet 6 inches and maybe 165 pounds when he did so. He was so much better than Chris Henry, so much more intuitive on the field, that it is not worth discussing.

Adams gained 2,571 yards at Arizona, getting the big yards when it was absolutely necessary to get the big yards, against USC and ASU and everybody. Adams was the key offensive component on teams that went 8-3-1 and 9-3.

Henry has not even played in the type of meaningful games that Adams played in and has a career rushing total of 892 yards. His average gain is 3.3 yards per carry, a full yard less than Adams' career average.

That 1 yard per carry is the difference between average and good.

Yet because Henry is likely to go to the NFL Combine workouts and post the fastest times on a shuttle course and over 40 yards, and because he can probably do more push-ups and chin-ups than anyone at the combine, he is apt to be a fifth- or seventh-round draft choice and get a $50,000 signing bonus and a $350,000 salary (non-guaranteed, as are most NFL contracts).

If Henry is daring enough to bypass his senior season at Arizona, to leave school before he first learns how to be an every-down tailback, before he gains even 600 yards in a season, he must know something we don't.

Either that or he is getting some bad advice.

We wish him the best and move on. Running backs are in abundant supply in college football. After all, the UA doubled its win total after Mike Bell moved on to the Denver Broncos.

But I cannot say the same about UA junior cornerback Antoine Cason, an accomplished, all-conference player who is similarly tempted to bolt for the NFL.

Cason is everything good about college football. He is a student leader, responsible academically, a first-team All-Pac-10 player and good with the public. He is one of the few players the UA makes available for media interviews after all games.

He can someday be in the Pro Bowl.

You trust that his father, former NFL defensive back Wendell Cason, is orchestrating his son's exploration of the 2007 draft. Who would know better than Wendell Cason?

Antoine, however, is just 20, and, at 180 pounds, probably 10 pounds shy of what an NFL cornerback should be.

As good as he is, Cason has not yet duplicated the seasons that got former UA cornerbacks Darryll Lewis, Randy Robbins and Chris McAlister into the NFL.

McAlister also wanted to jump to the NFL after his junior season, 1997, but botched it by sending his paperwork 24 hours past the early-entry deadline. At the time, McAlister had already been a two-time All-Pac-10 cornerback and was projected to be, as Cason would be now, someone worth drafting in the middle rounds, possibly No. 100 to 150 overall.

When McAlister reported for his senior season in August 1998, he had gained 14 pounds and was NFL-caliber at 204.

By returning for his senior season, in which he was the nation's No. 1 special teams player and a consensus All-America cornerback with 18 career interceptions (Cason has eight), McAlister became the No. 11 overall pick in the 1999 draft.

McAlister's first NFL contract was worth $7.4 million, covering 1999 to 2002. When that contract expired he signed a deal that paid him $5.7 million in 2003, $10.5 million in 2004, $8.4 million last season and $8.5 million this year.

That is roughly $40 million, which is off the charts for a cornerback. Better yet, at 29, McAlister is positioned to earn another $10 million to $20 million before retiring.

The key to McAlister's financial health is that he did not leave school in 1997 as a mid-round draft choice, when he was not physically ready to be an NFL starter.

By comparison, one of his UA teammates of 1998, All-Pac-10 guard Yusuf Scott — voted the league's top offensive lineman as a junior — skipped his senior year and was drafted in the fifth round. Scott's contract included an $85,500 signing bonus and yearly salaries of $175,000, $250,000 and $325,000.

By the end of Scott's initial contract, in 2001, he had never been a starter and was never able to establish himself. Scott did not get another contract and except for a brief fling in NFL Europe has been out of football.

Do you think he would like to do it over?

Do you think Cason and Henry could benefit from talking to Yusuf Scott and Chris McAlister?

They should make those calls today.