Fantasy Football Collective

Ringer physically resembles Chargers' backup running back Darren Sproles, who was a week two sensation filling in for Ladainian Tomlinson in San Diego's close loss to Denver. Sproles, listed at 5'6", has been enormously effective on kick returns - 14 going for an average of 32.4 yards, 452 yards total, and one taken to the house. In limited carries, Sproles has been mostly uninspiring, but, when put in space, has proven to be shifty and dangerous, effortlessly taking a screen pass 66 yards for a score against an overpursuing Broncos defense.

Ringer's emergence came along with fullback Jehuu Caulcrick's in 2007, the two forming "thunder and lightning" tandem that threatens either size and speed, depending on who carries the ball. The pair led the Spartans to being second in the conference statistically in scoring offense and third in rushing. (Their almost-unstoppable combination of speed and size nearly sunk rival Michigan in the annual match-up, if not for golden-armed quarterback Chad Henne bailing the Wolverines out in the closing minutes of the game.)

In spite of 2007's 1447 yards and six touchdowns, Ringer was left off most 2008 preseason Big Ten watch lists in favor of Ohio State's Beanie Wells (remember him?) and Wisconsin's PJ Hill. However, Ringer has emerged as one of those Heisman candidates about whom everyone is saying that no one is saying anything. In spite of an incredibly strong first half of the season - Ringer has rushed a total of 475 times for 907 yards and ten touchdowns - there's probably a good reason for their ambivalence. Ringer doesn't have the ability to carry a game entirely on his shoulders - in the season-opening game to Cal in which he rushed 27 times for 81 yards and two scores, the Spartans still lost - but he's getting there. (And for the record, that Cal loss came because the Spartans fell behind and had to rely on the ghastly play of QB Brian Hoyer.)

Ringer's last 25 carries have come during MSU's close scrape against Iowa, a 16-13 victory during which Ringer's longest rush was for 29 yards. He was also held without a score for the first time this season - it was MSU's defense that ultimately bailed out the Spartans. So besides the usual gifts of field vision, cutback ability, and the strength to break through the first and second tackles, the question remains whether Ringer can remain both opportunistic and incredibly conditioned, a fourth-quarter athlete whose longest rushes often come against exhausted defenses - and whether he can carry the momentum he's created in the first half of the year into the second.

Not helping his draft case is his unspectacular play in goal line situations, evidenced by Notre Dame's fourth-quarter stand that kept Ringer out of the end zone on three straight tries, the last resulting in a five-yard loss and a clearly-fatigued Ringer buried under Irish defenders. In short yardage situations, he is unreliable as well, often sacrificing patience and field vision and remaining doggedly faithful to the play call, which results in running into the backs of his offensive linemen before he decides to do what he does best and bounce it outside.

This running-into-the-back-of-the-line, however, isn't necessarily a bad thing. The main advantage an undersized tailback like Ringer can have in the NFL (besides his speed) is the ability to hide behind his offensive line, keeping the defense in the dark as to his location until he emerges from the fray running at top speed. Tampa Bay's Earnest Graham used this strategy to become a Top 10 fantasy back in 2007 (interestingly, both Graham and Ringer are listed at 5'9"). Ringer's role, like Graham's, could be on short, fullback-style handoffs like the one Graham scored on against Green Bay last week; or on goal-line toss plays, where the ex-Spartan will be able to bounce to the outside faster than the defense.

Of course, his draft status depends on his combine, on whether he can stay healthy - the usual fluff. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he went undrafted and signed into free agency, like Denver's Selvin Young, another undersized tailback who plays well in space. So while NFL players become quicker and the league, taking power for granted, begins to focus more on speed, running backs like Sproles - and, hopefully, Ringer -  will start to emerge as true fantasy steals, much more so than the bruising backs of yesteryear, whose values have begun to fade. Ringer's place, if there is one, will be on an offense that has learned how to cope with speedy defenses by playing the game in space, where the undersized tailback's best chances exist of breaking the long run for a touchdown.