re: Why do so many great college athletes fail in the pros?

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The real answer is that in the vast majority of cases, what made them good in college was taken away at the next level.

Most of he great college players who weren't great in the pros exploited some weakness in college that can't be exploited against better competition.

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This is probably the best answer. It's really tough to have something you've been successful utilizing for your entire life...be rendered useless. Maybe not useless, but less effective. You first have to recognize you're failing. You have to trust someone to help remold your game, basically reinventing little aspects of things you've done FOREVER. That's hard to deal with. And athletes don't really have personalities that fit well with that type of situation.

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Why do so many great college athletes fail in the pros?

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They are probably not great college athletes. They were propped up appearing great.

Manziel, Tebow, Adam Morrison, Reddick. Just a few off the top of my head.

Why did Manziel struggle with LSU so much in college? Because their defense is built on speed. Alabama's was built on size, and he could exploit it.

In the NFL, defenses are fast, and Manziel struggles because he can't exploit the things that he could in college.

Just one example.

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Manziel, Tebow, Adam Morrison, Reddick. Just a few off the top of my head.

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I hate to sound like a broken record but Redick averaged over 16 ppg as a starter for a playoff team this year and nearly shot 50 40 90. He would probably be drafted a spot or two higher if his weak arse draft class was 'redrafted.' You might not want to include him next to guys who are out of their respective leagues or soon to be because it really doesnt help your argument.

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And he's had to re-invent his game just to be a good role player.

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He's like the opposite of the guys you named then But I agree in your assessment of the rest. They failed to diversify or modify their games to account for the superior physicality of the pros. It's not that Tebow is unathletic for his position in the NFL. He never developed the passing game to go along with it. You can get by in college on one skill but it takes a lot more than that to succeed in the pros. Morrison could never find a niche for himself in the league because he was a poor passer and defender, etc. Obviously his lack of athleticism hurt him, but had he a less one-sided game, he could have still found a role.

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For Basketball, look at Tyrus Thomas. Guy works hard, he just never was that skilled. Don't know that you'd call him great in college, but still.

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Um, the knock on him in the pros was that he didn't work hard enough

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Another guy is Tyler Hansbrough. Did he not work hard enough? Or was there just a piece of him game that could easily be exposed when playing against 5 of the best 100 basketball players in the world?

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Good one. Hansbrough was not going to get all the calls he got in college coming into the league. That was understood. He's a little undersized and plays below the basket, so he has that going against him. IMO, though, the real reason he's struggled to find a niche in the league beyond goon enforcer is because he's kind of a selfish player on the court and hasn't adjusted his game around that. He's used to the offense flowing through him, which was never going to be the case in the NBA. Still, when he got the ball in Indy, he tried to score every time, even if that's not what the team needed. His "1 on 5" game that was successful against lesser opponents in a strategically different college game was not going to work in the league, and he hasn't adjusted accordingly. He's not a tremendously great rebounder or defender or rim protector to account for it. So there's a physical aspect, but a lot of it is mental. These guys don't make the adjustments to their games.

Austin Rivers is the same way. Not that he was great in college, but for his reputation coming into college and then draft position..He's gone through his basketball career doing one thing - trying to blow by people with a quick first step. It worked for him in high school and mostly in college, but against slower and smaller opponents. If Rivers was a little bigger and stronger, it might work better in the NBA. So yea, his lack of size hurts him. But it comes down to him never adjusting his game or developing a jump shot (or a fricking free throw shot for that matter). When you can only do one thing, and not that well, you're a liability.

A guy that comes to mind for me is Mateen Cleaves. I think he was just undersized for the NBA. Never heard about his work ethic, but maybe that was a problem too.

Mateen Cleaves and Khalid El Amin, same guy. Great college PGs, step too slow or too short for the NBA level. El Amin went on to make millions in Europe, but just couldn't play at the very highest level.

maybe the unexpected nfl success stories were simply just collegiate failures.