This is actually interesting to think about, especially when you look at the stats. I know we all love Viska because he just finished up, BUT...
P Rich's best year, he had 83 catches for 1343 yards and 10 TDs. In his three years playing he averaged 52 catches 804 yards and 7 TDs.
Spruce's best year, he had 106 catches for 1198 yards and 12 TDs. In his four years playing he averaged 74 catches 837 yards and 6 TDs.
Viska's best year, he had 86 catches for 1011 yards and 6 TDs. In his three years playing he averaged 50 catches for 648 yards and 3 TDs.
Viska including rushing would have been at 64 catches/runs for 741 yards and 6 TD's
Each of these players had defenses focusing on stopping them. Spruce never had anyone else the defenses focused on too much because P Rich was young and out for one of those years. P. Rich did have Spruce distracting defenses and he didn't kill it when he did have that help (not enough footballs to go around in a bad offense?). Viska definitely had other people the defense had to pay some attention to even while primarily focused on Viska In P Rich's and Spruce's case the defenses had zero success slowing them down. In Viska's case, the defenses may have had some success, but it is hard to tell because of his injuries.
When factoring in the run Viska is comparable with P. Rich and Spruce from a stats perspective, but they were still better. When thinking of speed P Rich and Viska stand out. When you think of physical domination, Viska stands alone.
I loved watching them all, but maybe because I still can't figure out exactly how Spruce did it, I think I liked watching him best. I mean he wasn't burner, he wasn't explosive, he certainly wasn't physically imposing but he killed people anyway....HOW? No, really, HOW?? He never seemed to take plays off either.
Viska was probably the second most fun for me to watch, because of his ability to destroy guys and make it look like he was a pro playing against pee wee players. However, there were times I was really frustrated with him too...where he clearly didn't go 100% or would be out of games when CU needed him. This was frustrating but I have chalked it up to his injuries.
P Rich's last season was crazy fun to watch. Everyone knew the only place CU could throw the ball was to P Rich...and it worked anyway. Different beast than the other two, but fun to watch.
