Willis McGahee darted right with that short pass that night against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, took that heavy helmet hit on the left knee, and everybody watching across America couldn't help but feel the All-American's pain.

Here was this uncommonly fast, unusually elusive third-year sophomore running back for Miami, lying there on the Arizona grass, his ACL and MCL ligaments torn up, just like that megamillion-dollar check that would have come with being one of the top picks in this April's NFL draft.

"In my heart, I felt it happened to my brother," said Georgia junior tight end Ben Watson, who took in the game at his home in Rock Hill, S.C. "I've never met McGahee, but I watched him all year and I admired how he played football. When I saw that happen to him, I felt really bad for him."

"I don't want to see that happen to anyone, especially a guy of his status, which would've been a top-five pick easily," Oregon junior running back Onterrio Smith said. "He was by far one of the best players in the nation this year. For that to happen, it just was a disaster."

The shock waves through college football had to especially hit the guys still thinking about coming out early and applying for the draft before their deadline this past Wednesday, guys staring at the frightening sight of what could possibly happen to them if they stayed another year and didn't try to cash in now.

Several of the 30 who are known to have submitted their paperwork had already made up their minds to go pro before McGahee got hurt. Several who decided after that Jan. 3 national championship game said they had other reasons and the unsettling event wasn't a factor. But a few did admit that the McGahee injury played a part in their choice to come out.

Smith was one. Watson was another. While McGahee did make the controversial decision to come out as well, Watson said the devastating injury had to reinforce in the minds of many early-entry players that they were doing the right thing.

"I think it does for a lot of people," said Watson, who has the 72-hour option to change his mind along with all the rest. "I mean, football is a crazy game. It can end in a split second. I can't blame anybody for trying to leave now and trying to get what they can get while they're healthy.

"That had an effect on my decision. I don't want to say it was a great one because you can get your knee torn up in the NFL or college. That's just part of the game. But I know I thought about that a little bit."

Smith, a first-team All-Pac-10 tailback, thought about the injury risk more than a little bit.

"That was my whole thought process in making my decision," he said. "I had a little nicked-up knee at the end of the season. It was nothing major.

"But after seeing McGahee get injured like that, my thoughts were, 'I don't want that to happen to me.' "

Georgia had more early-entry players than any other program, losing four, including Watson and its own standout junior running back, Sugar Bowl MVP and All-SEC first-teamer Musa Smith.

"You could have some of these representatives tell these individuals about incidents that happen like that, but they have a short history," said Vince Dooley, Georgia's athletic director and former coach. "So most of them are listening to what you're saying, but when you see it firsthand, then it's part of their living history. No doubt, it has some influence."

"I think what really happens is it reduces to an analysis of two factors,' said Jack Reale, Musa Smith's Atlanta-based agent, who was hired after the go-pro decision had been made. "One is the risk of injury, and second of all, the arithmetic of money now earlier in your career than you might otherwise get it."

Between the injury and the money, there has been a great debate about whether McGahee did the right thing coming out. Before the Fiesta Bowl, he took out a $2.5 million insurance policy against a career-ending injury, allowing him to play three more college or pro games and still collect.

But he has said that he doesn't plan to collect, that one of his physicians, the renowned Dr. James Andrews, feels he could be ready to play next season despite the reconstructive surgery, and that he has been told he can make a full recovery.

"I think that anyone who tells you they know, including the doctor who did it, is stepping out of bounds," said Lee Corso, the ESPN college football analyst.

An NFL team will still probably take a chance on him at some point in the draft, hoping he will recover those sensational skills that helped him set Miami records of 1,753 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns this past season - even if he has to sit out part or all of next season.

Art Weiss, the Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based agent for Wayne Chrebet and Dennis O'Sullivan from the Jets as well as six senior draft hopefuls, among others, said even without knowing the rehab schedule that "it would be unlikely that a club would expend any kind of high-round pick on him at this stage."

The Heisman finalist could have stayed on with the Hurricanes' program, rehabbed the knee and eventually tried to reestablish his value.

"I wouldn't be sure that he would be able to play next year," Onterrio Smith said, "but I feel he should've at least went back to school and not made that jump this year."

NFL.com's Gil Brandt disagrees.

"I'll tell you why I think he did the right thing," the former Dallas Cowboys vice president of player personnel said. "If you are drafted by a team, that team is going to have you in its city, and that team is going to be watching you daily and have their people working with you daily. ...

"Teams will try to be fair to players. We drafted Roger Staubach and Herschel Walker in later rounds. If you see somebody is going to be a player and you realize his worth, then you structure a contract so that he can eventually make up a lot of what he lost."

Originally published Tuesday, January 21, 2003