The 2008 NFL Draft

I was busy on Saturday with a wedding and picking my mother up at the airport, so I spent Day One of the NFL Draft trying to pick up the signals of various sports radio stations between Washington DC and Martinsburg, WV broadcasting the draft.  No existing players (Shockey, Taylor, Johnson) were traded, but teams swapped picks right and left to reposition themselves.  I spent part of Day Two flipping between the ESPN and the NFL Network coverage to take in the differences when I wasn’t watching the Wizards lose to the Cavaliers.  So for my spambot readers, my takes on what happened:

Washington Redskins - I’m not as bent out of shape about the Redskins burning their first three picks on two WRs and a pass catching TE.  Thomas Boswell in The Washington Post and Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin on Clear Channel’s Sports Talk 980 were quite angry about the moves, particularly the repetition of filling needs, or spending a higher pick for depth only.  If one of those picks had been in the first round (the Redskins traded their first round #21pick to move back), I might be as upset.

Michigan State WR Devin Thomas and Southern California TE were decent “value” picks where they were taken.  I would have preferred Notre Dame DT Trevor Laws in place of Thomas, but whatever.  It’s worth noting that two guys I would have liked to seen drafted by Washington, Clemson DE Philip Merling and Laws, were drafted two picks and one pick, respectively, ahead of the Redskins spots.  Perhaps this is what passes for Plan B for them.  The selection of Oklahoma WR Malcom Kelly was gratuitous, but well, these are the Redskins.  I’m just happy they didn’t trade all the picks for old kick return specialists.  Even this is a great improvement.

The only Day Two picks I want to talk about are Georgia Tech P Durant Brooks and University of Hawaii QB Colt Brennan.  The Redskins just resigned their meh quality P Derrick Frost, but he’s disposable.  My real hope if Brooks beats out Frost for the job, is that Brooks can kickoff.  Ever since Chip Lohmiller appeared in a McDonald’s commercial and his career fell apart, the Redskins have had neither kicker nor punter capable of consistently deep kickoffs.  PK Shawn Shuisham’s kickoffs are dreadful.  During the short time Frost had
the kickoff job he was a little bit better, but his mediocre punting degenerated into bad.

I don’t like Brennan as an NFL QB.  I dislike his arm strength and decision making.  The decision making can be fixed and combined with his mobility (which should not be confused with actual running ability) that might make him a serviceable CFL QB.  It’s not a guarantee though, June Jones’ previous disciple at Hawaii, Timmy Chang, was quickly benched after starting for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last year.  A 34.7 QB rating (on 89 attempts) will do that to you.  If all Brennan does is hold a clipboard, do good work on the scout team and get the Redskins a player from the British Columbia Lions in a few years, it’s OK.  What, NFL and CFL teams can’t trade?  Ohh, maybe not.  In all seriousness, I wouldn’t be surprised if former Maryland QB Sam Hollenbach, currently on the roster as a minicamp arm, beats out Brennan during training camp.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers - First rounder CB Aqib Talib (University of Kansas), fourth rounder DT Dre Moore (University of Maryland) and sixth rounder LB Geno Hayes (Florida State) are typical athletic Buc reloads for the defense.  I have no other comments of worth.

WR Dexter Jackson of Evil Appalachian State was the Bucs second round pick.  He’s the classic 5′9″ kick-returning, reverse running, screen pass catching, Hell-on-Earth-with-the-ball-in-space guy.  The Bucs need all kinds of competent WR help, so if he can do any of that at the NFL level (embarrassing last year’s bewildered University of Michigan team is only a start) he’ll have been a good pick.

As speculated before the draft, the Bucs got University of San Diego QB Josh Johnson in Round 5.  I didn’t know that San Diego’s program had jumped up to Division I-AA, but against that competition Johnson put up insane (68.8% completion rate, 113TDs to 16 INTs) numbers and had the best 40 yard dash time (4.55 seconds) and vertical leap (33.5″) of any QB at the combine.  Interestingly, Johnson was not listed as a top performer for the 20 yard shuttle run or the three cone drill.  Anyway, the downside for Johnson is that he is in Tampa and might get forgotten along with the three other youngish QBs nominally on the Bucs roster.  One of the draftheads on TV said Gruden knows how to develop QBs.  Whom has he done that with since ascending to HC?  As a HC, Gruden’s best QBs have been Rich Gannon, Jeff Garcia, Brad Johnson and Brian Griese, all veterans with previous success.

Back to Johnson, he may be a bit scrawny (height is 6′3″ but weight is anywhere from 198 to 213 lbs.) and he’ll have to adjust from playing “low” I-AA ball in the Pioneer League.

Stupid Jets - Ownership, coaches, management changes, but for the fourth time in sixteen years the Jets saw fit to spend a first round draft pick on a TE, Purdue’s very fast and formerly (IIRC he was 6′1″ at the combine, now he’s 6′3″?) very short Dustin Keller.  It was the 30th pick, so at least it wasn’t a high pick, like Kyle Brady with the 9th pick back in 1995.  The Jets got modest, if useful play out of the TE spot last year from Chris Baker, so adding the second coming of Byron Chamberlain (20 more catches, 3 more TDs, 200 more yards?) doesn’t seem worth a first round pick.

Anecdotally, I remember driving up to New York at the end of the Jets appalling 1996 season when it was obvious the number one overall pick (ultimately Keyshawn Johnson) was headed their way.  WFAN wise-guy host Steve Summers said the obvious choice was “the All-American from Rutgers, TE Marco Battaglia.”

Better Run Bastards Up North (Ravens) - Ozzie Newsome is a Hall of Fame TE and a great GM.  His main inability is (in conjunction with “genius” ex-HC Brian Billick) finding QBs.  After spending the 19th pick in the 2003 draft on a QB who should be a H-back, Kyle Boller, the Ravens reached a bit to get the University of Delaware’s cannon-armed Joe Flacco.  Flacco is very talented, but will have to make a multi-level adjustment to NFL defender speed, and my worthless gut instincts thought he was a second rounder.  Hue Jackson, once upon a time saddled with the thankless job of OC for the Steve Spurrier Redskins, gets to “coach up” Flacco to the NFL game.  In the meantime, some combination Kyle Boller (probably too slow these days to be returning kicks) and Troy Smith (anonymous Heisman trophy winner) will hold things down in Baltimore, meaning handoff and pitch to Willis McGahee.  Flacco is growing, I think ESPN.com College Football had him at 6′4″ at the end of the season, ESPN.com Scouts Inc. had him at 6′6″3/8 for the draft and now NFL.com and the Washington Post have him at 6′7″.  How long before he starts challenging Mark McGwire’s brother Dan (6′9″) for tallest QB to play in the NFL?

The Purple and Black Birds also drafted two interesting safeties, Notre Dame’s Tom Zbikowski in round three and University of Cincinnati’s Hideki Nakamura in round six.  Zbikowski was previously mentioned on this blog as a guy I thought graduated two years ago.  He’s a pretty good punt returner, a ferocious hitter and I think a Golden Gloves boxer and minor league baseball player.  Nakamura I only saw once last year and I can’t recall anything special about his play.  I’m a humorously sad that he’s not some Japanese guy who hopped off a plane to play football in Cincinnati, but just some guy with a Japanese father who grew up in Ohio.

In the Navy Army - Finally, the Lions used a seventh round pick on West Point S Caleb Campbell.  Campbell is large (6′2″ 223lbs.), fast (4.5 allegedly) and the U.S. Army is giving him an exemption from service to play in the NFL.  It’s actually described over at Campbell’s NFL.com draft profile as a reserve recruiter assignment with an option for buyout.  The deal sounds vaguely similar to that given by the U.S. Navy to David Robinson for the NBA and Napoleon McCallum for the NFL.  The theory is that Campbell’s on field work, if he makes the team, will help Army recruiting enough to compensate for his absence in the actual officer corps.  He’s the subject of piece on ESPN’s maudlin E:60 news magazine, which I’ll have to watch some time.

“Neglect Among the Action” - College Football Edition

Spring Games have been afoot recently. I watched part of the University of Florida game featuring Tim Tebow. This is strange from a guy who used to watch Redskins pre-season scrimmages, but I’m vaguely uncomfortable with ESPN being present for a Spring Game. I know the games, which are controlled scrimmages, often draw big five-digit audiences, particularly in SEC and Big-12 country, but I have an undefined displeasure at these being made national events.

Rich Rodriguez was hired to bring a new vision for University of Michigan football. While the vision comes in to place, he has brought drama:

• The great lawsuit wars between Rodriguez and West Virginia University continues on. I really need to sit down and figure out who is suing whom and all the sordid accusations that have been leaked to the media.
• OL Justin Boren, of whom I know nothing, has announced he is transferring to Ohio State a move made only slightly less shocking by the fact he grew up in Columbus, Ohio. His official reason is that the olde tyme Maize and Blue ‘family values have eroded.’
• QB Ryan Mallett, who performed competently as a Freshman filling in while Chad Henne was hurt, has transferred, since he’s not up to running Rodriguez’s spread-option offense.
• Other Big Ten coaches, specifically Purdue’s Joe Tiller and Ohio State’s Jim Tressel have criticized Rodriguez’s recruiting ethics.
• Rather naturally, the Wolverines are getting adjusted to Rodriguez’s schemes: the spread-option on offense (from the I-formation, used for generations at UM) and a variable front defense (from the 4-3, which I think has been run at UM for 15 or so years).

Three members of the U.S. House of Representatives have asked the Department of Justice to look into whether the BCS violates anti-trust laws. The three, whose names are unworthy of mention, are likely pandering to their respective constituencies as victims of the BCS, those being Hawaii (University of Hawaii), Georgia (University of Georgia) and Idaho (Boise State University ). Good thing there isn’t a war on or anything. I immensely dislike the BCS, but this is stupid. It reminds me of the time a couple of years ago a legislator in the R.O.C. Taiwan proposed a bill asking the New York Yankees not to send Chen-Ming Wang back to AAA. These politicians either do not, or choose not to understand big money sports.

Georgia was angry at being hosed out of the Rose Bowl and/or the National Championship Game, so they destroyed Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. Hawaii fans spent much of the season grousing about not being ranked higher in the BCS rankings, but the abuse they took from Georgia would seem to indicate they’re only BCS worthy by statute. Their probably also bitter about being humiliated on national broadcast television by Georgia. I’m not sure what BSU would be crabby about, their 2007 BCS victory in the Fiesta Bowl over Oklahoma was memorable and historical. The Broncos were not BCS quality this year.

The usual number of players were kicked off of their teams for the usual range of arrests: robbery, domestic violence (attention college football players! Do not hit your women, do not move in with them), drug and weapons possession, sexual assault, various fighting related charges.

Reader Service Stewart and Rancher

Apparently this blog is drawing search engine hits for Auburn University FB Carl Stewart and University of Massachusetts WR Rasheed Rancher and their hopes in the NFL draft. Considering I’ve mentioned each guy once, I have to give credit to WordPress for getting that into the search engines.

I can’t say I saw Stewart play at all this year (his posted stats are typical for a blocking FB) and there’s little point in my regurgitating his draft evaluations from Scouts, Inc. (supporting ESPN) or NFLDraftScout.com (supporting NFL.com). He posted good combine performances at the 225lbs. bench press, vertical and broad jumps, so maybe he can audition for American Gladiators. It’s mathematically possible we have another Franco Harris situation (Harris was mostly a blocking FB at Penn State and had a Pro Football Hall of Fame career as a RB), but I’d guess if Stewart gets into the NFL, he’s got a career of special teams goonery ahead of him. Still a lucrative, if painful way to make a living. Get read up on investing Carl, you’ll make six figures but it’ll be touch and go with your roster spot.

Rancher was a bullet off my first ever post and his case is more interesting to me. His career numbers are unexceptional for a college starter. Averaged a little over 20 catches a year, 16.X per catch average, 3-4 TDs, as a red-shirt sophmore and junior (couldn’t beat out Brandon Hasselbeck for playing time?), then made the big jump as a senior to 49 catches, 20.6 yards per catch, 9 TDs.

However, Rancher is very (6′5″) tall. The NFL loves tall receivers. Yet Rancher merited neither a NFL Combine invite nor did he make the ESPN.com draft prospect list. He was on none of the rosters for the big post-season all-star games, the Senior and Hula Bowls, the East-West Shrine Game and the Texas vs. the Nation game. What did Rancher do wrong not to warrant at least a look? Is he really slow in ways a fan like myself can’t see? Does he really suck after watching his gamefilm? Is he sick of football and wants to do something else? All quite possible, but I’m puzzled. There are a number of other tall WRs in this year’s draft class, but it’s not like the class is overflowing with them. For what it’s worth, according to the ESPN list Indiana University WR James Hardy is 6′5-1/2″ (not 6′7″ as he was at one point) and their tallest receiver is Stanford’s Evan Moore at 6′5-3/8″.

University of Richmond WR Arman Shields, who like Rancher played in the CAA, got an invite to Combine and he was out most of last year with injuries. He had 14 catches in three games for 125 yards. His previous season numbers are better than Rancher’s but not exceptional. He’s 6′1″, a bit above NFL average but not dramatically so. Now Shields did very well at the combine, tied (among WRs) for second in the vertical leap at 37.5″ and eighth in 40 yard dash at 4.44 seconds, so he’s worth taking a look at. But not Rancher? Maybe a undrafted free-agent mini-camp invite then?

I’ve never understood the logic of who gets scouted as a good prospect. Perhaps if you show enough flaws that your measurables don’t help, you never make the lists we in the general public see. About ten years ago, back when tall pocket passing QBs still had value, North Carolina’s QB was a guy named Chris Keldorf. UNC ran a reasonably pro-like system and Keldorf was (at least by UNC stats, so have salt ready) 6′5″and 240lbs. After his senior season, when UNC was 11-1 and Keldorf was Gator bowl MVP, he never got much mention as a prospect. Never turned up in any pro football league I followed. Did he have flaws? From what I can dimly remember, yes. But what was wrong about Keldorf that wasn’t wrong in back-up QB to the stars Matt Cassel? Cassel who backed-up Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at Southern Cal is now on his fourth season in the NFL backing up Tom Brady. Us amateurs have barely seen this guy play when a game mattered, but he can make it. As Jim Mora, Sr. was famously quoted as saying about those of us outside “You don’t know and you’ll never know.”

Flapdoodle and Bosh

So College Signing Day passed a couple of weeks ago. I can’t even feign an interest in high school football and I never pay much attention to how Michigan, JMU or Maryland did in recruiting. The only thing making this period interesting for me was the kid in Nevada who faked being recruited to Oregon and California and was caught.

Listening to one-dimensional college sports fans is a Lake Wobegon experience: everybody has one of the top college recruiting classes. This is inevitably brought up when fans bitch about their coach “we had one of the top recruiting classes in the country, but now they all suck!” I have a friend who is a JMU sports cultist (even in I-AA football and mid-major men’s basketball this exists) who regularly proclaims this about our alma mater.

In a similar vein, the NFL Combine is now upon us. I do watch this. The spectacle is amusing enough and it’s always fun to file away spectacular performances to impress your friends later. As much time as they spend covering it, even the NFL Network guys admit that this is just running and jumping in spandex and that real game play is more important.

Another thing I like is the official height and weight measurements are published. You can go back and see how much college sports information staffs lie about their players during the regular college season. At the height of his junior year Heisman push, Heath Shuler grew to 6′4″ before showing up in Washington at 6′2″. Despite the linking of combine and draft information is on various internet sites this still happens some, except for running backs. It’s less likely these days to see RB sizes make the “consensus drift” from whatever they were in college to 6′, 225 lbs. I was very surprised not to see Adrian Peterson’s height and weight drift to that last year and so far neither Darren McFadden nor Jonathon Stewart’s measurables has either.

So far Chris, son of Howie, Long has performed well enough to consider being stood up as a 3-4 end-backer. So had Ohio State end-backer Vernon Gholston. Dexter Jackson, WR from Evil Appalachian State, camein with a very nice 4.37 in the 40. The Redskins already have two guys like him, but there should be room in the gawdawful Buccaneer receiver corps of Joey Galloway and some dudes. Outside of his rookie year, Michael Clayton has been so injured and unproductive, letting George Clooney play in a leather helmet might be as good. Everybody likes what Arkansas RB Darren McFadden and Michigan OT Jake (no known relation to Howie) Long did.

So far, top 40 yard dash time is East Carolina RB Chris Johnson with 4.24 seconds, top 225lbs. bench press is a tie between Gholston and Jake Long with 37 reps, top vertical leap is 39″ for Auburn RB Carl Stewart, at a position where it probably doesn’t matter. Among WRs and DBs it’s a tie between Tennessee State DB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Kentucky WR Keenan Burton at 38.5″ with Purdue’s Dustin Keller top TE at 38″.

Overcome By Time: Bowls of Many Kinds

I got lazy and fell behind on blogging about several bowl games I watched. Let’s get caught up shall we…

The Super Bowl - Perhaps it was because I was slightly rooting for the Patriots, but this Super Bowl didn’t feel like one of the best ever while watching it. Only after thinking about did I realize that this was a really great game. I won’t say greatest I’ve ever seen. Leaving out those where I had a rooting interest, that honor still goes to Super Bowl XXV with the Giants and Bills or XXXII with the Broncos and Packers. Historically, Super Bowls I, III, V, VII, XXII, XXIII, XXXIV are of at least equal merit. However the stopping of the undefeated Patriots Machine, with Glitter Boy QB and Coach Evil is a great achievement. So is the neat achievement of having consecutive Manning brothers win the Super Bowl. The manner of the victory, late in the fourth quarter, keyed with Eli Manning scrambling out of the pass rush to throw a pass completed after a spectacular catch by career special teams goon David Tyree to set up a winning touchdown. Dan Patrick, on his syndicated radio show, spent last week trying to generate names for the catch. I think he settled on “The Clutch.”

Since a New York team is involved, the noise around the game was a bit overblown. Eli Manning’s hot streak has be interpreted as his ascension to elite status; I’m in the pool of fans who want to wait until next year. I’m still convinced he has an above average career, but nothing more ahead of him. The Giants, as underdogs are wont to do, cast themselves as the greatest underdogs ever, a bunch of rogue misfits, blah , blah. As if no other teams would want Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, Antonio Pierce or Palxico Burress among others. Most football journalists and broadcasters went with the Patriots, but it’s not like no one picked the Giants. Paul “Dr. Z” Zimmerman and Merrill Hoge were among the few who went with New York.

Pro Bowl - I actually watch this stupid thing most years. I’m a sucker for all star games and watching everybody kind of goof around and wear strange uniforms is fun. What I saw of this year’s same was fine. I missed Adrian Peterson’s performance which was the main highlight. I was surprised that Umenyiora showed up for the game; lots of guys who play in the Super Bowl don’t show for the Pro Bowl. Then again, he was the only Giant. Not that unusual to my recollection that the Super Bowl champs don’t have a lot of guys in the Pro Bowl.

Most jarring for me was seeing Chris Samuels and Chris Cooley on the field at the same time wearing the number ‘21′ jersey. The Redskins announced that all the team’s Pro Bowlers would wear the number ‘21′ in honor Sean Taylor, but it saddened me to be reminded of his murder. The Washington Post ran a nice picture the day after the Pro Bowl with Cooley, Samuels and long snapper Ethan Albright walking together on the sidelines wearing number ‘21.’

Senior Bowl - No overriding narrative from me watching the game, just random notes.

• Colt Brennan (Hawaii) started for the South and looks like the Arena League QB I think he is. He’s sloppy and telegraphed the throws I saw. He has tools to be a CFL QB, but needs some time in the AFL.
• Jacob Hester (LSU) lined up some at FB, but I didn’t see much from him. At his size he shouldn’t play FB in the NFL. He’s got a nice Ladell Betts/Aaron Stecker career of short-term starter, third-down and utility special teams back ahead of him.
• Chad Henne (Michigan) made a crap throw on his first TD pass, but Lavelle Hawkins (California) made a terrific adjustment to make the score.
• Sedrick Ellis (Southern Cal) and Turner Laws (Notre Dame) had very good games on the DL. Ellis won this year’s Pat Tillman award for Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year.
• Dan Connor (Penn State) always made his tackles but seemed to show some of his lack of bulk. I’m guessing his 230 lbs. list weight is an upward exaggeration. Still he is in place to make the plays, and there’s time to bulk up (hopefully legally) in the NFL.
• Matt Forte (Tulane) had a great game as a RB and earned his MVP award.
• Not a lot of punting, but Matt Dragosavich (North Dakota State) hit a fantastic 69 yard punt.
• Helmets - Kentucky got nice new ones and I didn’t notice. Then again, they don’t usually get the SEC national game on CBS. The LSU guys were wearing white LSU helmets, which I’ve never seen until this game.
• Guys who I saw play well, but of whom I have little other intelligent comment: Wesley Woodyard OLB Kentucky (small), Martin Rucker TE Missouri, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie DB Tennessee State (skinny), Harry Douglas WR Louisville, Andre (brother of Reche) Caldwell WR Florida.
• Other Stuff - Part of the game’s pageantry involves having lots of women wearing big dresses with hoop skirts. This year’s ladies got to do so in the rain for much of the game. I’m going to miss the “Joe’s Diner” ads for the NFL playoffs with Joe “Clifford” Montana and his improbably diverse and quirky clients. The city of Mobile ran “Come Back to Mobile” ads. Good luck. Wonder if they need computer programmers….

Winged helmet news!

Sadly, not as much fun as I hoped. Apparently a communication mix-up between Joe Flacco and the University of Delaware equipment manager is why Flacco wore the white helmet for the early practices at the Senior Bowl. So it was not the result of losing some kind of pecking order thing to Chad Henne.

Large and thus automatically attractive to NFL teams WR Limas Sweed from Texas had to go home with an injury. He was replaced by the much smaller and faster Dexter Jackson from evil Appalachian State. Notre Dame S Tom Zbikowski, who I thought graduated two years ago and was off playing minor league baseball or something, is still actually playing in the Senior Bowl. Shows you how little I’ve been paying attention to the Golden Domers recently.

Random Senior Bowl Observation

I like watching the post-season college all-star games, but this year I have been busy and missed the Hula Bowl and most of the East-West Shrine Game. Fortunately NFL Network is doing a daily report from the Senior Bowl, so unlike ESPN.com’s coverage, I don’t have to pay for it in any direct way.

So part of yesterday’s observations was that the three North Team QBs: USC’s John David Booty, Michigan’s Chad Henne and Delaware’s Joe Flacco all looked good. I’m a bit surprised about Booty, I had him pegged as a future Jesse Palmer, but maybe I’m wrong.

Anyway, as with most all-star games, the guys wear their school helmets, which in the case of Henne and Flacco means two QBs with the “winged helmet” design and very similar colors. Unfortunately Flacco has to wear a generic white helmet. I guess the bigger school wins the argument. I recall Michigan and Delaware guys playing together in either the Blue-Gray game or the Senior Bowl and both wearing the winged helmet, so maybe the white helmet is to keep coaches from getting confused in practice.

What I Learned from the Bowls and Playoffs

I love these bowls that SEEM to primarily exist to make sure the local, OK university team has a game around Christmas time. Like the New Mexico (University of New Mexico) and Texas (University of Houston) Bowls. Still, I’m glad to see Boise State and Hawaii have had enough success and nationwide reputation to warrant invites to something besides their “home” bowls. Even if it means being humiliated by Georgia. Though BSU’s recent success gives us the odd spectacle of Georgia Tech and Fresno State going to Boise in December.

Oregon State TE Howard Croom is a cousin of Mississippi State Coach Sylvester Croom, Jr. I really should run a search engine check to see if former Patriots RB Corey Croom is his son or something. The broadcaster didn’t say what degree of cousins Croom and Croom are; it could be like Marshall and Kevin Faulk who are in the third to fifth cousin range.

Great work by Croom to get his team to contain UCF RB Kevin Smith. More below.

It’s really cool that Navy can get their option offense to post big scoring numbers without Nebraska quality athletic talent. Pre-Paul Johnson era teams struggled with that, hopefully the post-Paul Johnson era teams can continue that.

As a Michigan fan, I’ve had it in for Appalachian State for embarrassing the Wolverines back in August. I rooted against them in the I-AA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs. Here, they added more insults on their way to the National Championship, beating my alma mater, James Madison, a local-ish team, Richmond and finally the school with the same uniforms as Michigan, Delaware. I even rooted for Eastern Washington, a school I can’t fake any affinity for, but nothing could stop the Appalachian machine on it’s way to a third consecutive National Championship. Look out App. State! I’ve got an extra scoop of powder when I mix the Hater-ade for you guys next year!

Glad to see former Auburn star QB Dameyune Craig coaching at Tuskegee. I always like seeing former players go coach rather than scrap away for a fourth string NFL job.

Thanks Lloyd Carr. You had a great run at Michigan where you split a National Championship. Jim Tressel is a tough guy to beat. He has the job at Ohio State mostly because John Cooper couldn’t figure how to beat you. Carr is worthy of at least consideration for the College Football Hall of Fame.

I think the Rose Bowl had first pick of the BCS “free agent” schools this year and chose the traditional best available Big Ten vs. Pac-10, resulting in USC thumping an overmatched Illinois team. I like the Rose Bowl’s strange quirk for tradition. Really I do. Still myself and thousands more would have preferred a “Resentful Rose Bowl” between scorned Georgia and Southern California.

My fifth rate Mel Kiper observations, mostly based on ONE game:

U-Mass WR Rasheed Rancher - Against Fordham, “FCS” Playoffs, a bit sloppy route running, but receivers who are a lot bigger and than their opposition tend to do that in college. Can make some impressive catches, has good career numbers. It will be interesting to see how he fares in the draft.

Tuskegee QB Jacary Atkinson - Against Virginia Union, Pioneer Bowl (another loss for an Old Dominion school!), very good arm, pretty good runner, excellent TD-INT ratio, decent accuracy. He’s got another year of school to go and it’s a long climb into the NFL for Division II QBs, but I’ll be watching how Craig’s disciple does next season.

Central Michigan QB Dan LeFevour - Against Purdue, Motor City Bowl, Against Toldeo, MAC Championship, very good runner, strong arm, good accuracy, not so good TD-INT ratio. I need to see this guy play more. Also has two more years of school, but MAC QBs get looks in the NFL.

Maryland WR Darius Hayward-Bey - Against Oregon State, Emerald Bowl - another year, likely two, of being able to see this guy with the Terps. Imagine what he could do with a stable QB.

Maryland QB Chris Turner - Against Oregon State, Emerald Bowl - I get a kick out of his dad being one of the drummers in Ratt. So so QB, an improvement over Jordan Steffy, but that doesn’t say much.

Central Florida RB Kevin Smith - Against Mississippi State, Autozone Liberty Bowl, Against Tulsa C-USA Championship, looked dominant against Tulsa but ordinary against the Bulldogs who had the local crowd advantage. Then again UCF had home field advantage against Tulsa. Now that he’s declared for the NFL draft, let the View-Askew jokes begin.

Oregon RB Jonathan Stewart - Various regular season games, reminds me of Terry Allen. I’ll have to see where the real draft people have him ranked.