Since the NFL is essentially dead to me, I’m probably one of the few college football bloggers on the planet who could give a rat’s ass about the draft. I don’t have the stomach to listen to guys like Kiper and Berman for hours on end, so I didn’t watch last night.
So waking up this morning, while I was amused to find out this, I think Matt’s hit upon the one interesting take from the first round:
… Here is the real story of the first round, as pointed out by the NFL Network’s Rich Eisen at the end of the night: Notre Dame? With Clausen falling out of the first round, the Irish had zero players picked. Southern Cal? With safety Taylor Mays, offensive tackle Charles Brown and defensive end Everson Griffen passed over, the Trojans had zero picks. Ohio State? Zero picks. LSU? Zero picks. Miami? Zero picks. Florida State? One pick, with the final selection of the evening, and it could be the Seminoles’ last of this draft.
Between them, those schools produced 82 first-round picks from 2000-09, more than 25 percent of all first-rounders in that span. (That holds for Miami, FSU, USC, LSU and Ohio State even if you remove the Irish, who produced only three of that number.) The Buckeyes, Trojans and ‘Canes have had more players drafted in the event’s 75-year history than any other schools…
As he notes, that’s not necessarily bad news for Ohio State, which looks to be stockpiling lots of younger talent, but for some of those other programs, you have to wonder if it means something more. Lane Kiffin, Trojan Nation turns its lonely eyes to you…
Get The Picture 
I don’t really know what it says about those schools. I follow the draft pretty closely, and I would say that a lot of NFL GM’s have simply lost their minds.
It truly appears that Josh McDaniels is trying to destroy the Denver Broncos. He took a WR who cannot run routes or catch the ball and a QB who cannot throw, and traded picks to get that QB. It is pure lunacy. They are going to be stuck paying 2 guys 1st round money to sit on the bench.
Gtu had 2 guys taken, UGA had none. What does that say? Nothing really. Gtu had its best team in 19 years, UGA had its worst in 13. As far as the overall programs go, I would say it means very little. UGA will have at least 2 first rounders next year in Green and Boling, and could have a couple more. Gtu has no players on their roster that will get drafted next year. Maybe Tarrant and Anthony Allen in later rounds, but that is about it.
Cal had 2 guys taken. Did they even make a bowl? They had a DT that most mocked in the 2nd round taken 10th overall. That just says that the Jags are stupid.
Rutgers also had 2 players taken. Again, they were terrible team and are a terrible program.
I just don’t think you can deduce much from one draft in which the GM’s of the league seemingly lost their collective minds, and that Oklahoma absolutely dominated recruiting for 2 straight years. They were the Stephenson high school of college teams this year, producing 3 of the 1st 4 picks and not even winning their division of the Big 12.
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Setting aside for a moment your obvious bias against GT and UF, I will state I agree with you mostly. There’s very little correlation between the on-field success of NCAA football teams and NFL draft night success. The one exception is recruiting. If a coach can point to having several players in the draft – especially the first round – that will help in pulling in 5-star recruits.
As to your analysis of Thomas and Tebow, Bay Bay caught passes of over 1100 yards this year in an offense that rarely throws the ball – pretty good for a receiver that “cannot run routes or catch the ball”. In a career of 3+ years, Tebow threw for over 9000 yards, 88 touchdowns, 16 picks, and a career passer rating over 170 – not bad for a QB that “cannot throw”.
It’s safe to say your career as a talent scout belongs in the toilet.
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Yep, Seriously, you are probably right. If the good Senator still has this blog going 3 years from now, we can come back and talk about how Tebow has taken his 1st round bonus money and started an orphanage/ministry in Guatemala since he retired from the NFL.
About that time, BeBe should be coming into his own. I think he will have a very similar career arc to Roddy White. The kid is an absolute freak physically, but he has never run a route in college, and it takes time to learn the nuances of NFL receiver. All of BeBe’s 1100 yard were caught on stand-up passes or fly pattern’s. Gtu’s high school offense does not require the intricate routes required by the NFL, nor does it require the art of changing routes at the line based upon what the defense does.
I do think that Thomas will ultimately find success in the NFL, but not for the first couple of seasons.
Tebow, however, will not succeed in the NFL at QB. This has been going on since the draft began. Some coach/GM has always been enamored with a college QB who has won a bunch of games and put up great stats, and inevitably, those QB’s have failed to make it and those coaches/GM’s have gotten fired. It will happen in Denver in the next couple of years. No doubt, Tebow was the best college player that I have ever seen, but he is not an NFL QB. It is simply a different game than he has ever played.
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I get what you’re trying to say, man; but the truth is, if stats were all that mattered, Texas Tech would have the number one pick every year.
Sure TT had good numbers and he’s a leader and yada, yada. He has screwy mechanics, and, no, screwy mechanics are not all that matters either; but trading up to get a lot of question marks in the first round when you could probably wait on it… seems wrong-headed.
DT is the same. Sure he had good numbers, but he really only racked those up on fly routes after cruising past safeties who had bitten on play-action. Again, I’m not saying he won’t turn out to be a serviceable pro, but you still don’t have to pay him first-round money although maybe him more than TT.
Nevertheless, I won’t bet against either of them. Tom Jackson was PISSED though. Seriously.
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Tom Jackson was PISSED though.
Imagine how Jimmy Clausen must feel. 😀
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Poor little guy…
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“How about an NFL auction?”.
Jimmy probably wouldn’t have done any better.
http://blog.kir.com/archives/2010/04/how_about_the_n.asp#comments
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Tim Tebow=Gino Toretta
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Absolutely not! Torretta was a legitimate QB who was good in college (the U really won mostly because of him) but did not have a good enough arm to succeed in the NFL. Tebow is a system player who made good because of the players around him. The system FLA used allowed the QB to score all the TDs. The real Tebow was the guy who was 8-4 in 2007, not the media-hyped version who took all the credit for the accomplishments of his teammates in ’08. The national sports media should be ashamed for creating this monument to BS.
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The real Tebow was the guy who was 8-4 in 2007
You are so right! The REAL Tebow is the 2007 version, who enjoyed the best statistical year of his collegiate career and carried his team, so much so that he won the Heisman Trophy that year. Coincidentally, the Gators defense sucked ass that year and the team only managed 8 wins and 4 losses, but you are SO right – that was the REAL Tebow! 😀
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I know a lot of people feel that way, but I think Tebow’s best season, and the year he should have won the Heisman, was 2008. I don’t think Florida wins the MNC that season without his heroics in the SECCG and the BCS title game.
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Explains why those teams underachieved this year… lack of graduating big talent? I would tend to think that taking a look at the number of players a program puts into the first 5 rounds would be a more accurate portrayal of their talent level. First round can be hit an miss (i.e. colt mccoy/ j clausen not taken in the first).
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We had fans that were ready to fire Richt because we did not win a MNC with MS and KM, think what they are trying to put their heads around at OK. 3 of the top 4 and 4 overall and OK didn’t win their conference. Hell it must be time for them to fire ole Bob Stoops.
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