"The man who succeeds above his fellow man is the one who early in life clearly discerns his objective and toward that objective he directs all his powers." - Vince Lombardi

College Football Saturday

The 2009 season is going to be known as the year of the defensive tackle, as superstars like Alabama’s Terrence Cody, Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh, and Oklahoma’s Gerald McCoy all continue to make big

plays for their teams.  That also doesn’t include Jared Odrick from Penn State, Arthur Jones from Syracuse, and Marvin Austin from North Carolina. In Saturday’s game between Alabama and Tennessee, Cody blocked two field goals, including the potential game-winner from 44-yards out. What I loved most about the play was the passion and emotion that Cody showed after he had blocked the kick. A former JUCO who has gone through plenty of adversity through his life, Cody clearly is on top of the world right now as the big man on campus (literally) down at Alabama. At 6-5, 365 lbs, Cody projects as the top nose tackle prospect in the 2010 draft. One thing that he showed me on Sunday is that he’s the type of player that you can count on in the clutch to make a play and that his passion for the game and drive to get better is never going to stop. For a future Top 15 pick, that’s a good thing to see.

From Alabama’s standpoint, it’s amazing how one play can either take your season away from you, or propel your team for the rest of the season on the momentum that one play provided. I’d expect to see the Crimson Tide not take anyone lightly the rest of the year and to ride their wave of emotion to the SEC Championship Game and potentially the National Championship game. Heisman contender Mark Ingram only carried the ball 18 times for 99 yards and that included his first fumble of the season. With Ingram’s down game and Cody’s outstanding game, Terrence “Mount” Cody has become a dark horse for the Heisman Trophy.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are such an interesting team. They nearly lost their season opener to Northern Iowa but were able to block two field goals that led to the win. The beat Arkansas State by less points (3) than

they beat Penn State by (11). Now, they’ve managed three straight tough, gritty wins against Michigan, Wisconsin, and Michigan State. The Hawkeyes are the definition of scrappy. They don’t look pretty but they get the job done. Their defense is one of the most underrated units in the nation and their offense is being carried on the arm of Ricky Stanzi, and the legs of Adam Robinson. With very winnable games against Indiana and Northwestern the next two weeks, Iowa should be 10-0 when they head into Columbus, Ohio to face Ohio State, in what should be one of the best games of the college football season. After that, they face their arch rival Minnesota Gophers at home. If Iowa beats Ohio State, they are a lock for the Rose Bowl and a dark horse for the National Championship game (assuming they go undefeated). If they lose to the Buckeyes, then their bowl landing spot would be determined by whether Ohio State lost to Penn State the week before.

Think about this, if Texas and Iowa both end up being undefeated at the end of the year, will Texas’ strength of schedule match up with Iowa’s? Iowa would have wins over Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota, and Arizona. The Longhorns’ only impressive wins would have been over Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, with wins over Missouri and Texas Tech supplementing them. You’d have to think that rankings based on a computer’s analysis would put an undefeated Iowa team in the National Championship game over an undefeated Texas team if it were based on the schedule. Whether or not it would also factor in how good of a team it thinks they are is another question; remember, it’s a computer with absolutely no bias. In my personal opinion, Iowa is nowhere near as good as the top two teams Florida and Alabama. Their speed isn’t on the same level and I don’t think they are as talented of a team. However, an undefeated team It’s going to be a fun ride for Hawkeyes’ fans.

The TCU Horned Frogs proved on Saturday that they are no fluke. Beating a BYU team 38-7, that was at one point ranked in the Top 10, shows how talented the Frogs are. Their defense is once again one of the best in the nation, and the speed alone on their defense is extremely impressive. Defensive end Jerry

Hughes might be one of the most underrated players in the nation. With eight sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss, Hughes is third in the nation in sacks. What I find interesting about Hughes is that he only has one quarterback hurry, which suggests this to me: when Hughes gets into the backfield, he almost always gets to the quarterback and rarely lets the him get away, which is why he doesn’t have many quarterback hurries, but he does have a lot of sacks. Hughes is an early-second round pick right now, but could end up being a late-first rounder if he works out well this offseason. Hughes is one of my favorite players in this year’s draft and he’s a safe pick. From TCU’s standpoint, the Horned Frogs are on pace to compete for a BCS game this season if they are able to run the table the rest of the way.

The Clemson Tigers ripped the heart out of the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday night. The Hurricanes were one of the favorites to make it to a BCS Game following Georgia Tech’s win over Virginia Tech, however, with their loss to the Tigers, Miami now can only hope to make it to one of the better non-BCS bowls. For Clemson, C.J. Spiller’s draft stock is as hot as any other player’s in the country right now. With the potential to take the ball the distance every time he touches it, Spiller’s being looked at as a late-first to early-second round pick right now. He’s going to give Jahvid Best a run for his money as the top running back off the boards.

Outside of Oregon State giving USC a game on Saturday night, there weren’t many other big storylines this week from a game and rankings stand point. Notre Dame beat Boston College, Florida and Texas both took care of Mississippi State and Missouri, respectively, and Boise State and Cincinnati both took care of their cupcakes in Hawaii and Louisville, respectively. This weekend featured many blowout games, as Penn State whooped up on Michigan and Oregon trounced Washington.

For fun, here are my projected BCS Bowl games:

BCS National Championship: Florida vs. Texas

Rose Bowl: Iowa vs. USC

Fiesta Bowl: Penn State vs. Boise State

Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. TCU

Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. Cincinnati

NFL Sunday

Last week after Minnesota’s victory over the Baltimore Ravens, I said that the Vikings needed to beat one

of the league’s elite teams before I would believe in them. This week, they faced the Super Bowl Champion

Pittsburgh Steelers on the road and lost. I’ve been saying for weeks that the Vikings aren’t quite as good as their 6-0 record had indicated, and they proved me right this week. With a very challenging road game coming up at Lambeau Field in which quarterback Brett Favre will return back to the stadium that he called home for 16 seasons, I’d expect to see a scene similar to that of the Black Hole in Oakland in terms of a greeting for the road team and their famous quarterback. Next weekend’s game figures to be one of the best of the season. If the Vikings lose that game, they’d fall to 6-2 and head into their bye week with a horrible momentum swing downwards. If they win, their momentum should spike upwards and they’d be a lock to win the NFC North. Next week’s game could determine the way that the Vikings’ second half of the season unfolds. With their cupcake first half of the season behind them, and a more challenging second half slate of games coming up, it’ll be interesting to see how the team responds to their loss to Pittsburgh yesterday.

The Dallas Cowboys were able to pull out a much-needed win over the Atlanta Falcons yesterday. Miles Austin, the first player from Monmouth to ever be invited to the Combine, has finally had his breakout season for Dallas and is showing why the Cowboys stuck with him for so long. Austin has 421 receiving yards the past two weeks, the Cowboys franchise record for a two-game stretch. Austin, a former undrafted free agent, has assumed the role as Dallas’ go-to receiver, replacing Terrell Owens and filling the role that Roy Williams was traded for to fill. With a new down-the field threat, the Cowboys offense has become far more balanced than it was two weeks ago.

The New Orleans Saints had one of the most impressive performances of the season this weekend against

Miami. After trailing 24-3 to the Dolphins, the Saints stormed back and were able to pull out a victory against a very underrated Miami squad. As the only remaining undefeated team in the NFC, the Saints are now the favorites to land the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and secure home field advantage. While they still have to face Atlanta twice as well as a two games against New England and Dallas, the Saints still have games against Carolina twice, Tampa Bay twice, as well as games against St. Louis and Washington.  The Saints have had a nice schedule of games so far and are in position to win as many as 13 or 14 games. On Sunday I was most impressed with Drew Brees’ determination in the third and fourth quarter. With such a dominant offense, you can never count the Saints out of a game the rest of the year.

The Arizona Cardinals' victory over the New York Giants on Sunday night has to be one of the bigger upsets so far this season. The Giants killed themselves with penalties and turnovers throughout the game. The Cardinals, behind the breakout game of Chris Wells, have established their new ground game and suddenly have a far more balanced offense than they did a week ago. Eli Manning's three interceptions and Ahmad Bradshaw's fumble late in the fourth quarter killed the Giants' chances last night. This win elevates the Cardinals into the top spot in the NFC West, especially with the 49ers' loss to Houston on Sunday. New York will head back to the drawing board with a big game at Philadelphia next weekend.

Houston’s victory over San Francisco places them into position to make a run for one of the wildcard spots in the AFC. Their 4-3 record ties them with the Jets for the last spot in the playoffs. The Texans offense, similar to the Saints, is one of the league’s best and they are capable of coming from behind in almost any game. The big concern that I have for the Texans, in addition to fantasy football players around the country, is the status of wide receiver Andre Johnson. He left Sunday’s game with a chest contusion and went to the hospital. Hopefully he’ll be able to return to full strength as soon as possible for the Houston.

With six of the eleven games between Sunday morning and afternoon being blowouts, there isn’t much to say about some of these games. New England continued their dominance by taking down Tampa Bay in London; Green Bay, San Diego, and Indianapolis rolled over Cleveland, Kansas City, and St. Louis, respectively; and the Jets blanked the Raiders in Oakland. The disparity of the NFL this year is bigger than in any year’s past and it has led to several games being blowouts. I wrote an article for the Washington Post on this subject. The reasoning that I suggested for the wide disparity is that the quarterback play in the NFL is even wider than the records could suggest. Teams like the Browns, Chiefs, and Rams have all had extremely poor play from their quarterbacks this year, which is shown in their league-worst records. The Buccaneers haven’t found their answer at quarterback yet, as Josh Johnson had a horrible game yesterday, and Josh Freeman still may not be ready to become the full-time starter. The Raiders finally benched JaMarcus Russell on Sunday after he turned the ball over three times in the first quarter alone. This is another reason why there are as many as five or six quarterbacks that could be drafted in the first round in 2010. Jake Locker, Jimmy Clausen, Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, Jevan Snead, Tim Tebow, and Ryan Mallett are all players that could be taken among the Top 32 picks in this year’s draft.

NFL Draft Implications

With the recent news that Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford will have surgery on his shoulder and is planning on entering the 2010 draft after this season, it’s time to evaluate where Bradford will go in the draft and what his chances are of being a high pick. There are at least two different circumstances that could lead to where Bradford will go in the draft:

1.) Health – Assuming Bradford has the surgery and decides to enter the draft, his health is going to be the biggest concern for talent evaluators. With shoulder surgery on his throwing arm, Bradford must have a swift recovery to have any chance of regaining his stock as a Top 10 pick. With a four-month recovery time span, Bradford should be able to come back right around the time of the NFL Scouting Combine in late-February. Knowing the way that quarterbacks work, especially considering Bradford is coming from a system in college that made him look better than he actually is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bradford decided to pass on working out at the Combine and waited until his Pro Day, likely a month later. This would give him even more recovery time and would allow for him to have the first time that scouts see him throw in the offseason to be in the comfort of his own system with his own receivers at Oklahoma. To keep his stock as high as it is, this is the plan that he should have.

2.) Competition – As mentioned, we could see a large crop of quarterbacks enter the 2010 draft. Tebow and McCoy are sure things, being seniors, with Locker, Clausen, and Snead all being extra possibilities. Locker has the potential to go first overall, which makes his chances of coming out relatively high;

however, Locker is a hometown player who grew up in Washington; it wouldn’t shock me if he decided to

stay at home for his senior year with nearly all of the playmakers from this year’s Washington squad returning next year. But, as Bradford showed this year, turning down the chance to be taken first overall could be a major mistake. Jimmy Clausen’s status, as I mentioned last week, could be determined by whether or not head coach Charlie Weis returns. If he is fired, then I’d bet the house that Clausen enters. If not, it’s more of a question. As of now, I’ve heard that Clausen is leaning towards leaving, but that’s up in the air. Snead had one of the best games of the season against Arkansas this past Saturday. He’s had a poor start to the year, but could win over some scouts by finishing the year with a bang, like he did last season, in leading the Rebels to a win over Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. Ryan Mallett is the wild card. An extremely talented player with an arm as strong as Matthew Stafford’s from a year ago, Mallett has all the makings of a franchise quarterback in the NFL. However, like Locker, Mallett grew up in Arkansas and this was his first year with the home state Razorbacks after transferring from Michigan two years ago. Mallett is the type of player who could light up the Combine and win over scouts with his cannon arm. He has the physical tools of a No. 1 overall pick and could go first overall in the 2011 draft if he decides to stay for his senior year.

If he can prove to scouts that his injury isn't going to be a concern, then Bradford should be fine from a health standpoint. However, if four or five of the players above are also in the draft class, then Bradford's chances of going high will be diminished. Think about this: Would you rather have a quarterback with a terrific completion percentage and excellent accuracy (Colt McCoy) or a system-quarterback with a major injury concern to his throwing shoulder coming off a season a season in which he could only complete two games? It's an easy decision, and none of it includes why I think Bradford is the most overrated prospect in the past five to ten years.

- One player to keep an eye on as we head closer to the draft is Idaho offensive guard Mike Iupati. A 6-6,

330 lb beast of an offensive lineman, Iupati has the makings of a first round offensive lineman, and that’s

hard to do as a guard. A physical force who is as tenacious as any offensive lineman that I’ve seen in the past few years, Iupati physically overpowers defenders and has outstanding strength at the point of attack. He has the size to play guard or move outside to right tackle at the next level. Iupati’s a bit under-the-radar considering he’s coming from Idaho, however, he’s the latest of small-school players who are expected to have success in the NFL. He has the makings of being a dominant NFL offensive lineman.

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