"I think some guys just have an innate ability to see it," he said. "If you work at it, I guess you could develop it. But I believe, even as a young scout, I had a pretty good fix on it. I could see things. Then you have to be able to express it, put it on paper, without writing a novel. You know, get to the point. What can he do? What can't he do? Can this guy contribute to our football team? Can he make it? Why will he make it? Why won't he make it? It's neither a science nor a crap shoot. It's an understanding. I don't know, I just had a feel for it, and a love for it." Accorsi noticed. In fact, he saw a general manager in the making." - The GM

In the sport of football, one of the greatest things that a fan can ask for are surprises and upsets. Coming into each week, more so in college football than in the NFL, a top team has a chance to take a big fall with just one loss. In the NFL, you can still make the playoffs after having lost seven or eight games. In college, you loss two and sometimes even one game and your season could be shot. Arguing for a playoff format is a whole different argument, and something I may talk about in a future article, but for now, here are my thoughts on this past weekend’s games:

College Football Saturday

This weekend there were two teams in college football that proved to me who they were and what you should expect to see from the rest of the year.

The Return of the U: The University of Miami is back and they are for real. With an explosive and balanced

offense led by quarterback Jacory Harris and running back Javarris James, the Hurricanes are on track to compete for a BCS game come January. On defense, with playmakers like Sean Spence and Marcus Forston, the U is returning to its roots as it is bringing out some of the most talented and athletic athletes in the country. This team is absolutely for real and I’d be surprised if they didn’t go undefeated during the rest of the regular season before the ACC Championship game. When you consider that their loss against Virginia Tech could have cost them a chance at the BCS Championship game, it’s still extremely impressive that they could still potentially make it that far by running the table the rest of the way. Keep an eye on this team, especially fans of the draft. They have a team loaded with talent and should begin to re-start their streak of consecutive players from the U being taken in the first round.

As I mentioned last week, I think that Charlie Weis should be fired after the season. Coming into the year, Notre Dame’s games against Purdue and Washington appeared to be two of the easier ones on their schedule, not one’s that you’d expect to see them go down to the wire and to overtime in. The Irish are extremely lucky that they have a bye week next week before taking on USC in two weeks. I’d be surprised if the Trojans didn’t rout Notre Dame like they just did this week against Cal. I understand that they lost Michael Floyd, that’s fine. But then how do you explain this team bringing in talented recruiting class after talented recruiting class and barely being able to keep up with a Purdue team that has losses against NORTHERN ILLINOIS and NORTHWESTERN. Are you kidding me? College football is at its best when Notre Dame is one of the powers of the country; not when they’re the laughing stock of the nation for barely beating teams that they should beating by four touchdowns.

With that said, who in their right mind came up with the idea that Jimmy Clausen should win the Heisman Trophy? What has Clausen done this year? Sure he throws the ball a lot, that’s fine. What noteworthy wins does he have? How has he impacted the Irish? Suggesting that Clausen should win the Heisman proves that

without him, the Irish would have lost the last two games to Purdue and Washington….Heisman Trophy winners typically don’t have any trouble with those types of teams. In my honest opinion, the Heisman Trophy has gotten away from its roots of crowning college footballs top player. It’s turned into an award given to the prettiest quarterback or running back who will photograph well and possibly win some big games on the field. You want to give the Heisman to the top player in the country, then give it to Eric Berry of Tennessee, Eric Decker of Minnesota, Gerald McCoy of Oklahoma, Jacory Harris of Miami, Toby Gerhart of Stanford, or possibly even Tony Pike of Cincinnati who has single-handedly turned that Bearcats offense into a terrific aerial attack headed for its second straight Big East Championship and BCS appearance. Quit with the dumb storylines and excuses for the players. If Tim Tebow can pick himself up after last week’s terrible hit and lead the Gators into Baton Rouge and beat LSU, then we’ll be talking. Before crowning Colt McCoy, how about seeing him go and beat an overrated Oklahoma team, or some other team with a defense not resembling a high school pick up game.

The LSU Tigers are finally back in the mix among the nation’s top teams. With their win on Saturday over Georgia, next Saturday’s game between Florida and LSU appears to be one of the top regular season games left on the schedule. The Tigers are currently firing on all cylinders with a dominant run game the includes Charles Scott pounding the ball up the middle behind first round prospect Ciron Black. Their passing game has also begun to get better as quarterback Jordan Jefferson has become more comfortable with the offense and with this talented wideouts. The Tigers’ defense has also gotten better and they appear to be headed for another BCS game if they can stay competitive in the SEC the rest of the way. Next weekend’s game is going to be a great one to watch!

The rise of the Stanford Cardinal is one of 2009’s great stories. With rising head coach Jim Harbaugh’s re-building project of the program nearly complete, the Cardinal now appear to be one of the better teams in

the Pac-10. With recent victories over Washington and UCLA, they are poised to have a great run the rest of the way. Running back Toby Gerhart, one of the top senior backs in the 2010 draft, has had an outstanding season, rushing for 650 yards and eight touchdowns thus far. With at least one or two underdogs popping up around the college football scene every year, the Cardinal appear to have already taken ahold of one of those spots.

Like I mentioned last week, it was a bit too early to name Michigan as the top up-and-coming team in 2009. With their loss to Michigan State, who previously lost to Central Michigan, the Big Ten picture is beginning to become a puzzle. At this point, Iowa has to be one of the favorites along with Ohio State. Wisconsin’s win on Saturday helps, but I still don’t think their defense is good enough to be able to compete at a high level every week. The winner of the Ohio State-Penn State game, like we had said at the beginning of the year, should be in line to win the Conference title.

What has happened to California? Every year, they show promise with their immensely talented lineup, yet they still find a way to either collapse or just not show any promise. For a team that many were saying could go to the Rose Bowl this year, Cal looks like a team that barely is worth being invited to a bowl at this point. With games still coming against UCLA, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington, the Bears are nowhere near out of the woods yet. While their schedule does get easier, they still could have some trouble with the teams just listed.

NFL Sunday

With their win on Sunday, the New Orleans Saints proved to the NFL world that they are the cream of the

crop as we head towards Week 5 of action. With the best offense in the game and a defense that has made tremendous strides under new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, New Orleans appears to be in position to make a run deep in the playoffs, especially if they are able to secure home field advantage in the Superdome. We all knew that they could put up points, but I’m most impressed with the stout play from the defense. Darren Sharper is proving that he has a lot left in the tank and the Saints defense as a whole no longer is one that you can assume will allow loads of points and yards to the opposing offense. They’re a well-balanced team. The New York Jets are back to the drawing board after their ugly loss in New Orleans. It was bound to happen that rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez was going to hit a wall and have a bad game. I wouldn’t be too worried about it; he’s a rookie. It’s incredibly hard to play quarterback in the NFL as a veteran, let alone making your fourth start in the pros after only starting 19 games in college. Sanchez will have some growing pains, but his intangibles and great work ethic are what will turn him into the superstar that he’s shown us he’s capable of becoming.

One of the top games of the day on Sunday was the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens. You could argue that this was one of the better games between two top-ranked teams that we’ve seen thus far in 2009. Tom Brady has continued to shake the rust off and had one of his best performances of the season as he threw for 258 yards and one touchdown in addition to running for another one-yard TD. The end of the game told the story of the game for the Ravens. They were doing just enough to stick around, yet they weren’t able to pull it out in the end. Quarterback Joe Flacco had a terrific game, but Mark Clayton’s drop on fourth down inside the Patriots 20-yard line sealed the deal for the Pats’ win. I’d be surprised if these two teams didn’t meet again in the playoffs. With this win, the Patriots are showing that they are back and they are the real deal once again in 2009. They haven’t played as cute and pretty as they did in 2007, but they’ve scrapped together three victories in four weeks. With their aging defense it’ll be interesting to see how they hold up at the end of the year. However, after today’s game they appear to be in good shape.

It’s now clear that the Denver Broncos are for real. I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t see them having a

good year in 2009. The one person who has been key to the team’s turnaround is defensive coordinator Mike Nolan. He’s proving right now why the 49ers wanted to make him a head coach. His defenses were outstanding when he was with the Baltimore Ravens and they are once again with Denver. The NFL was at its best in the late-90’s when the Broncos hard-nosed defense and smash-mouth play on offense was on showcase every week. With the development of another good looking team, the Broncos appear to have a bright future. If Nolan can take a defense that was among the league’s worst last season and turn them into one of the league’s best this year, imagine what he’ll be able to do once they start to get even more talented players in there. Despite up and down play by quarterback Kyle Orton, Denver should be a competitive team the rest of the way in 2009. The Dallas Cowboys are in a funk. Their offense is missing a key playmaker (T.O.?) and they are having trouble moving the ball. They’re also having trouble establishing the run despite having one of the best stable of running backs in the league. Something needs to get going or there is going to be some sort of change in the offseason.

One interesting thing that people bring up about Tony Romo is that he isn’t as good as he’s been hyped up to be. I can understand that, and I completely agree with that. I’m not sticking up for him, but for those that are demanding that he be replaced, think about this: if you get rid of Romo, who are you going to bring in? There aren’t any free agents that could play up to his level and if they draft someone, they surely won’t have the same production that Romo’s having for at least two years. Some fans need to suck it up and be patient. If the coaching staff can’t figure it out this year, then they’ll be out of a job, that’s pretty clear. Just wait and see what happens and thank God that you have one of the best owners in the world. He’s not going to sit back and let the Cowboys continue to play this way, especially with their palace of a stadium.

Both of the Manning brothers (Peyton and Eli) continued to roll this week as both the Colts and the Giants improved to 4-0. While each team hasn’t had too much difficulty with their schedule thus far, each team figures to be tested within the next few weeks. The Colts’ ground game has helped to propel their team and give them an added punch to their offense. The Giants have done the same thing that they’ve been doing for the last three years, and that’s to run the ball to set up the pass, and to play excellent defense. With Eli Manning starting play like a superstar, this team could be headed for another Super Bowl appearance. Imagine how much media the Manning Bowl part II would be, especially if it were in the Super Bowl?

The San Francisco 49ers are an extremely impressive team and linebacker Patrick Willis is the leading candidate to win the Defensive Player of the Year for the 2009 season. Learning how to play linebacker from one of the best LB’s that has ever lived in Mike Singletary has certainly helped to make Willis a true All-Pro. The 49ers stifling defense shut out the sorry St. Louis Rams on Sunday and proved once again that they are a force to be reckoned with this season. The current far-and-away favorite to win the NFC West, San Francisco has the type of team that teams will fear playing in the playoffs. With a very aggressive defense and excellent running game, the 49ers could be a under-the-radar shot to make it far this season.

The Tennessee Titans may be one of the most surprising teams in the league this year, considering they fell to 0-4 yesterday in their loss to Jacksonville. The team with the best record in the NFL just a year ago

appear to have fallen back to earth without defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. Quarterback Kerry Collins has also not played quite as well as he did in 2008. With their next two games against Indianapolis and New England, the Titans season figures to be defined by the way that they play the next two weeks. With the chances of them doing anything spectacular this year getting extremely slim, I think that it might be time for them to insert Vince Young into the starting lineup and see what they have in him. It’s obvious that they need another playmaker on the offensive side of the ball, and having a game-managing Collins in there isn’t working. It was fine last year when the Titans run game surprised many teams, but defenses have caught up to their one-dimensional offense and have game planned against it. It’s time to make a change.

I’m still not sure what to make of the game between Cincinnati and Cleveland yesterday. Is it that Cincinnati plays to their opponent’s level, which would explain how they beat Pittsburgh and nearly lost to Cleveland? Is it that the Bengals and Browns rivalry is so tough that it doesn’t matter what your record is going into the game? Or is it that Cincinnati has caught a few breaks here and they are a bit overrated, and that Cleveland is slightly better than we think? Whatever the case may be, if the Bengals are serious about becoming a playoff team this year, then they need to beat a team like Cleveland by more than a field goal with a few seconds left in overtime.

The Washington Redskins might be the most un-impressive 2-2 team I’ve ever seen. Outside of beating St. Louis and Tampa Bay, two of the worst teams in the league, this team has done next-to-nothing to suggest that they should bring back head coach Jim Zorn after the season. Their play on offense has been embarrassing and the defense hasn’t lived up to the amount of money that several of their players are making. If you’re looking to run a team, spend your money the exact opposite way that Washington (and Oakland) do. I like the way that owner Daniel Snyder tries to be aggressive, but he’s doing it the wrong way.

If there’s one thing that I saw from the San Diego-Pittsburgh game on Sunday night, it’s that LaDanian Tomlinson has fallen so far from greatness that it’s almost sad. He’s one-dimensional back who still has a nice burst, but he can’t cut the way he used, has lost a lot of his quickness and elusiveness, and he’s nowhere near the receiver out of the backfield that he used to be. It’s a shame that he’s fallen so quickly, but that is the life of a running back in the NFL. Just ask Shaun Alexander and Edgerrin James.

Draft Implications

Once again, St. Louis, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, and Kansas City all fell to 0-4 as their pursuit of the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft crawled on. From what I’ve seen of all four teams, the Rams and Browns will likely battle it out with Tampa and Kansas City taking up No. 3 and No. 4 respectively. However, the Tennessee Titans at 0-4 could very easily be 0-6 two weeks from now and are another team to keep an eye on as we continue on. I’m planning on having a new mock draft up at some point in the middle of the week, so keep an eye out for that.

Here are some notes and thoughts on some players who saw their draft stock rise this week:

Javarris James RB Miami (FL) – Looking just like how his uncle Edgerrin James played at the U, Javarris James ripped through a very talented Oklahoma front on Saturday night and now has shown that he has what it takes to be a playmaker in the NFL. I think that James now is one of the better senior running backs in the nation and I could see him going as high as the third round depending on how he works out at the Combine.

Taylor Mays S USC – Anyone that saw the USC-Cal game on Saturday saw how much of an impact Mays had on the game. Scouts have been looking at Mays since his freshman year, however his play has gotten better this season and I think that he has a great shot at going in the Top 10 in April. Remember, if the Combine was built for one player, that player would be Taylor Mays. It’s going to be a fun offseason getting to watch Mays up close.

Joe McKnight RB USC – The junior running back who has drawn comparisons to former Trojan back Reggie Bush, Joe McKnight has finally had the start to the season that people have been patiently waiting for him to have. With three years of service at the college level, McKnight could potentially enter the draft after this season. In addition to Mays, McKnight could be another player who could have an outstanding workout at the Combine and raise his stock into the first round.

Tony Pike QB Cincinnati – The talented signal caller for the Bearcats has elevated his draft stock this season and is now being seen as one of the top senior quarterbacks in the draft behind Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow. While Pike has displayed a good arm, I’m a bit worried about the system that he’s playing in and whether playing in the spread in college will hurt his chances of becoming a successful quarterback in the NFL.

Jarrett Brown QB West Virginia – I had a good opportunity to watch the Mountaineers quarterback on Thursday night when West Virginia took on Colorado. Brown is an impressive player, but he’s still raw and has a lot of work to do if he wants to play quarterback in the NFL. He’s a gifted athlete who can make plays with his feet and his arm is very strong. His mechanics also remind me a bit of Michael Vick’s. The one thing that is going to really hurt Brown in the offseason is when scouts and coaches go back and see how often Brown turned the ball over in his first year as a starter. This is one thing that he must change if he wants to have a chance at playing at the next level.

Selvish Capers OT West Virginia – I also had a chance on Thursday night to take a look at excellent offensive tackle prospect Selvish Capers. An athletic and talented lineman who has the mobility and quickness needed to be a stud offensive lineman in the NFL, Capers is still pretty raw and he’s going to need further coaching and polishing at the next level. I’m not sure if Capers will be able to make in immediate impact for the team that drafts him, but he should have a bright future once he gets accustomed to the game at the next level.

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Like I said last week, thank you for reading the Monday Morning Roundup. I do this for the fans and for those that are looking for another taste of the college, NFL, and Draft coverage. I try to throw it all together to give everyone a look at how all three are unfolding and what I think of each.

I’ve received good feedback thus far and I’m excited about the future. Like I had mentioned, I welcome you to contact me or send me an email and give me your thoughts on the column.

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Thanks!