AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2008 > April > 25 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USDraft streaks on the line for Miami, Alabama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just some random ramblings on a “Free-Wheeling Friday.”
1. Draft streaks for Miami, Alabama, on the line: My job for Saturday’s NFL Draft is to keep an eye on the SEC and ACC players. Here are two streaks I’ll be watching:
Miami has had a player taken in the first round for 13 straight drafts. But unless there is a mild upset, that streak will be broken on Saturday. DE Calais Campbell probably would have been a first rounder if he had come out after his junior season. The debacle that was Miami’s 5-7 season in 2007, where the defense just collapsed, did not help him.
Alabama has not had a first-round draft pick since 2000 when running back Shaun Alexander and OT Chris Samuels both went early. Alabama has not won an SEC championship since the 1999 season. Coincidence? I think not. We talk a lot about coaches in this league and the coaches in the SEC are among the very best. But the team with the best players usually wins.
Based on Nick Saban’s early recruiting, it’s obvious that Alabama’s dry spell in the draft will end in the next couple of years.
2. The draft is important to recruiting: Our D. Orlando Ledbetter told you this morning about DT Kentwan Balmer of North Carolina, who could be one of the steals in the this draft. Balmer was on nobody’s radar until Butch Davis became head coach and John Blake became his position coach. Together they have coached this guy up into a potential first round pick. Recruits notice this kind of thing and if they don’t, the head coach will bring it up. “Every place that I’ve ever coached, we’ve always emphasized that we’re going to have a pro-style football program, one that’s going to showcase kids’ talents,” Davis told reporters on a conference call this week. “(We’re) going to give them the opportunity to play schemes that if they perform and play the way we expect them to play, the NFL is certainly going to recognize that.”
3. The NFL is still the top dog: We love college football. We think it’s the greatest game in the world. But you have to give the NFL its props. When it comes to interest, there is nothing quite like it. Consider this: Jan. 1 falls on a Thursday in 2009 and you’ll have the usual assortment of games. Jan. 2 is a Friday and two games (Cotton, Liberty) have locked in that date to join the Sugar. A lot of folks are going to take that day off from work so that schedule makes sense. But the BCS will not play again until Monday, Jan. 5 with the Fiesta Bowl because the NFL Playoffs begin on Saturday and Sunday. College football has learned that you just can’t go head to head with the NFL. You have to respect that.
4. What will happen to Florida State’s Parker? Florida State already has many as eight starters who are going to sit out the first three games on suspensions related to an academic cheating scandal. Now wide receiver Preston Parker has been arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon (a felony in Florida) plus a small amount of marijuana. Florida State has a clear policy: Any athlete charged with a felony cannot compete until the matter is resolved. You have a new athletics director in Randy Spetman who needs to make it clear that he’s in charge. You have a veteran coach in Bobby Bowden who is winding down his career and a coach in waiting in Jimbo Fisher who has to be thinking long term. How this case is handled will be very interesting.
5. A sweet deal for Notre Dame: I get asked all the time why Notre Dame is able to deal from such a position of strength in college football negotiations regardless of its success (or lack thereof) on the field. My stock response is always: “Because they ARE Notre Dame!!** Another example rose this week. Notre Dame has signed a six-year agreement to play Connecticut, but none of those games will be played in the state of Connecticut. Three will be played at Notre Dame and the other three will be played in larger stadiums in Boston, New York and New Jersey. Notre Dame has the leverage in these negotiations because a school like UConn knows that it will benefit tremendously from the national exposure that comes from playing the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame is not going to play UConn in the Huskies’ smaller on campus stadium because it can play in the Meadowlands and fill the place up with its fans. FYI: Notre Dame tried to make basically the same deal with Rutgers and AD Bob Mulcahy said no. Rutgers wanted to play its home games at home.
Scheduling note: The final two spring games in the ACC and SEC are at Maryland and Arkansas on Saturday. Sunday I’m headed off to the BCS meetings in South Florida. We’ll see you then.
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Comments
By Herschel Talker
April 25, 2008 8:43 AM | Link to this
FIRST! ONE MINUTE AFTER TONY’S POSTING. NOW LET’S SEE HOW LONG IT TAKES MY OTHER PERSONALITY TO POST.
By GeoffDawg
April 25, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this
That was pretty lame Herschel Talker. My Friday morning deserves better than that.
By David
April 25, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this
It is amazing to see how good Georgia was at the end of last season and have 0 high draft picks. It just shows what’s coming the next two years and on.
Tony, can you think of a better QB/RB combo in the last few years than Stafford and Moreno? Reminds you of Bush and Leinhardt and Jason Campbell and Cadillac/RB. Pretty good company.
FSU has been yesterday’s news for years now. Sad what has happened there, but when Richt and VH left, they lost control of the kids.
By Haywood Jablowme
April 25, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this
Herschel Talker, you and all your personalities can refer to my handle.
By m
April 25, 2008 9:32 AM | Link to this
I wonder if the U.S. Constitution protects the Tech players from being drafted by Kansas City. They have already had to play for the worst coach in the history of the NCAA, Chan Gailey. It would be “cruel and unusual punishment” if they were drafted by KC and had to play for him again. Thank God and Greyhound he is gone FOREVER.
By Erk
April 25, 2008 9:33 AM | Link to this
Butch Davis will bring UNC football back up. Tech can’t overlook them. Notre Dame’s “position of strength in college football negotiations regardless of success” is painfully obvious when they are selected to a BCS game & then get methodically blown out while the more deserving teams watch from home.
By me
April 25, 2008 9:46 AM | Link to this
Tony:
Again you show your FSU/Bowden bias. It took you three days to write anything about Parker. You also failed to say anything about Parker being on probation for thief. Yet you slam Miles for not cutting his starting QB loose.
Also, every in Miami knows Campbell is not a 1st round draft pick. Kenny Phillips will be a 1st round draft pick, and is one of the best safeties in the draft.
By GatorGuy
April 25, 2008 9:57 AM | Link to this
We all know how Parker will be handled. He will run stadiums. He will play in game one because FSU cannot reschedule the div II teams with Div III teams that quickly. “Boys will be boys.” - Bobby Bowden
And before you attack Meyer. Name one UF player that played while being charged with a Felony. Don’t day Tony Joiner. He was never charged.
By Haywood Jablowme
April 25, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
What goes on at Felony Student University these days is irrelevant. This is why it took Tony 3 days to respond with a story about the latest scandal in Tallahassee. Has FSU even been relevant since Mark Richt left there? Yep, that’s what I thought. That program has been circling the drain since 2001, and old man Bowden is lucky if he can hit the toilet on the first squirt anymore.
By Miles
April 25, 2008 10:33 AM | Link to this
Mr. Barnhart, enjoy the BCS meetings in South Florida. I’ll await your notes, observations, and comments from this event rather than respond to the NFL Draft, criminals at Florida State, and Notre Dames’s powerful negotiating position.
By GW
April 25, 2008 10:35 AM | Link to this
While SEC schools get slammed for not playing Texas and USC on the road yearly Notre Dame is lining up UCONN or Rutgers.
By JJ
April 25, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this
Can’t have it both ways boys. The TV money is so huge the networks have a big say in who makes it to bowls games and who gets the prime-time action that pays $$$. This is contradictory in my opinion to creating a level playing field for all to compete on and have equal chances. The TV people don’t just show up to cover a game like they used to. They get to dictate who plays, when, where, and when play on the field can take place. If it gets any worse it will start really souring it some.
By Bamafan
April 25, 2008 10:58 AM | Link to this
It is a shame that FSU has so many problems in the last few years. Bama has had just as many problems as FSU!! Does the phrase PAROLE TIDE mean anything!! I think Bama will have a losing season this year. They play the good teams on the road this year and they have to many holes to fill. Granted BAMA will be good in 2 or 3 years!! I just hope the TN TITANS PICK A WR IN THE NFL DRAFT SATURDAY!!
By Roswell Ed
April 25, 2008 11:07 AM | Link to this
“Honest officer when I put my illegal/felony Glock in the dash I didn’t notice the misdemeanor box and bag of weed!!”
The kid admitted the gun was his but had no idea whose weed it was and said he didn’t know it was there.
Now that’s coaching them up Bobby.
Free Shoes Rules.
“I had no idea that I was going 85 officer. I was too busy thinking about the dead guy in the trunk.”
ACC ACC ACC ACC ACC
The conference of integrity is at it again.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Are those pictures on the net really Lauren Bowden?
I’ve read conflicting reports. If it is she has a smoking hot body.
ACC ACC ACC ACC ACC ACC
The other day someone told me to get my facts straight about the picture of Clemson’s Ken Page holding up thousands of dollars in cash in the back seat of a car.
The fact is that Ken Page posted this picture on his own Myspace page, immediately took it down, changed his story about it several times and when all else failed went to the Photoshop excuse.
Those are the facts- correct?
This ones for you RO:
Clemson- we get our recruits the old fashioned way
we paaaaaaaaay them.
ACC ACC ACC ACC
We win at Clemson the old fashioned/Danny Ford way.
Good luck to Groves, Marks, Lee and Sims this weekend.
All high quality kids.
By mcdawg
April 25, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this
this is a great deal for UCONN no questions asked-a rising program that is going to benefit enormously by playing every year on national television
By Will
April 25, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this
Tony, tell the BCS that they suck and so does their crappy little system. How about they grow some balls and do what’s right for college football instead of doing what’s right for their checkbooks. By the way, South Carolina football sucks too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By boog
April 25, 2008 12:40 PM | Link to this
The NFL may hold interest for some but it just does not even come close to college football. I would not even pay any attention to an NFL game televised at the same time as an SEC game.
By Spike
April 25, 2008 1:00 PM | Link to this
Tony, I hate to tell you, but Notre Dame is simply not relevant anymore. NOBODY CARES about ND!! They are not any good any more!! How many bowl games have the mighty Irish lost in a row now?
By Hoopergdawg
April 25, 2008 3:47 PM | Link to this
Saban still contacting recruits ‘in person’ this time via webcam.
Alabama assistant coach Curt Cignetti visited Athens High, which has a Distance Learning Lab that allows Athens students to take online classes by using a live webcam.
Cignetti left behind a web address that Ming used to log on later that day and spend 15-20 minutes talking, through the webcam, with Saban, who was in his office in Tuscaloosa.
Athens High Coach Allen Creasy, who witnessed the conversation, called it “a first from a recruiting standpoint” for his school.
“You could see (Saban’s) facial expressions and hand gestures just as if you were sitting across the desk from him,” Creasy said. “It’s the next-best thing to being there in person.”
By JJ
April 25, 2008 4:10 PM | Link to this
With all due respect to David Pollack how can it be said that he “retired” from the NFL? He did not “retire”. He played one season.
By KR
April 25, 2008 4:11 PM | Link to this
Saban still contacting recruits ‘in person’ this time via webcam.
If you recall, I stated that when the new recruiting rules came out that I’d be surprised if Saban missed even half of a step because of it. Thanks Nick, for proving me correct.
I guess I’m in the minority, but I don’t watch NFL games and haven’t for a long time. While the skill level is better, it just seems to be lacking heart and soul.
WAR EAGLE!
By Kevin
April 25, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this
Tony Barnhart- UCONN does not have an on campus stadium. They play in 15 minutes away. Get your facts straight.
By Kevin
April 25, 2008 4:39 PM | Link to this
Tony Barnhart- Uconn does not have an on campus stadium. They play 15 minutes away. Get your facts straight.
By Mel Kiper
April 26, 2008 1:46 AM | Link to this
Tony, will you join me in quitting the profession, if Matt Ryan has a Brady Quinn type fall, down into the late first round?
Am I stupid? We’ll find out Saturday!
By Mel Kiper
April 26, 2008 1:53 AM | Link to this
Is Atl Stupid?
Yes, if they pass on Matt, “the Lion,” Ryan!
This kid shows great poise and leadership abilities, with a strong arm and good decision making process, regardless of the fact that he threw 19 INTs.
Falcons, take the Lion at #3. You won’t regret it!
By Mel Kiper
April 26, 2008 2:01 AM | Link to this
JJ, when a currently contracted player decides to call it quits, he MUST file “retirement/non compete clause” paperwork with the organization of his current employment. They will in turn file with the league and he will qualify as retired. Since he did not fully participate in at least three football seasons, Mr. Pollack is not eligible for an NFL pension. Fortunately for him, he has another “day job” that he loves and does well with. Thanks for your interest!
By GT
April 26, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this
Notre Dame knows how to negotiate. Their football team is yesterday and obvious the recruits aren’t that impress, but they have those Chicago gangster types running the joint, that keep pushing the envelope making them seem in charge. When Connecticut beats them at their place a few times it will help UC’s program like it did Navy’s. They remind me of a mother in law, no one wants her at the dinner table but you have to be polite and she takes advantage of it.
By BullDawg Rick
April 26, 2008 4:19 PM | Link to this
The Crying Irish plays the Military Academies, UConn, Purdue, SD State, Stanford…
WOW What a toughie!!!
Maybe they win 4 games this season..
Can you say - OVERRATED
Oh yeah, THey also have a losing bowl game history to prove their OVERRATEDNESS
By War Eagle
April 26, 2008 7:42 PM | Link to this
KR,my last NFL game to view was 2005, Falcons losing while Mike Vick showed his apparent “Dooms Day”. NFL, in years to come, will dissolve and be replaced by American Gladiator. Its like fall of the Roman Empire, masses(players) control Czar(Commissioner) and it burns to the next adventure.
By Blue Water
April 26, 2008 10:45 PM | Link to this
Alabama might have no draft choice because Shula was so inept in all phases of football. A great person but not football unless he was playing.
By Pago Flyer
April 26, 2008 11:25 PM | Link to this
Does anybdy really care about pro $port$!
By connorsgp
April 27, 2008 2:15 PM | Link to this
Speaking of the draft..now in the middle of round 5 and no puppies have been drafted….wassup
By Zeb McKluskey
April 27, 2008 4:39 PM | Link to this
Hey c**, just STFU. The Birds just took Thomas Brown, who ran all over your precious little tekkies. If you are a falcons fan, then act like it. If not, just go away man. You can kiss my azz on the part that looks like a fig. Here’s a thought, come back when you want to contribute to anything in life. Otherwise, you’re just taking up our oxygen.
Pago Flyer, while I’m a huge fan of college football, the only pro team I follow is the birds. I have a ton of friends who follow pro-football, pro-basketball, college-football and college-basketball. And I know the TRUE Bulldogs will follow everything. Sorry guys, I just don’t have that kind of energy. I think the Falcons had a pretty good draft, I’m glad they chose Brown. He’s a tough mutha, and will be a good backup behind Turner and Norwood. But ya know what, I would’ve been just fine with them getting Tashard. He’s an awesome back and will do really well in the NFL. GO DAWGS and GO FALCONS!!!!!!
By FLA DAWG
April 27, 2008 6:25 PM | Link to this
ND has incredible recruits from all over the country every year. Makes you wonder why the team stunk last season.
By War Eagle
April 27, 2008 8:31 PM | Link to this
NFL draft again has ZERO draft`s for Bama. Their streak in the draft is like Auburn six year fest.
By connorsgp
April 27, 2008 8:32 PM | Link to this
hey Zeb what ever gave you the idea that I’m a Tech fan..on Nov 1 the team that has kicked the puppies azz for the great majority of the last 20 years will again routinely beat uga errrr Gators 48 puppies 17..that’s my team, young lady.