Palehosefan

If you are a team looking for a guard, how can you pass this guy up with a face like this?

Bobby Engram will have problems getting off of a jam against big CB's like Gamble and Ken Lucas. Joe Jurevicius will be the one to watch, and I will be interested to see if Peppers drops back in coverage to help out with him. I believe the game will come down to Shaun Alexander and Steve Smith. Which team can slow the other one down the most. Who knew Jake Delhomme's numbers were just about equal to Hasselback's? I certainly didn't, and I have seen every Panthers game this year for the most part.

I'm not even in the boat that thinks Peyton is a choker in the playoffs. This is the first year he has had an above average defense playing with him, and just got beat today by a very hot team that has won 29 games over the past two years. Peyton will be fine, if the Colts can draft a good CB and keep the rest of the D around, there's no reason the Colt's shouldn't win 12 or more games again next year and be as good as anyone. The D-Line is awesome, the LB's are solid, and the safeties are about as good as it gets tandem wise, but they could use a speedy CB to solidify the D. I think Tye Hill, Kelly Jennings, or Richard Marshall would be an excellent addition in the draft. As for their draft position, its because they have the best record of any team not in the super bowl, so they have the 3rd worst pick in the league, unless Seattle doesn't make the super bowl, then I'm not sure if it would take a coin flip to judge the 29th/30th slot between Seattle and Indy.

True leaders my butt, true leaders know when the close their mouth and keep it inside the locker room. Let the coaches blast your fellow players when deserved. Any buffoon can run their mouth to the press ala Terrell Owens, and it never has done any good. Pittsburgh didn't put an abnormal amount of pressure on Indy, its been the same all season long, 6-7 are coming after the QB 75% of the time. This was the quote I was speaking of anyways... "we had protection problems" Oh poor Peyton, only had a QB rating of 103.395 for the game with "protection problems". He must be superman. Peyton was sacked 11.6% of his passing opportunities, Ben was sacked 7.7% of the time including 4 screen plays where a sack is almost impossible, both QB's were harrassed all game long. Ben ended up with a huge welt on his throwing arm from Mathis and Freeney, and apparently Peyton ended up with a sore vagina.

Yeah, not the best way to end your last media outing for the season, I'm sure the OL is thrilled.

No doubt about that, he's my favorite coach in any sport, pro or college. I can't stand to see him lose, even against my team it was incredibly hard to see him down on the sideline. I know that sounds weak, but its the truth, he's a great guy and everything a coach or person should be.

I don't even know what to say after that game, I went through so many emotions. Joy, Anger, Sadness, back to joy with a little sadness for Vanderjadt and Dungy. Now onto Denver. What a game.

Carson should be ok, it was wonderful news that although there were tears, none of them were complete tears, which would have been harder to rehabilitate. I expect to see him sitting out alot of training camp, but I believe he will be Cincy's opening day starter with a knee brace(hopefully one that actually helps this time).

OMG, that was the dunk of the year by Hammond of Clemson. His head was equal or above the rim for the putback, WOW.

Can't say I'm shocked, I expected a few of these losses this year. We just got smacked down on the boards, and outplayed the last 10 minutes of the game, actually led by 8 at one point in the 2nd half. Atleast Texas Tech is going to win to make my day better.

Thats a very nice pick-up for Bama Rex. You obviously know much more about the situation than me, but Max was a highly rated RB from Bama, and looked like he would have gotten significant time at UM if not for recurring injury problems and blocking struggles, which Carr said were improved this offseason. Atleast thats my take on it. Yes Jason, Iowa had a great recruiting class last year, by anyone's standards, and should have a nice building block that could push you guys to a national title chase for a few years as they mature. As for coaching vs. recruiting. You can win with one or the other, and you will win big with if you can find one with both. No matter which type of coach you are, you can still maintain a complete package so to speak. Assistant coaches are the key, take Virginia for example. Al Groh is a s***ty game coach, by most accounts, yet he was smart enough to sign alot of young coaches to his staff that specialized in recruiting. They were rewarded with several top 15 recruiting classes in a row, and guys like Kai Parham, Ahmad Brooks, Heath Miller, D'Brickshaw Ferguson, Daryl Blackstock, etc moving onto the NFL draft as high round draft picks. Virginia maintains a program that competes for the top 25 most years. Take my school, Texas Tech on the other end of the spectrum. We managed to hire a great coach, but have struggled to bring in top recruiting classes, yet maintain a top 25 program. I will go even further. To me, to win with the elite in college football, you have to be running a pro-style offense where a team involves alot of people in the offense and spreads the ball around, while keeping the RB involved. Even Oklahoma a traditional RB school figured that out with Jason White etc. Yet, to run a pro style offense sufficiently, you have to have very good athletes, which will come from recruiting. Basically, you have to be able to just lineup and smack the opponent in the mouth, without relying on trickery, gimmick offenses etc for the brunt of the gameplan, because eventually those styles will run out of shelf life and you will be left with your vanilla pro style offense. You can win with gimmick offenses, and its becoming more and more common place across the nation, but it doesn't work, atleast not yet, with the elite programs, or against them. You can argue TT's offense is a gimmicky type offense, and we have had our share of trouble with elite defensive talent like OU and Texas, but even then, TT normally piles up over 400 yards against those schools. Leach's system is unique, atleast until Baylor begins play next year. Yet TT isn't going to win a national title until they can recruit better defensive players, and find a DC that will run a more aggressive defense to compliment the offense. Virginia isn't going anywhere prominent until they find either a new head coach, or a brilliant OC/DC to lead the coaching aspect. What I'm trying to say is, Zook obviously has the recruiting aspect down as a head coach. His job now is to find assistant coaches that can draw up a gameplan that works for the talent available, and Zook has to keep his pride in check enough to let the assistants gameplan's be put into play. John Bunting at UNC has had that problem for 3 years running, which caused losing season's with top 20 recruiting classes back to back. He finally learned his lesson last year and stopped calling the plays himself, and let Marvin Sanders take over those duties, and the defense magically jumped from 114th in the nation, to top 50 overnight. The same has been done, with hopefully the same results on offense with the Cignetti hire, and things are looking promising for UNC fans in the coming years. Illinois will not have a problem recruiting wise, its a nationally known university with excellent academics, in which recruits will like to feign interest, and you play in one of the best football conferences in America. These are the steps I think the Illini have to take to be successful. 1. Lockdown Illinois, recruiting wise. 2. Hire a coveted DC/OC and led them lead their respective playcalling, I'm not sold on Mike Locksley as OC, as he's never actually been an OC in his career, and has focused mainly on recruiting efforts as a recruiting coordinator at 2 previous stops. Its obvious Zook is focusing most/all of his efforts on recruiting, as he has himself, and 2 other staff members who's main prominence has been as a recruiting coordinator at another school, or at Illinois. Which could pay off in the short term perception wise, but I think could cause trouble ala Virginia a few years later. 3. Use the basketball tradition to your advantage. Let some special recruits, with Weber's permission, walk onto the basketball team, and let the basketball side help recruit them. There are alot of great football recruits who are also solid basketball prospects that will have watched the Illini play on TV for years. Believe it or not, but it can be a big recruiting school, especially at a school like Illinois with your recent success. Players will walk onto the basketball team for a year or two, get tired of it, or get it out of their system, and re-focus on football in the end. Roy Williams has been a huge asset to our football program, and both coaches embrace it. Which brings me to another point, it would really help if Zook and Weber have a nice friendly relationship, atleast public persona wise. As some schools have feuding b-ball/f-ball coaches that does absolutely no good for the school, and is a lost recruiting tool. Anyways, sorry for the long post, just had to get that out of my system.

Willie Williams is currently on the Miami roster, and should be a starting LB for them next year. Some schools like DA U obviously forego any shed of academic prominence for football, and its tough to argue with why they do it. When football is your schools main money maker, a money maker that pays for alot of the other sports at your school to operate, then it would seem hard not to walk a fine line between talent/thug. I will give them credit though, Butch Davis really recruited alot of talent, and good people for the most part, they got away from the Miami thug U mantra for a while, but its obviously coming back to an extent.

Some team should be drooling who needs an OC. As long as Mularkey's family situation, whatever it may be, allows him to coach again, he will be a hell of an OC like he was in Pittsburgh. That was the most fun I have had watching NFL games, was when he was our OC, never knew what crazy play was next.

Looks to much like the Mustang front-end, like previously stated. If they want to go for the retro look, they should start with something like the 69 Camaro SS... Keep the same base, just refine it a little, maybe smoothen some curves out, and remake the top, and I would love to see it.

Also, looks like you guys have Lamont Thomas, a JC safety visiting, 5-11 205, 4.50. Looks like you guys have 26 commits so far, and depending on how much house cleaning Zook has already done, I would be 30 commits would be the ceiling, especially with commits that can enroll in January, or be sent off to prep school for a year. You might see 1 or 2 guys commit this weekend, but I know for sure there will atleast be a scholly held for Ramone Johnson visiting next weekend.

lmao at coach K already starting with excuses. Apparently his team led by 4 seniors is too young to be a great team. Good stuff. You gotta wonder if Vitale and Patrick would sob openly if Duke lost this game, luckly they don't have to worry about that.

Howard is still very raw for the LB position, he's only been playing there since his first year in college. He was a DB his high school career, until he grew into a LB at UTEP. He's from here in Lubbock, and was known as a nice safety prospect and was a very smart kid. He's got a very bright future at the LB position in the NFL as he gains experience, as he has the athleticism and the brains to make it happen, he just has to get enough repetitions that it becomes natural on his reads, instead of thinking about them. I've been following him for a while, since his departure from Lubbock, and his arrival at UTEP, my dad's alma mater. Jones is a nice player in his own right, and should be on people's charts next year as an OLB prospect. Also, Howard didn't dissapear in all the big games, he led the team with 14 tackles against Houston in a win over ESPN 2. He pulled in 10 tackles against UAB. But he's not gonna get 100 tackles when his weakside linebacker is pulling in 130 tackles on the other side. He's raw, but he has all the talent and brains to become a star, he just needs a few more years of learning at the position while he destroys people on special teams.

I'm going to go ahead and say what I've been thinking for a few days now. I don't want to say this is the greatest draft ever, but its the best draft I have have ever seen, since I've been following it in the mid-late 90's. Up and down the entire 1st round, you have players that have Pro-Bowl potential. The WR position is just average, but it even has a few guys that could make a nice impact and at the very least has some great return men in Skyler Green, Sinorice Moss, Jeremy Bloom, Willie Reid etc. You will see some freakish numbers being put up at the combines also, from guys like Vince, Bush, Mario Williams, Manny Lawson, Ernie Sims, Thomas Howard, Reggie McNeal etc.

Punt returns and kick returns are nice for your 3rd or 4th receiver, but you don't find many starting WR's in on returns, outside of Steve Smith, and even then its a big gamble. For him to be the best receiver in the draft, I doubt you will see him on alot of special teams play.

Santonio's stats even leave alot to be desired with me. OSU threw for over 225 yards a game, yet Santonio couldn't even average 82 yards a game. Martin even put up more yards when the two teams met, with 9 catches for 106 yards against a great D, with Holmes only managing 5 catches for 72 yards. I haven't seen him as much as you have, but I still think Nance will be the best in the class.

Well actually I'm teetering from not getting my hopes up for a berth, to now believing we have a legitamate chance, especially with the ACC being down. I thought this team would struggle alot on the road, but they actually have played well, outside of 25 turnovers last game.

I've never been terribly impressed with Holmes. He doesn't have great size, and his speed is nice, but nothing special. I love Nance's size, numbers, and attitude. I'm not saying Santonio has a bad attitude, as I have heard nothing about it, but I know Nance is a good guy and hard worker, especially coming back from his ACL injury in 04. I see him as a better attitude version of Plaxico Burress.

The problem with Miami right now is that their fans are used to USC type dominance that they had 4-5 years ago. The last two years have been solid but haven't resulted in an ACC championship, and the fans are getting restless. It seems both FSU and Miami are in neutral right now as a program, both still get very good players and have good seasons. But neither up to the standards they have seen in the recent past. However, both teams should be very solid again next year and have a shot for the BCS, which is all any sane fanbase should ask for. This years Miami class is definitely down by their standards, for example, their latest commit, is a 3 star #79 RB from Tennessee with these vitals, 5'10 183 running only a 4.5 40, that would have been an emergency recruit from years past, not one they accepted in January with other recruits still in play.

Man, nobody wants to play VT this year. They have some crazy athleticism with plenty of ballhandling and will pull a few big upsets this year. Meanwhile, Roy has coached UNC to 10-2 now, and 2-0 on the ACC. I'm teetering on the fence about getting my hopes up for a tournament berth, as I know this team will lose a few that they shouldn't have with the inexperience. But its a hell of alotta fun watching them try.

I rate him so high because he has amazing athletic ability, while limited coaching at the CB position, he has alot of potential at the position. Meanwhile, he can step in automatically and challenge for a Pro-Bowl return man spot. I wouldn't be suprised to see him tried out at WR though either.