There has been much speculation as to why he plummeted to the second round, when many had him a Top 10 pick.

As it turns out the reason may be another example of a generation that has lost its “face to face” communication skills. I have heard that sports is just a microcosm of society as a whole. If this is true, this is a telling story of what can happen when we become so narcissistic we lose our ability to have face time with our potential future employer.

In a recent story by Jason Cole on Yahoo Sports, several NFL front office personnel tell the story of Geno Smith being consumed with his cell phone and texting during key points in the interview process. Here are some excerpts from Jason’s article.

“His biggest problem is that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know,” said a league executive, who spent extensive time assessing Smith before the draft. “I’m not sure he knows how to take instruction because he pretty much wouldn’t listen or talk to our coaches … he’s talented. He can sling it, he can fit it into tight spots, he can do a lot of things and I think he wants to be good. But you can’t tell him anything right now. He’s tuned out because he thinks he’s got it all down.”

“He doesn’t have much presence, not much of a leader,” said another league executive, who spent a great deal of time studying Smith before the draft. “I don’t think he’s a bad person, but that’s not enough to be a quarterback in this league.”

Two sources indicated that when Smith went on some visits to teams, rather than interact with coaches and front-office people, he would spend much of his time on his cell phone. Instead of being engaged with team officials, he would be texting friends or reading Twitter or a number of other distracting activities.

“All these other players who were in there were talking to the coaches, trying to get to know people and he was over there by himself,” one of the sources said. “That’s not what you want out of your quarterback.”

I have been guilty of this myself; however in this case, it appears it cost Geno Smith millions of dollars. We may want to rethink staying “connected”…….

The NFL draft has a total of seven rounds. The first six are commonly regarded as the most relevant. Often the seventh round is considered the “compensatory” draft. This is not meant to diminish the relevance of the “7^th” round; just to inform. After the seventh round has been completed, the signing of “undrafted free agents” begins in hast.

As expected, and predicted in our earlier article; the SEC dominated the 2013 NFL draft. A total of 254 players were selected through seven rounds. At the end of the day the SEC had 25% of the entire 254 players selected. When you stop and think about all the conferences throughout the country, this statistic is really incredible.

Below is a breakdown of players selected by conference. I have also included a breakdown on players drafted by position. As you can see, the NFL was starved for interior lineman.

SEC: 63

Non-FBS teams: 36

ACC: 30

Pac-12: 28

Big 12: 22

Big East: 21

Big Ten: 20

Conference USA: 8

Independents: 7

MAC: 7

MWC: 7

Sun Belt: 4

BY POSITION:

Quarterback: 11

Running back: 25

Wide Receiver: 29

Tight end: 16

Offensive Line: 40

Defensive Line: 49

Linebacker: 28

Cornerback: 30

Safety: 22

Kickers/punters: 4

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With that said the upcoming NFL draft will again be bulging with SEC talent from top to bottom. Our friends over at Saturday Down South compiled a list from the past ten years of drafts. It may or may not surprise you to know the Georgia Bulldogs are on top of that list.

Food for thought………..

I had almost forgotten a lot of these great moments…..

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Passion for playing sports transcends many areas. For those that are fortunate enough to have played sports and develop a burning passion that last a lifetime, these things make sense.

So, when we see a player who gets injured, even if they wear other teams’ hated colors, we truly hurt for these players.

Last weekend when Louisville’s guard Kevin Ware suffered his horrific injury it reminded me of a day last fall. A day not many South Carolina fans will soon forget. The day Marcus Lattimore suffered a devastating knee injury, his second in as many years.

I am not a USC fan; however I am a Marcus Lattimore fan. It is clear Marcus has a true burning passion for the game we love, and unless you have that same passion, you might even question why he would come back after two majors knee injuries; I don’t. This video will help put Marcus’ passion in some perspective.

Here’s hoping that Marcus has long prosperous injury free NFL career. I know I will be cheering for him…

It appears that there could be trouble on “The Plains”. Today several reports surfaced concerning alleged allegations in and around Auburn University’s football program.

This isn’t the first time we have been exposed to alleged allegatons concerning AU, however these appear to be the most damming.

USA Today posted an article earlier today. But the most cophrensive articles was posted by Selena Roberts on her site roopstigo.com. Selena is a former columinist for The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.

From the USA Today article:

Auburn coaches offered cash payments to players, for reasons varying from a potential early entry into the NFL draft to simply having “a bad day at practice,” Roberts reports. Former wide receiver Darvin Adams alleged that coaches offered cash to lure him away from entering the draft; while Adams wouldn’t disclose the sum, both Blanc and another former teammate, Mike McNeil, put the total at “several thousand dollars.”

The in depth accounts are disturbing, and if found to be true could prove to be epic. However, given the recent history of the NCAA’s history of investigating (Miami..cough cough) the Keystone Cops will probably botch this up as well.

With spring practices in full swing, it springs hope eternal. We are 150 days from the start of College Football’s 2013 campaign.

So, I thought I would give my “way too early” Heisman frontrunners. I welcome your feedback and thoughts…..

#1 Teddy Bridgewater    QB Louisville Cardinals

After a stellar 2012 campaign capped off by leading his Cardinals to a Sugar Bowl victory of Florida, look for Teddy to be in the Heisman conversation early and often.

#2 Marqise Lee    WR Southern Cal

Marqise will be one of the few bright spots for USC. I expect the offense to lean on his talents heavily and he should put up some monster numbers.

#3 Todd Gurley     RB Georgia Bulldogs

Gurley had an incredible freshman year by all accounts. I expect with the added strength he has put on this off season combined with another year in the system, he will have another epic year.

 
#4 Jadeveon Clowney     DE South Carolina Gamecocks

If Clowney has the year he had last year, I expect him to be sitting in attendance at The Touchdown Club in December. It is clear me that Te’o was vastly overrated by the media and he earned that distinction; surely Clowney will.

#5 Johnny Manziel     QB Texas A&M

You heard it here first. The reigning Heisman winner will have a sophomore slump of epic proportion. I don’t expect him to be nearly as dominate this year and quite frankly I gave him the benefit of the doubt placing him in the top five.

This is for all the recruitniks out there that follow this as closely as you follow your team in the fall.

Are you ever confused by the many different recruiting rankings you hear thrown about? My gosh, we have Rivals, ESPN, Scout, 247Sports, who are we suppose to believe.

As I have discussed before and put forth in a June 12^th article titled “Recruiting sites exposed”. Scout.com recruiting site guru Tom Lemming offered this quote up.

“If the top 10 schools offer a kid, he is a 4-star or 5-star,” Lemming said. “It comes down to offers, not ability. Look at the NFL draft. How many 5-star players are selected in the first round? Not many. Recruiting ratings are arbitrary, just one way to rate players.”

So…..who are we supposed to believe???? The important thing to understand is tracking CFB recruiting is a BIG business. The entire aforementioned sites offer paid subscriptions to get the “insider info”.  There are also some studies that show that 50% of the so called 5 star recruits never even letter at their school. The real measure of the 2013 class will be quantified in 2015-2017.

So now we have an article put forth by M. Shannon Smallwood of rantsports.com that uses a totally different formula of ranking this year’s class. Below is an excerpt and link to complete list of rankings. Judging by the previous quote from recruiting guru Tom Lemming, this formula could be just as accurate as any of the rest.

Each team gets to multiply the number of recruits signed today by 2, multiply by 25 the number of Five-Stars, multiply by 10 the number of Four-Stars and multiply by 5 the number of Three-Stars. Add that number together and you get a quick look at who did the best and who did the worst.

What’s your thoughts….

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To be honest, I can’t wrap my brain around this story…..

Deadspin.com along with other news outlets broke this story today. For full story and timeline of events go to deadspin.com.

It appears that the whole story of losing his girlfriend within hours of his grandmother where a complete hoax. In fact the girlfriend was a complete hoax. Notre Dame has issued this statement below. However it is impossible for me to believe that Te’o wasn’t at the center of this; THE REAL QUESTION IS WHY!!!!

On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.

Dennis Brown University Spokesman | Assistant Vice President

Last night’s BCS Championship game was anticlimactic to say the least…

With this epic win Alabama cemented itself as one of the great dynasties of the College Football world. And along with their win continued the strangle hold that the SEC has in college football (Seven in a row for those counting). Over the next few days there will be many talking heads try to dissect WHY the SEC continues to be the bully of the block.

To me there are many variables at play; from socio-economics in the south, to just plain “speed kills”,all would be correct to a degree. However, the simple fact of the matter is the biggest, strongest, fastest players predominantly reside in the southeast.

 It has long been established in recruiting circles that you need to be able to get the majority of your player base from a roughly 100 mile radius from your campus; I still believe this to be true. So, with that said, you will always have the occasional players from the south that go to Notre Dame or Ohio State (plug in school here). BUT, to truly see the effect of overall team speed at ALL the positions, you need not look any farther than last night’s drubbing that Notre Dame suffered; they were clearly outmatched to a man.

So, The MOJO (SEE DEFINITION BELOW) will continue for the SEC for possibly years to come……

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