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National Football League
Draft King Analysis
December 1, 2007
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
Reader feedback is always welcomed here at DraftKing.com. Send your thoughts to me at LouPickney@gmail.com.
It has been a crazy day in college football, to say the least. #1 Missouri lost, #2 West Virginia lost, and now the BCS faces a chaotic situation. I prefer to think of it as if Division I-A college football doesn't have a post-season, but instead simply stages a series of exhibition games to end the year. If anything, the conference title games held today hold the most credence as to who the best team is in a given region, as opposed to an arbitrary game to crown a paper national champion (and even that doesn't always work.)
As for players with breakout performances today, most of the junior stars of the Oklahoma Sooners who I raved about on here yesterday stepped it up. In particular, WR Malcolm Kelly was extremely impressive at gaining separation, catching the ball in stride, and showing off his good speed. At this point, is Early Doucet really a stronger prospect than Kelly? Yes, I know Doucet is not 100%, but if the clock is ticking on me right now and I have to choose between them, I'm taking Kelly.
Revenge can be a wonderful motivating factor, and Virginia Tech gained that in their rematch with Boston College. Xavier Adibi's interception (off a deflection) for a game-sealing TD with seconds to go was very nice. BC senior safety Jamie Silva made an impressive pickpocket play in snagging the ball from V-Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor mid-stride on a keeper play, taking it the other way for a winning score, though Silva made a couple of mistakes out there. But the fire that Silva plays with is worth noting, and there's a good reason that he's a finalist for the Jim Thorpe award (for the nation's top defensive back.)
Jacob Hester receives a great deal of attention because he plays for LSU, but he is unafraid to lay a lick on someone. On one play early against Tennessee, Hester saw an impending collision with freshman WR-turned-CB Brent Vinson, lowered his shoulder, and knocked *Vinson* over. Yes, Hester has 40 pounds on Vinson, but it was nevertheless impressive to see.
Hester may not project as high as casual fans may think (maybe a 5th rounder?) but I think he will end up as a great bargain and that he has potential to play both FB and the increasingly popular "H-Back" position. At 5'11" he doesn't have height to be a modified tight end (like Dallas Clark), but he will be a strong contributor for whatever team lands him.
I haven't written much about UCF RB Kevin Smith on here, but he is not off my radar. To the contrary, his performance against Tulsa today was outstanding, and he has shown that he has endurance and stamina to go with his blazing speed. He is yet another junior RB who could come out early, and at 6'1" 210 with a 4.5 40, he seems like a prototype NFL back.
If Smith was in a higher profile conference, he'd receive much more national acclaim. Instead, he toils in relative obscurity in Conference USA, but I assure you that the decision makers in the NFL are well aware of him. UCF runs him like crazy, and I do worry that he might fall into the Ray Rice category of running up too many miles on the odometer, but he is impressive. And, if things turn out like I suspect they will, I might get to see him play in person in the Liberty Bowl later this month.
For now it's 2 a.m. CST, and while I was hoping to hold out to write about Colt Brennan on here for today's column (it's still technically 12/1 in Hawaii as I type this), sleep is a must for me to be able to make it to the Titans/Texans game on time. So I'm going to post this, catch the end of the Washington at Hawaii game, and then get some sleep. One question: did Hawaii wear white at home tonight to trick people watching the morning highlights on SportsCenter into thinking that the game was actually played in Seattle?
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