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National Football League
Draft King Analysis

September 26, 2009
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com

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The marquee game in college football today is #9 Miami going on the road to face #11 Virginia Tech. The Hokies impressed me greatly by how well they played in Atlanta against a tremendously talented Alabama team in the season-opener, while Miami has looked impressive in beating rival Florida State on the road and then dismantling a then-ranked Georgia Tech team at Dolphins Stadium.

Miami at V-Tech isn't a big game as far as projected first round picks for the 2010 NFL Draft go, but it's an intriguing matchup of teams with players who could end up being high picks in 2011 or 2012. I like what I have seen so far from Hurricanes sophomore QB Jacory Harris, and Deadspin.com has gone so far as to project Harris as the #1 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Jevan Snead
Jevan Snead is an athletic quarterback. (Icon SMI)

On Thursday night, Ole Miss was exposed in front of a national audience on ESPN by Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks. So was QB Jevan Snead, touted by some before the game as the top quarterback prospect in the country. I didn't buy it; he was too inconsistent last season for my liking, such as when he struggled at home against Vanderbilt before going on the road and leading the Rebels to an unexpected win at eventual BCS Title winner Florida.

Snead is a talented player, and I learned with my faulty analysis of Stanford QB Trent Edwards a few years back not to necessarily judge a player by the merits or failures of his team. But to think that he's a stronger prospect than Sam Bradford (with or without a separated shoulder) or Colt McCoy is, in my estimation, foolhardy. And I felt this way before the South Carolina game -- I wrote about it in July of this year.

What made me question Snead (and Ole Miss overall as a top contender) was in week one when the Rebels played three quarters of mediocre football against Memphis. I suspect that many AP and coaches poll voters simply saw the final score of that game: Mississippi 45, Memphis 14. But in reality? The Rebels lead only 17-7 going into the fourth quarter of that game (see it for yourself here). Even Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt pointed out the inconsistency of Snead after the game, saying, "Jevan Snead didn't have his game going in the first half... [but in] the second half he came back and really executed."

I won't go as far as CBS Sports writer Gregg Doyel, who yesterday labeled the Rebels as the worst No. 4-ranked football team in modern history in an article. And don't take this as an indictment of Snead as a pro prospect; he has had moments of brilliance where he had looked outstanding. Snead has a prototype build for an NFL quarterback: he's either 6'3" or 6'4" (depending on who you believe) and 215 pounds, he has a very strong arm, and he is an athletic player. But, at least at this point, I strongly believe that Snead would benefit greatly by returning to Ole Miss for his redshirt senior season in 2010.

It's not all negative for Ole Miss. Defensive end Greg Hardy, who was nowhere near 100% coming into the South Carolina game with an ankle injury, put on a gutsy performance and found his way into the backfield on passing downs on multiple occasions. Hardy is 6'4" 265 pounds and runs (according to some estimations) a sub 4.6 40 yard dash. He could play a 4-3 DE or 3-4 OLB in the NFL, and Hardy could potentially move ahead of Florida DE Carlos Dunlap as the top defensive end prospect in the country.


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