The NFL Draft's New Mascot

Once again, the greatest time of year for fans whose team is down on their luck…the NFL draft!  For most people it’s “The Neverending Story” without the flying Muppets; for me, it’s the last oasis of football goodness before training camps fire up and Brett Favre gets to retire and un-retire again.  With the new multi-day format and the mercurial talent in this class, I was interested to see how this draft differed from previous years.  Here are my thoughts on the new format:

• Hate the Thursday start: Every year I either burrow in like a tick into my sofa or head to the nearest public house Saturday at noon to find out what my team is going to do with its top 5 pick this year and where last year’s college stars are going to end up.  Instead, this year I start yelling at my TV for the round to end so I can get some sleep before work!  And dont let the 23% ratings boost fool you; this happened for the same reason Super Bowl ratings are bogus…the party factor.  On weekends, fan clubs will get together for draft parties and some of us uber-nerds will get together to watch the draft.  That was greatly reduced for a Thursday.  There may have been more TV sets tuned in, but I’m almost dead certain less eyeballs were watching especially by the end of the round.
• Kinda like the shorter pick times: This is the 2nd year with a shortened time per pick.  All in all, I like the shortened time per pick.  After months and months of poking, prodding, interviewing, and researching, these teams aren’t going to miss 5 minutes to make a pick.  The only change I would make would be to give the “lottery picks” extra time to try and trade down, which is what most of those teams should do if they get the chance.  A friend of mine pointed me to The Loser’s Curse which makes some interesting points about this.
• Ditch the special guest stars: One of the best moments of the draft was when Zachary Hatfield got his “Make-a-wish” wish granted by getting to announce the Steelers’ 1st round pick.  However, I can do without NFL players, college coaches, etc. being trotted out to announce certain picks.  Just tell me who they picked, Rog!

OK, enough about the format, on to the picks!  For readability, I’ll split my comments into “Homer” and “Non-Homer” sections.

Non-Homer:

• Not much movement at the top:  I expected as much given how all of the talking heads were saying that this was the deepest draft in years.  No one wanted to burn an early pick to jump up for an “elite” player, although San Diego and Philly did move up to that “second-tier” range.
• “What the hell league you been playing in?  California Penal…”: In an apparent effort to make even less people come out to a Jaguars game, they burn the #10 on a DE almost no one had graded in the 1st round.  If your last name isn’t Polian, this usually doesnt turn out well.
• The wishbone is back, baby!:  With Fred Jackson starting to shine and Marshawn Lynch suspension-free this year and a glaring needs on defense and under center, Buffalo goes with C.J. Spiller.  The Bills may consider him the best available player and he should be a great NFL talent, but it seems they had other more glaring needs.
• Breathe into the paper bag: San Diego and Philly gave up quite a bit to move up to the top half of the 1st round.  The Philly move cost them 2 3rd’s to jump up to 12 and I didnt see them needing to jump that high to get him.  If he pans out, they wont miss those picks.  San Diego is a different story.  They essentially gave up a LB, and a 2 to move up to take Mathews.  That seems a hefty price to pay, and if he didnt fall to them, Jahvid Best would definitely been there.  Basically, Buffalo stove-piped the Chargers and they put this whole draft on the Fresno State RB’s shoulders. 
• How the Mighty have fallen: Jimmy Clausen and Dez Bryant went from riches to “rags” this week (Its hard to call future millionaires “rags”).  I think the Panthers and Cowboys got themselves steals in the draft, respectively.  Both have the dreaded tags “potential”, “upside”, and “character issues” associated with them.  I think Bryant got this because of his “improper contact” which seemed like a tempest in a teacup, as far as I can tell.  Clausen gives me more of a pause, however but I may be biased (see Homer section).
• Tebow to the Broncos: Too high.  Why trade for Quinn? I dont want to write any more on the subject then people want to read any more about it.

Now on the important stuff!  “The Mistake by the Lake” is on the clock…

Homer:

• Love the non-pick: Maybe it’s because we’ve just moved past the Brady Quinn debacle (I don’t blame him), but I don’t really want a Notre Dame QB redux.  Especially since he greaded out lower than Quinn did when he came out, if I remember correctly.  I REALLY didn’t want him at 7, but could have lived with him being taken at 38.
• Like the pick: I hate Kansas City.  First they lose to us to end up ahead of us in the draft, and then they take my guy in Berry!  All that being said, I think Joe Haden is going to be a good addition and help us out in the secondary.  However, I think we have a greater need at LB after trading for Sheldon Brown and trading away Kamerion Wimbley.  The world is upside down when you are semi-jealous of a pick made by the Raiders!
• The 2nd round: Pick 38 rolls around.  Clausen, McCoy, and Taylor Mays are on the board, one of which I thought was a lock to be our pick.  Then we select T.J. Ward.  I still haven’t figured out what he has that makes Holmgren rate him higher than Mays, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.  Clausen goes off the board, and we trade back up into the 2nd.  Surely we are going to take McCoy!  Nope. We pick up a bruiser of a RB to complement Harrison, and that may very well be a bigger need since we have 2 veteran QBs on the team and next year should have some good QB talent.
• I don’t believe what I just saw: We trade our 1st 3rd rounder to move up for Hardesty, so now we’re waiting with 1 last pick at the end of the round.  McCoy keeps falling and falling…and bingo!  We get a QB for a bargain if he works out, or we can get another QB next year if he doesn’t. 
• Last but not least: With our final pick, we select an OL to add some depth at the position.  If he starts as a rookie, we’re in some serious trouble.
• Keeping up with the Joneses: We have had a decent draft, but I think Cincinnati and Baltimore addressed some serious needs as well and we won’t be leapfrogging anyone in the division this year.

I’d personally like to see the whole draft shifted a day so that it starts on Friday night, but I like having a day after the first round.  I think everyone made the right non-trades in this case, and everyone being able to reset their boards lets them prepare for the shortened pick times.  But let’s face it, the NFL Draft has a captive audience; either you watch or you don’t.   In the end, players got drafted, I’m excited for my team’s future, and now I have to wait for Farve to retire again to talk football.  ”Never give up, and good luck will always find you.”

“Miami is back.  Maybe not on the national scene, but certainly on the state level, where the Hurricanes beat their archrivals to the north Monday night.”

Let me help you out here and read between the lines.  No one at ESPN will give anyone at Miami a single ounce of credit until they are ranked in the Top 10…which is OK all by itself, until you realize that everyone who votes in the polls also has an axe to grind for the ‘Canes.  The Miami Hurricanes will be ranked in the Top 10 by the end of the 2009-2010 college football season.

I am not going to make excuses for the way people love to hate my beloved ‘Canes – they have well and truly earned their reputation as a bunch of thugs who happen to be great football players that are playing in a no-shit football factory.  It makes certain fans of other teams jealous and others just annoyed.  The fact that Miami has never won with grace or lost with class makes it even worse.  Well, none of those things has ever changed…even when they stunk…they were just not getting the same class of athlete they have gotten traditionally.

Well, now they have Randy Shannon on board, and they are starting to get the same class of recruits they used to get when Jimmie Johnson was running things.  Please, no hate mail or whiney comments about my comparing Shannon to Johnson.  Randy Shannon is the worst in-game coach in all of Division I football right now.  He is Henry Winkler in The Waterboy before he got his manhood back.  He blows through time outs like a newly divorced trophy wife burns through cash…and from a whole bunch of bone-headed stuff.  Poor substitutions, late play calling, poor situational recognition, you name it.  In short – all things that teams with good in-game coaches do NOT do.

But let’s make no mistake.  Randy Shannon is a player’s coach, and he is going to recruit the HELL out of Southern Florida.  It might be 10 years before another blue chip recruit from Southern Florida goes anywhere other than Miami.  Which means only one thing – get used to Miami back in the mix for a national championship year after year, and all of the strutting, swagger and trash talking that comes along with it.

Make no mistake about this, either.  Miami went into Florida State’s house and OWNED them.  As the 38-34 score indicates, there was not a lot of defense in this game, which should concern all Hurricane fans as it does me.  But, any defensive stops that happened seemed to happen when The U was on defense.  If not for a weird hit arm / deflected pass returned for a touchdown, Miami might have won this game going away.  But one thing is for certain after that game…Jacory Harris is, hands-down, the coolest customer I have ever seen at the collegiate level.  If you have not seen the game yet, it will be on ESPN Classic tomorrow as an instant classic.  Do yourself a favor and watch it.  Watching Jacory Harris in this game will make you think of Vince Young in the 2006 Rose Bowl…except for he is even more under control at every point in the game.  Sure, it’s a Week 1 game and not the BCS Title Game, but the fact that I making the comparison at all should tell you all you need to know about how composed Jacory Harris looked during this game.

One final point to tick off all the Miami haters – they have a very favorable schedule for a pretty prestigious bowl game this year.  Here are the next 3 opponents for Miami — #15 Georgia Tech, at #7 Virginia Tech, #3 Oklahoma.  After that, they will have 8 games left, 7 of which should be easy wins and one game at #21 North Carolina.  I would say that after the win on Monday night, a 2-2 start is a definite possibility.  Then, let’s assume that North Carolina will hold on at home and beat the Canes…and let’s also assume that Randy Shannon will flat-out blow a game against an inferior opponent.

Ladies and gentlemen – that will amount to an 8-4 record from a team in a BCS conference…and probably gets them into the Top 3 in the ACC at least…maybe even with a chance to win the ACC outright, as they might only have 1 loss in conference.  The ACC Champ plays in the Orange Bowl – could you imagine the Hurricanes playing in the Orange Bowl on January 5?  The #2 team in the ACC plays in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on December 31 in Atlanta.  The #3 team in the ACC plays in the Gator Bowl on January 1 in Jacksonville.

Don’t be surprised when you see Miami playing in a major bowl game this season, and don’t be surprised if they ride Jacory Harris into the BCS.

Hopefully you have recovered from your beat-down at the hands of a school from a crummy conference enough to have your wits about you…because you are in a bona fide legacy-defining moment after only your first game as the coach at Oregon.  Yes, LeGarrette Blount has given you a golden opportunity.  You have basically two approaches you can use – let’s call them the Bud Selig approach, where you let Blount do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, as long as he is making money for the university; and the Roger Goodell approach, where you come down on Blount like a ton of bricks.

First things first, you will notice that I have not mentioned anything to do with the Athletic Department, currently being run by your former boss, or the university president.  That is because they have no dog in this fight.  You were hired to run the football program, not them.  Besides, I am sure you want to kick your A.D. in the nads after embarrassing you on national T.V. by showing up on the sideline.

OK – let’s look at the Bud Selig approach.  For the purposes of this case, the Bud Selig approach can be defined as anything less than a 5-game suspension.  If you take this approach, these points will define your legacy:

• You will instantly and forever be known as the guy that allowed Blount to get off with a wrist slap for not being able to handle getting owned and punching everything in sight while wearing an Oregon Ducks uniform
• Every time you talk to a recruit and his family about discipline and high standards, they will justifiably be smirking in your face
• You will be stuck with that wrist slap as precedence
• If you ever discipline another player in the future, and the punishment is not the same, you open up another set of arguments about anything that might be different between Blount and the other player, such as skill level, NFL potential, revenue generating potential, geography, socio-economic status, race, you name it

If you take the Roger Goodell approach, the opposite statements will be true, except for the last one.  You need to be consistent, no matter what.

As for the whole “letting the A.D. and/or university president handle it” approach, you will never ever have control over your players again.  I cannot make a strong enough statement here – you might as well take a player vote on everything from that point on, because you will be nothing more than a figurehead.

So, Coach – I will not make this long-winded because I know that you have a lot of stuff on your plate this morning.  But, I do want to make one thing particularly clear before I let you go – your entire coaching legacy at Oregon is going to be defined by what you do publicly regarding this situation in the next 12 hours or so.  You are forever, for better or worse, going to be known as Chip Kelly, they guy who let LeGarrette Blount skate while at Oregon, deciding that wins were more important than words like honor, discipline and integrity…or Chip Kelly, the guy who decided that running a program to be proud of was more important than victories and money.

It’s a tough call, and I do not envy you one bit for having to make it.  Hopefully, you will take the Goodell approach.  I know that’s the route I would take if I were you.  Besides, after the way your team looked last night, suspending Blount for the year just might be the best thing possible.  That way, when you lose 7 or 8 games this year, which I would probably say is a certainty at this point, with or without Blount, wouldn’t it be nice to have the excuse that your best player had to be excused from the team for the entire season to be taught a lesson about representing the university and what a privilege it is to play college football?  Hell, suspending Blount for the season might be the only thing that guarantees that you are not one-and-done as the head coach.

If you don’t suspend Blount for a minimum of half the season (5 games) and still lose 7 or 8 games, then you will be the guy that made a conscious decision to choose winning over discipline and honor and integrity…and STILL lost.  Any head coach would be lucky to keep his job after that.