I just read an article from the USA Today, liberal rag that it is, and it listed the top 50 college players going into the draft.
Alabama has numbers 3,5,6,9,20,30,43
Ohio State has 1,4,49
LSU has 2,15,17,21,22,33,36
Clemson has 7,22,38,46
Oklahoma has 8,39
Georgia has 7,26
Ped State has 35,40
for crying out loud lowa has 16,34
Wisconsin has 25,47
TCU, has 37, 44
Utah has 31, 50
Auburn, South Carolina, Louisville, Oregon, Houston, Colorado, California, Arizona State, Baylor, USC, TCU, Utah State, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri each have one player. Where is Notre Dame? To me this proves that Brian Kelly is a damn good coach because our talent though good, is not overwhelming. Notice this excludes the great Trevor Lawrence for Clemson because he is not eligible yet. Also it does not include the QB from Oklahoma who had won a championship with Alabama, and the QB from Georgia who is highly touted, or the QB from Ohio State who was superb all year and get beat you soundly with his arm and legs. A superbly talented QB like Lawrence makes a huge difference and others who the system suits well or have great athletic ability makes a big difference too.
So Brian Kelly has done a remarkable job developing players that were not that highly rated and getting to the NFL, and sticking for more than the 4 year career that is the NFL standard for achieving what each player hopes to get at the least. As of now we are probably in the top 8 of college programs and have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs without having off the chart recruits, many of which are eliminated from the start because they don't have the academics, or come from a household where the degree is not valued or cherished. It also says to me that team chemistry though a strong contributing factor for getting to the playoffs, is trumped by talent in winning a championship. A championship can be won when the chemistry overrides the talent, as last year in NCAA basketball, Virginia was damn lucky in four of their wins, did not have the most talent, and in fact because of that lack of talent almost got knocked each of those in four games. It takes luck and teamwork but mostly top talent on those rare occasions that you have a bad day, to win the championship. The chemistry effect occurs only occasionally. Under Holtz we were ranked number 1 in recruiting and very high in many of the others, yet only came away with one championship. Yes we were in the running in two more years and if playoffs existed then, we probably would have been in them in maybe 4 of Holtz's years. But my conclusion is that we are pretty damn lucky to have Brian Kelly.
as I said previously.
You read an article that has 0 ND players in their top 50 players of the upcoming draft & this makes Kelly a good coach b/c he develops guys into NFL players?
Wasn't Kmet a 5* prospect at TE coming out of high school? Kelly helped develop him so much that he didn't even make this list?
Doesn't this make Kelly a terrible/lazy recruiter?
draft so you are comparing apples and oranges. He was developed into the number 1 tight end in the country and we are famous for sending tight ends to the NFL. You really can't figure that out?
I would be shocked if either fell below 50 in the draft. If he didn't get hurt, the same would be true for Okwara.
Kmet has a 3rd round grade but will probably go earlier than he normally would due to how weak the TE class is. Overall, I'd guess 1st 10 picks in 3rd (65-75) is about where he goes. That is where team needs and his overall ranking seem to merge. If the Bears pass on him at 50 (they sure as heck aren't taking him at 43 although Pace ain't the sharpest tool in the shed), I'd guess Washington at 66. I can see GB possibly taken him at 62 but not if that is their 2nd pick. They'd have to trade out of the 1st and get extra picks since they have 2-3 bigger needs than TE.
Claypool is a good player but the wr class is so deep he isn't going to go anywhere near the top 50. He maybe the 12-15 wr taken so it may depend on when the run on wrs begins. After Lamb, Jeudy, Ruggs and maybe Jefferson there are a bunch of guys lumped together so it depends on who needs a big wr. In fact, he is getting as much attention as a possible Y TE as he is a wr. Boykin is a good comparison and he went 93rd. Claypool is better than Boykin so I guess last ten picks in 2nd round for him depending on how the run on wrs go. There are a lot of "no name" wrs popping up and Claypool seems to be dropping from 1st half of 2nd round to 2nd half of 2nd round. He is more of a high floor type of guy while there are quite a few higher ceiling wrs ought there.
Okwara is a bit of a wild card and will go lower than people think because he has sort of all hat/no saddle view, i.e., he didn't have as much production as he should have given his talent. In fact, Kareem may go sooner because Kareem is a good fit for a 3/4 defensive lineman while Okwara suffers from a size/speed ratio issue (is he big enough, is he fast enough ?) and not being able to show a strong specific skill set because he was hurt. Okwara is likely to be taken be a team with lots of picks because they won't sweat missing on one but will applaud themselves if they hit on him.
This year will be different than normal (thank you captain obvious) and the inability to work players ought should help the guys from the Power 5 conferences.
I'm no draft expert. Maybe you are. But I'm not pulling this out of my ass.
Link: https://www.ndinsider.com/football/in-the-latest-mock-draft-churn-chase-claypool-surfaces-as-notre-dames-top-nfl-prospect/article_e29b1511-b2a0-587d-8d7c-1662b2e75bf4.html
Kiper/McShay just get more attention because they're on ESPN. Neither are acknowledged as the "aces" of their profession. Most of the more recent ratings have Claypool in the 70 - 80 range ( maybe of the 10th-13th best wr ) in terms of overall rankings but because of fit and need and how the draft evolves, he could go higher or lower. His initial big attraction is his possible switch to TE (because the TE class is so weak ) but his combine performance showed he has some legitimate top-end wr skills. I still say 2nd half of 2nd round.
By the way, that mock was made nearly a month ago prior to a lot of free agent signings. No matter what Kiper says, I can guarantee you that GB isn't going to pick Claypool in the 1st round because he doesn't fit their need at wr, at least not at that position in the draft, GB needs a slot guy with an emphasis on quickness. GB is loaded with tall receivers, very similar to Claypool. Many more recent mocks from knowledgeable guys have him going as low as early 3rd. As I noted, Boykin had much the same reaction last year when he knocked folks socks off at the combine. Lots of early drafts had him going in the 1st and he ended up at 93.
We'll see where he goes. If you're right, you can dance on my head. I didn't mean to imply that you were making it up.
By the way, if you can't already tell, I love the NFL draft. It is probably my favorite sporting 'event' of the year.
Top 50 afterall.
but blessed with athletic ability that was recognized by those who recruited him. He was not polished early and may still be improving. His big fault IMO was his lack of consistency on the easy catches. He seemed to improve on those last year but still had an easy drop in the comeback win against Va. Tech. He also made a clutch catch later on the same final drive and this is what struck me about him. He made the athletic catches but missed the fundamental ones at times. He dropped key very catchable balls against Miami in 2017 early and Clemson in the semi final that might have given us some momentum early in those games. Boykin on the other hand may not be quite the athlete as Claypool but he seldom if ever missed the easy passes. We had a real issue with Alize Mack or Jones both of whom missed the easy catches often. I know same guy, thought I would be funny.
Guys like Claypool and Elliott would not be getting criticized for having technique issues.
He’s a good coach. But there are too many holes in his coaching staff to suggest he’s damn good.
(no message)
the last few years.
In short, it is far too qb centric, forcing the qb to make too many decisions/reads rather than just execute plays. Expecting an offense to be efficient/effective only when there is a "great" qb, is ridiculous since there are really about a handful of great qbs in any given year.
We have seen qb after qb fail to achieve the growth you typically see in qbs running their offenses in the 2nd years. In fact they seem to digress, rather than progress. Kelly has had talented-enough qbs ( for normal college offenses to be much better than his anyway) but none have ever really gotten better as their careers progressed. It would have been nice to see what Kizer could have become had he stayed one more year but even he knew the offense design was the problem not the players. So he he rolled the dice but any chance he had of becoming a better qb and learning a real offense was shot to shit when he had to start as an unprepared rookie on a truly bad team.
We shall see if Book excels -- and he certainly ought to since this will be his 3rd year running this offense and his fifth year in the program.
Qb isn't the only position hampered by the Kelly offense. Take a look at the offensive line which year after year after year under performs to the level of it's talent as witnessed by what our grads do in the pros.
(no message)
Our lack of success against top teams is driven by offense failings, not defensive ones. Miami, Georgia, Clemson. Michigan are just a few examples of losses due to inept offensive play, not great defenses. That has been a pattern that repeats itself big game after big game while we waddle through the mediocre parts of out schedule failing to get much need rest for our 1st team and much needed game experience for our 2nd tier players. One example, we never found out if Jurkovec could play because his only game experience was handing off, or keeping the ball himself, in the last 2 minutes of the 4th quarters in games when he should have been been running the full offense in the 3rd quarter.
(no message)
what that would have been like?
He sells out good athletes and QB's far too easily. He opts for the Rees's and the Book's in lieu of
the more talented athlete. I think Jurkovec is going to take BC by storm. He'll be at a place that will work
on his confidence and use his abilities and make them work for that team.
Kelly likes the guy who looks quaffed in practice and doesn't build the guy who may need a little more room to show off his abilities.
I don't think it's about recruiting one because he's done that - he just can't build one who doesn't fit his narrow view of how talent
is nurtured. He settled on Rees, and settled on Book - both decent back-ups.
think Jirk is the next coming is guiteca reach. See Chris, Dane
Jurko will be a STANDOUT 100% sure, he should have been given a better shot here but Kelly seems to live the Ree's and Book's of the world by far.
(no message)
and slow release then. I guess we will find out whenever the next season starts.
(no message)
Maybe he was the best out there?
(no message)
(no message)
Though I don't think that is what you meant to say.
He would've excelled under Lou. The utter inability of people on this forum to evaluate talent in anyway never ceases to astound me. I see a separate genius is mentioning Gunner Kiel below. Exhibit B.
Jurkovec couldn't beat out this QB that you Kipers think is so mediocre. Undoubtedly, many of you also thought Kelly unfairly benched the worst ND QB during my lifetime who started more than six games, Dayne Crist for your whipping boy, Tommy Rees.
credit for. He did have a problem forcing passes and protecting the ball while running. He was actually more susceptible when he broke open and was hit from behind to fumbling than when running up middle and taking a hard hit. However, he made a ton of big plays with both his arm and legs and it would have all been great for him if the Florida State game was not stolen from him.
I was hoping he would make a go of it in the CFL, so I could watch him some more.
In keeping with this sub-thread, I wondered what others were seeing when they preferred Zaire to him.
Theismann. We need a few breaks to defeat them all but there is a shot. "You want me to take a shot, I'll take a shot." The bartender in Rocky said.
(no message)
(no message)
you're a mediocre QB coach.
You did think Crist should start over Rees, didn't you?
(no message)
(no message)
You have no idea what you're talking about. You doorknobs come on here and pontificate and you don't have a clue about any of it.
There really ought to be a test that you have to pass to post on this forum. Seriously. It would clean up so much garbage.
Let's not forget George Poorman, B.J Hawkins, Gus Ornstien, and Eric Chappel Sure, with talent like that, why the hell would Holtz waste his time with Ian Book.
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)