There were quite a few spirited reactions to Wednesday's entry about how much football talent each region of the country actually produces, so I'll lead with that in this week's mailbag:
From Mel in Oakland: I'll concede that the South probably produces more talent than the West but looking at all of the Pro Bowlers from that region it's only fair to point out most of them DID NOT actually go to SEC schools. More went to Miami or FSU or Sun Belt schools than your good ole SEC, so take that SEC fans!
Feldman: I'm not sure that this necessarily has to become an SEC vs. the World debate topic, but I think it does give you a clearer picture of why that conference can produce such good football.
From Danno in Philly: Your article on recruiting was informative, but I believe based on a fundamental flaw. College players in the NFL & NFL players in the Pro Bowl are one criterion for the success of college programs but hardly definitive. Can you spell "Tommie Frazier?" I could list a thousand examples of great college athletes who didn't make it as pros but that is a negative reflection on the NFL, not college football. I think that if you took great college players who didn't make the NFL your results would be the same, but I don't think you should do a survey like this which leaves the impression that NFL performance is the only gauge of college greatness.
Feldman: That's a fair point, although I think it addresses mostly a quarterback issue. Patrick Willis was a great player in college and a great NFL linebacker. Almost all Pro Bowlers were great college players. The thing is many guys who have big reputations in college, especially linemen and defensive players, might not actually be all that great. There are guys who get hyped up early in their college careers and for one reason or another, the hype builds and you have these guys making all-league. Then, they get into the NFL, where they really have to produce to live up to their reputation, at least to more of an extent, and you find out something's lacking.
Just in the last month, there are a handful of guys who I heard were very good players, but then you talk to some scouts who have actually studied these guys on tape very closely, and sometimes that's not the reality.
From Daniel in Boston: Houston Nutt and Ole Miss dismissed two players this week, thus making a little room for the 37 recruits he signed in 2009. Will the SEC curb oversigning by schools in the future, because it's inevitable that schools have to make room somehow?
Feldman: I did a double take when Nutt dismissed those guys. One, DB James Scott, I didn't know much about. He was an Ohio State transfer Nutt brought in last year. The other, lineman Justin Sanders, I was very familiar with. I'd talked to both him and his father for my book, and the story of Sanders' recruitment is one of the things I get asked most about "Meat Market." (The elder Sanders had explained his business to me about raising gamecocks, and at the in-home visit to Sanders' house, Ed Orgeron and two of his assistants got to see an actual cockfight.) From what I've heard, the younger Sanders had missed some classes and some workouts. In the grand scheme of college football, this isn't the worst thing any player has done. In fact, at places all over the country, I'm pretty sure you'll hear about guys doing a lot worse and getting to play in the fall, but with the Rebels' needing to clear up roster space, it's no stretch to think guys buried on the depth chart can't become headaches for the staff or else they'll get the boot.
My hunch is the conference will try to come up with some legislation that keeps the numbers of scholarship players a school can sign down. The perception of oversigning is not something the SEC or any other league relishes.
From Jon in Chicago: I am a bit late to the party on this and you might have answered the question before, but assuming you've seen the show Friday Night Lights, how does its portrayal of recruitment jive with reality in your opinion? I hate to think that the coaches I look up to are so damn sleazy.
Feldman: I'm not an avid "FNL" watcher, but from the times I've seen it, I think it's a little over the top in that regard, but not that far off. It all depends on the personality of a given recruiter. Some guys are very low-key, but a few really do have that huckster quality to them, where they come across as the stereotypical used-car salesman. I suspect on each staff you'll find that mix from the laid-back guy to the high-energy, 100 mph, over-the-top guy.
From Carl in Mequon, Wis.: What in the world happened to Sam Shields? I saw in an ACC blog link that he might play in nickel and dime packages on defense? I am confused.
Feldman: Shields never proved to be a consistent receiver. His hands weren't reliable and his confidence wasn't there. He can fly, though, and last year he proved he could be a very productive special-teamer, so this spring he's been moved to cornerback. It's worth a shot for UM because he wasn't going to breakthrough at receiver and he flashed some of the toughness needed to play defense.
From Michael in Long Beach, Calif..: Please stop with the Taylor Mays weight and speed stuff. You've been around enough campuses to know that 40 times are…to be kind "manufactured". First, I seriously doubt that Taylor will run the 40 at the 2010 combine, but if he does, I GUARANTEE he does not run under a 4.6.
Feldman: Forty-yard-dash times are often sketchy, but you can use it as a gauge for how they rank within their team. Inside the Ole Miss war room, they had their 40-yard-dash times of everyone on their team. They didn't seem outrageous. They had Michael Oher, the big tackle most draft experts had been touting as a 4.9 guy, down for a 5.45. Mike Wallace was in the 4.2s. It sounded outrageous, but no one else on the team was within two-tenths of a second of him. As we saw in the NFL combine, Wallace ran a 4.33 and Oher ran in the 5.3s.
If Taylor Mays is indeed the fastest guy on the USC team, which he was according to their times, he's going to run a lot faster than a 4.6. Is he a 4.30 guy? Who knows for sure? I'd be surprised if a guy who has consistently run that much faster than his teammates isn't running under 4.4, though.
RANDOM STUFF
• Bryce Brown's mentor, Brian Butler, is in the news again. According to the New York Times, the NCAA is in Wichita, Kan., to investigate Butler, who had been charging for updates on the recruitment of Brown and his other players.
To me, the issue of how Brown who claimed to have a nonprofit business that helped these kids while also having a for-profit business that was set up to make some money off it is very questionable. In January, when I wrote about Butler, I asked him whether he checked with the NCAA or any other agency to make sure setting up the subscription service wouldn't put his players at risk of some eligibility issues. "I'm not worried about anybody saying anything," he answered. "The kids are not receiving any dollars from it. I'm not a kid. I'm the one benefiting. Everything you do is criticized and scrutinized. You can't worry about that. I just worry about doing the right thing and making the right choices."
Word is, Brown is likely to pick from Oregon, Tennessee and LSU.
• Joe Montana's son Nick likes Tennessee (his QB coach in high school is former Vols starter Casey Clausen) but the younger Montana can't wait around too long to see whether Lane Kiffin make him an offer, writes Dave Hooker:
"I'm trying to get my decision out as soon as possible, definitely before my senior year and I'm pushing for within a couple of months," Montana said. "I'm looking for the best fit right now." Montana already has offers from Georgia, LSU, South Carolina, Alabama, Stanford, Maryland, Arizona, Nebraska and Ohio State. He's waiting on UT, Southern California and UCLA.
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Bruce Feldman
