Another Loaded College Football Hall of Fame Class

The sheer enormity of college football becomes readily apparent on the day the newest Hall of Fame class is announced as the number of great players and coaches from around the country increases with nary a protest as to qualifications (not sure about John Sciarra's merits, mind you, but he is probably a nice guy). The main bit of head scratching with each class is not over quality but timing. Players like Derrick Thomas, who would seem to be a shoo-in when first eligible years ago just got in with recent players, like Dre Bly of UNC who was good but not in Thomas's class. But Thomas's wait seemingly had nothing to do with his play on the field as the National Football Foundation voters tend to honor guys who remain active and are popular with individual chapters than players who were "just" talented and accomplished. But let's not quibble over when guys got in who final did make it as getting in trumps all. So congratulations to Bly, Tony Boselli of USC, Dave Butz of Purdue, Shane Conlan of Penn State, Joe Hamilton of Georgia Tech, John Huard of Maine, Darrin Nelson of Stanford, Willie Roaf of La Tech, Sciarra of UCLA, Sterling Sharpe of South Carolina, Leonard Smith of McNeese State, Thomas of Alabama, LaDainian Tomlinson of TCU and Wesley Walls of Mississippi plus coaches Mike Bellotti of Oregon plus Chico State and Jerry Moore who gained fame at Appalachian State. More to follow on each inductee.

Another QB, Another Arrest

Quarterback Philip Nelson was not a huge recruit. ESPN lists him as having been a two star QB in the class of 2012 while Scout and Rivals both awarded him three stars. He did, however, win the 2011 Minnesota Mr. Football Award and was probably a pretty big deal in his hometown of Mankato. And when he went to the home state Minnesota Gophers he cemented his status as a big fish in a somewhat small pond by eventually becoming a starter in his first year. Although he never became a star nationally he was competing for a starting job from the get go and in two years as a Gopher he threw for 2,179 in 18 games with a 17-14 TD-INT ratio. A good athlete, Nelson has also rushed for 548 yards with 6 TDs. A coaching change led him to seek a transfer and he landed at Rutgers where he expected to compete for the starting job when first eligible in 2015 at what is now another Big Ten program. But that all changed this past weekend when during an altercation as the bars in Mankato were shutting down--and yes another awful thing happened in the middle of the night after those involved had been drinking--Nelson delivered a coup de grace kick to the head of a downed victim, former Mankato State linebacker Isaac Kolstad. It may take awhile for the truth from that night to become unveiled and Kolstad seems to have been an original aggressor, but there really is no defense for kicking a downed man and Nelson's future is uncertain. Kolstad, more importantly, is fighting for his life and has suffered some amount of brain damage. Nelson's involvement in this attack is yet another incident of a college quarterback behaving badly. But unlike guys like Newton, Manziel and Winston, Nelson is not talented enough to expect protection and a lot of second chances. Sure, other positions have plenty of screw-ups but the QBs have to know that they are the story whenever something like this happens and now Nelson's future is uncertain. And, of course, he has to be involved with a Rutgers athletic department that must feel snake bit. Unless Nelson has a history of this behavior, at least this is one Rutgers black eye that does not seem self-inflicted.

College Football and the Draft

The draft always confounds me for two reasons. For one thing I am always amazed that the same writers who ignore most of the best players in college football during their careers can then have an opinion on them all during the draft process. Sure Johnny Manziel received too much press both as a college football player and a draftee, but other guys, like fellow first round pick from the QB position Blake Bortles, can get ignored while playing. Isn't ESPN, for one, embarrassed when evaluating Bortles that they basically ignored the guy when he was doing the kind of things that got him drafted? The regular college football media are so focused on over-covering guys like Manziel that they do not bother uncovering stories about interesting characters like former BC running back Andre Williams, who just so happened had an unbelievable year running the ball for the Eagles. But the focus is on a few programs and players and the coverage is sometimes driven by the sordid. Actually writing about good players is not going to win these guys any awards. And the basic writer cannot wrap his head around the constant change in rosters in college football and so waits until draft evaluators to tell them who is good and who is not. Which brings me to point number two. A lot of guys are very good in college football but do not project to the NFL. It is usually a numbers thing and guys like Shayne Skov of Stanford go undrafted due as much to a slow 40 time as anything. MSU's Max Bullough's does not have the hip movement to be a drafted NFL LB. Not dancer. Linebacker. The funniest was Teddy Bridgewater who was suddenly too damn skinny to be drafted high in the first round despite always being too damn skinny. The problem for me is that many very good football players who just do not have the measurables that the NFL desires--and remember the NFL did not bother to invite Wes Welker to the combine so it is often wrong--get forgotten. Not being a Johnny Manziel or a player for Alabama hurt them when they starred on the field; not having a bigger, faster body hurts them as pros. They each deserve more acclaim.

Winston and Manziel Remain Connected

I did take statistics back at Bergen Catholic High School but that was a long time ago. I do know that the series of off-the-field issues that now link the past two winners of the Heisman Trophy, Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston, to each other are clearly embarrassing to the players, their families their schools and college football. I just do not remember how many of the same type of thing forms a "cluster". And certainly the legal problems that swarmed around both players are quite different in nature and the purpose of this post is to neither point fingers or offer excuses. I want to make it clear that the coddling and over-promotion of young, amateur athletes--with the treatment of talented quarterbacks up there with the worst of it--is an underlying issue here and one that not only is not being addressed but is actually getting worse. Manziel as a product of the Texas High School football system has been considered more important than his classmates for a very long time. The way his family circles wagons around him when he makes mistakes with no sense of him bearing responsibility shows that he has a home situation that is contributing to his sense of entitlement beyond the high levels of such a sense for being a star QB from Texas. That the media hype train latched onto him during his redshirt freshman year at Texas A&M exacerbated the issue--especially after his head coach gave him a slap on the wrist after his being arrested the summer before that season. Too many adults in Manziel's life have made it clear to him that he could do no wrong--as long as he is winning football games. Winston is a somewhat different case in that he is a monster multi-sport star recruited by all. The sense of entitlement he seems to have comes I would guess from being a highly sought after young athlete. Coaches and other hanger ons tell these young men anything to get them to sign on the dotted line and it is rare that a recruiter's pitch--a successful pitch that is--would talk about the responsibilities that come with the scholarship being extended. The focus for both of these young men was their future earnings at sport. Becoming responsible members of society seems to be a secondary concern. And continual allowances for transgressions is not helping matters. If we go back to Cam Newton that makes three out of the last four Heisman winners having legal issues as college students. This is fast becoming a trend.