2010 NFL Combine… Starring Tim Tebow!

It’s that time of year again… the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine is going on in Indianapolis. The yearly event features pro prospects at every position running a gauntlet of drills and sprints. From the 40 yard dash to the vertical leap, every hour of this week-long event is televised live (and repeated) on the NFL Network.

This year, though, things are a little different. No, the drills are still all the same, as is the meat-market atmosphere. What’s different is the presence of a certain prospect that goes by the name of Tim Tebow. As you can imagine, the hype surrounding this combine is off the charts. Everywhere you look, it’s Tim Tebow. Sure, he may be saving his new and improved throwing mechanics for his pro day later in the month, but he’s doing just about everything else you could want…

Including the Three Cone Drill. What’s that, you may ask? Well, the Three Cone Drill is a simple event where the participant runs a quick slalom back and forth between and around three different cones, about five yards apart. And Tebow ran one with a very good time… though I doubt he would say it was good. That’s because his time for the Three Cone Drill was… get ready for it… 6.66 second!

Get it? The NFL’s future Captain of the God Squad ran a 666!

It just doesn’t get better that that!

Highlights From The Tim Tebow Bowl (formerly known as the Senior Bowl)

Tim Tebow’s stat line for the Tim Tebow Bowl wasn’t exactly superlative; he was 8-12 for 50 yards with two fumbles and no interceptions. But even though Tebow didn’t play great, there were a number of things we definitely learned about his possibilities at the next level.

The positives:
His drop was very good. He was noticeably better than Tony Pike of Cincinnati and Dan LeFevour from Central Michigan.

He made the NFL throws. The throws to the sideline, the comeback routes and the timing routes were all thrown where they needed to be and when they needed to be. He showed he can make the throws if given time.

The North defensive line absolutely embarrassed the South offensive line. Tebow got hit a few times and didn’t have much time to throw the ball. He didn’t make too many negative plays (even though he did fumble twice) and it showed he could be an every-down QB. Anyone just looking at the stat line would probably think that his 8-12 for 50 yards with two fumbles was bad, but in reality he played about as well as one could expect after learning an offense that week.

The negatives:
He looked slooooooooow when he tried to run. Tebow broke loose and tried to run the ball a couple times and both times was brought down quickly. Nobody was ever trying to champion Tebow as a speed demon, but running the ball is part of his appeal at the next level and he didn’t look capable of running it against NFL speed in the Senior Bowl.

His release is slooooooooooow. Tebow’s first fumble put this weakness on display. He can fire the ball into tight windows very well, but NFL defensive lines are going to be able to get to him easily if he doesn’t speed his delivery up.

He didn’t have a Tebow moment. There was no Gator chomping, no big play, no steamrolling of a defender. Nothing. Without a signature Tebow moment, all the SportsCenter nation will have to look at from the Senior Bowl performance are his under throws and fumbles.

All in all, I would give Tebow a B-minus for the Senior Bowl. He showed that he could do all the things that you have to do in the NFL, but he didn’t do them especially well. If he can translate his skills in the spread to an NFL-style offense like the ones he learned this week, he could be a good quarterback – maybe. I still maintain there is no way he drops out of the second round and if he goes there I think he’ll go early.

Other notes from the Tim Tebow Bowl:
Corey Chavous was far and away the most thuggish sideline reporter I’ve ever seen. His performance was gangsta.

USC running back Stafon Johnson, who had to have surgery on his larynx after dropping a weight on himself, didn’t quite look natural running the football. In his defense, it was his first football game since September.

Tony Pike looked horrendous. The North offense basically operated in spite of him as opposed to because of him. If I were an NFL scout I would remove him from my draft board completely.

I didn’t see a single Lions coach – the coaching staff for the North – wearing any Lions gear. Conversely, the Dolphins coaches were decked out in Dolphins gear from head to toe.

I think Zack Robinson could be this year’s Tom Brady. He’s mobile, has a nice arm and makes plays. He’ll probably go late, but I think he could be a great quarterback in a few years.

Brandon Graham made himself a guaranteed first round pick, maybe even a top 20 pick with his performance. Anyone trying to figure out how to make an extra $10 million should watch his performance.

Mark McGwire, Pete Carroll & Lane Kiffin Walk Into A Bar…

In the last seven days we have seen some of the craziest sports stories of the new year… from Mark McGuire finally admitting to his use of steroids during his chase of the homerun record in ‘98, to the coaching carousel in Seattle, Southern California and Knoxville.

Kiffin’s Departure Equals Disappointment All Around

For USC fans, this is about the best news you could hope for. Kiffin is a great recruiter, a pretty good coach and he’ll still have his dad around to make him look 10x better as a coach. The fallout from this, though, is that he’s going to lose any chance of recruiting big time athletes everywhere in the South. People in the South value trustworthiness and perceived authenticity. Not that USC was ever doing huge business below the Mason Dixon line, but that was what made Pete Carroll such an amazing coach – he could pull great players from everywhere in the country. Kiffin has alienated an entire (and very important) piece of the recruiting puzzle.

For UT fans, this is about the worst that could have happened. Your coach – who you never really liked anyway, but at least was putting the program back on the right track – has left and any big-name commitments he had gotten are up in the air, at best. Tommy Tubberville’s already taken another job and so has every other relevant assistant out there. You’ve now hired your wide receivers coach, who, by the way is named Kippy, as the head coach and he stands a legitimate chance of being your coach for next season. Best case scenario: You load up your out-of-conference schedule with powder puffs (again) next season and pray for a bowl game. Prepare for at least three more years of mediocrity – at best.

For SEC fans this means more down years for the SEC East, once one of the best divisions in all of college sports. The division is going to start looking eerily similar to the Big XII North circa 2002-now.

For me, the saddest part is that I was really looking forward to the Meyer-Kiffin rivalry being the new Spurrier-Bowden – one great coach against one obviously superior head coach, duking it out at big games every year, with National Championship implications on the line. I mean, not only does Urban now not have a foil, but who is Kiffin gonna beef with? Something tells me Steve Sarkisian isn’t going to provide that kind of riveting drama. The best thing about the whole rivalry was that Kiffin and Meyer genuinely hated each other. Meyer hated Kiffin because Kiffin was a loudmouthed, pompous, flippant, trash-talking, impudent jackass and Kiffin hated Meyer because Meyer was an obviously superior head coach. See, I’ve started hating him already.

The good news for Gator fans is that we get to watch Florida get stomped on by SEC West opponents in the SEC championship game for years to come. Yay!

Lane Kiffin to USC..? Duh!

Can you believe it? People are still up in arms.

A day after the news broke that Lane Kiffin was indeed leaving the University of Tennessee to become the head football coach at USC, public opinion on the subject was running rampant.

And I’m not just talking about Tennessee fans, or even college football fans, but sports fans in general were weighing in on the blogs and talk radio shows to voice their disdain for Lane Kiffin.

Granted, the way in which he departed was certain to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths… not unlike when you reach into the fridge and take a swig of expired milk straight from the carton. No amount of rinsing and gargling can make that sour taste go away. Only time can do that.

And time is something the University of Tennessee has very little of in the wake of the carpet-bagger’s departure. Signing day is only three weeks away, and in order for the Volunteers to be able to salvage this year’s recruiting class, they in turn must do what was done to them… namely, poach a coach from a lesser program, leaving that school high and dry with even less time until signing day.

Should be interesting to see how everything shakes out over the coming days. But one thing I found very funny was the shot of Urban Meyer at the Florida Basketball game last night. Immediately following Lane’s impromptu news conference, the camera panned to Meyer in the midst of receiving a text message on his phone. By his reaction, I can only assume it had something to do with the exit of his Knoxville nemesis.

Mike Leach… An American Football Tragedy!

Adam James may well be the poor character kid Mike Leach portrayed in his recent statements with the press… but it still doesn’t justify locking him up in a closet or shed. And for that lapse in judgement, Mike Leach’s coaching career in college is almost certainly over.
At least with respect to any programs that actually matter.

Six Things I Learned Watching The Fiesta Bowl

I’ve watched both TCU and Boise State play live once this year before the Fiesta Bowl. Here’s what I learned about the two teams and schools after watching Monday’s game.

1. Boise State had a great team this year.
I’ve been refusing to accept this conclusion all year and Monday night made it impossible to live in denial any more. After the Fiesta Bowl, I have to admit that Boise is probably the fourth best team in the nation – maybe even third. They physically manhandled Oregon this year and Oregon physically destroyed USC. I thought it was a fluke until last night.

2. Andy Dalton and Jerry Hughes aren’t that good.
Not only did Hughes, who I had considered one of the best defensive ends in the nation, not get a sack, he didn’t even get a QB pressure in the game. Given my first point, it’s understandable that he didn’t dominate the Boise St. O-line, but great players play great in big games and OK players disappear; Hughes disappeared.

As for Dalton, I thought he was one of the most underrated players in the country, but he proved me completely wrong. Not only did he throw three picks, including the game-ender, but he went 25-44 passing, and of his 25 completions, I think maybe five were on-target. If he wasn’t putting balls in the dirt, he was sailing passes and getting his receivers killed. Like I said about Hughes, great players play great in big games.

3. TCU has the lamest football gang sign ever.
Sure, hand gestures like the “hook ‘em horns” and “gator chomp” may be obnoxious, but at least they look cool. TCU’s little horned frog gang sign looked more like someone butchering Little Bunny Foo Foo than a school emblem.

4. The hot girls at TCU don’t travel.
I used to live in Fort Worth, Texas, about two miles from the TCU campus, and I know the kind of “talent” they have at that school. So either the camera men at the Fiesta Bowl were purposely avoiding the eye candy or the hot sorority girls at Texas Christian couldn’t get daddy to finance a trip to Glendale.

5. Boise State has the nerdiest students and alumni of any football school in the country.
Did you watch the game? I wanted to wedgie the entire student section and rob them for their lunch money.

6. The cheerleaders at TCU take football very, very seriously.
I have never, ever, not once in almost 20 years of watching football, seen a cheerleader cry after a loss. Never. At the end of the game they cut to one of TCU’s cheerleaders and she was sobbing like Tim Tebow. Wait, I made myself feel bad with that one. Seriously, though, the cheerleader was crying! Maybe her boyfriend is on the team and she knew he was going to hit her because they lost.

Did I go too far with that one?

College Football Coaching News

The Sports Report Girl takes a look at some recent coaching hires from the world of college football.
Brian Kelley and Turner Gill have new jobs, and Jim Harbaugh gets a contract extension, and likely a raise, from Stanford.

Tennessee Hostess Cupcakes!

Betcha Urban Meyer is smiling right about now.

Well, actually, it probably happened sometime earlier today while preparing for his upcoming Sugar Bowl match up against Brian Kelly and the Cincinnati Bearcats… assuming Brian Kelly is still coaching the Bearcats in early January. But I digress…

You see, Urban Meyer is still probably licking his wounds from the beat down Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide put on his Gators last weekend. It was such a bad beat down that Tim Tebow… A.K.A. Super Man… was last seen openly weeping on the sidelines following the game.

But at some point earlier today, while Meyer was probably watching game film or something of that nature, one of his assistants had to run into his office and shout, “The NCAA is crawling up Kiffin’s ass again.”

If you hadn’t heard, the NCAA is indeed crawling up Lane Kiffin’s ass again. Multiple allegations of recruiting violations by the University of Tennessee have surfaced… most notable amongst the allegations is the use of co-eds to lure top recruits into committing to Tennessee.

Big deal, right? Don’t all big schools do the same thing? Probably… these are 17 and 18 year old boys we’re talking about, and what better way to snatch their attention then by dangling pretty girls in front of them. But the kicker is that these hostesses, members of the Orange Pride’s Student Ambassador Program, went off campus to do the dangling. In some instances they went as far as 200 miles off campus, to high school football games in South Carolina!

The University will likely say these Volunteers were taking the initiative and acting on their own. But let’s be serious… there’s no way female college students are going to drive 200 miles to lure recruits to Tennessee without explicit instructions from someone within the University itself.

So, as you can see, when Urban Meyer was told exactly what was going on, he must have had a nice little chuckle.

And after that, he probably made a phone call to reel in the co-eds from the University of Florida’s Gator Getters from doing the same thing.

Toby Gerhart’s New Nickname!

With the Heisman trophy candidates announced this week, there is no doubt in my mind who this year’s winner should be and his name is Toby “White Power” Gerhart. I’ve taken the liberty of giving him the nickname “White Power” for a couple of reasons.

First, no player in the country ran harder or with more power than Gerhart. In his two prime time appearances this season, against USC and Notre Dame, he ran over, into and through defenders to the tune of 178 and 205 yards respectively. Even in a losing effort against arch rival California, Gerhart put up 136 yards and averaged 6.8 yards a carry.

The second reason I call him White Power is that no one in college football is whiter than Toby Gerhart. From not being able to wear a suit with any style – just look at the man’s roster picture – to having a haircut that couldn’t have possibly cost more than $8, he personified whiteness in every way. Not to mention he goes to Stanford and his name is Toby, the whitest name on the planet. The name Toby is so white that if my mother had named me Toby I would tell people to call me Kunta.

Gerhart combined his whiteness and his power to create an awe-inspiring running style that no defense he faced all year was able to stop. In the game against Notre Dame, he must have broken something like 1,000 tackles and gotten half the Fighting Irish defense laughed at during film study the next day. Against USC, he hit Taylor Mays so hard that his girlfriend died.

But Gerhart didn’t just play well in primetime, he was amazing every single week. He leads all of the FBS in rushing, with 1,736 yards, and touchdowns, with 26. He’s run for more than 100 yards in every game except for two and he averaged 4.8 yards a carry in both. He’s averaging 5.6 yards per carry for the season, which is amazing considering he’s only had a run of more than 30 yards in a game four times this season and has thrice not had a single run of more than 16 yards.

There’s no question he’s put up big stats, but the most important thing Gerhart has done this year is be dependable. He took a Stanford team that went 5-7 just a year ago and made them into a Pac-10 contender. He was hands-down the most exciting player in the country to watch this year. Anyone who reads my articles regularly – I’m talking to you, mom – knows that I’m a Tim Tebow guy. But this year, the man that deserves the trophy and the man who has earned it is Toby “White Power” Gerhart.

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