It's mid-September, and at long last, the big wheel is finally turning on almost all college and pro fronts, football-wise (more on that later). That means it's time to start taking a look at the biggest stars in college football and tracking their respective rises and falls. Who will be the Joe Burrow, the Kyler Murray or Baker Mayfield of the 2021 draft?
Well, we won't know that for a long time yet. In the meantime, let's look at the seven services we normally track - Sports Illustrated hasn't posted a recent mock, while The Athletic's
Dane Brugler has only
a top 50 list (we made it work) - to see who's getting the most attention, at least on the media side.
Mass appeal: The 13 players rated by all six services as first-rounders (including their average slot) are Clemson QB Trevor
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Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain is more popular with some draft services than others.
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Lawrence (1); Oregon OT Penei Sewell (2.7); Ohio State QB Justin Fields (3.8); LSU WO Ja'marr Chase (6.3); Penn St. OB Micah Parsons (7.8); Miami (Fla.) DE Gregory Rousseau (8.2); North Dakota St. QB Trey Lance (10.8); Alabama DCPatrick Surtain II (11.3) and WO Jaylen Waddle (12.7); Virginia Tech C Caleb Farley (14); Alabama IB Dylan Moses (15.3); Ohio St. DC Shaun Wade (15.8); and Alabama WO Devonta Smith (17.5). Five of the 13 are done for 2021, with Wade apparently returning to Columbus.
A difference of opinion: The widest span among players rated by all six services was associated with Lance. Bleacher Report's Matt Miller has him as the second pick in the draft, while Walter Football barely fits him into the first round at 28. The runner-up was Surtain; ESPN's Todd McShay has him as the No. 2 pick, while Pro Football Focus has him at 27.
In and out: As is common this early in the season, there has been a lot of transition since the last round of mock drafts. Twenty-one players made their first appearance in mock drafts, while 20 were jettisoned. Among those moving in are Syracuse FS Andre Cisco (ranked as high as No. 9 by Walter Football) and Michigan DE Kwity Paye (No. 13 on Dane Brugler's list of the top 50 prospects in the '21 draft). Among those exiting: Oklahoma State's 2,000-yard rusher Chuba Hubbard and recently opted-out Georgia QB Jamie Newman.
If you'd like a closer look at the six services and who they like, check out our grid.
We'll return to the draft prognosticators again later this season. In the meantime, here's a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said in the business of college and pro football this week.
Masking up: Each NFL Draft is special for its own reasons, but 2016 offered a spectacle like none before or since. Who can forget
the falling out with a financial advisor which led to Ole Miss OT
Laremy Tunsil's infamous video? Tunsil went from potentially the No. 1 overall pick to the 13
th player (and third tackle!) taken in the draft. This Tuesday, find out what one team was thinking as Tunsil began his slide by joining former Titans Director of College Scouting
Blake Beddingfield on a Zoom call hosted by ITL's Neil Stratton. There's no cost to join the call, but it's not free: your cost of admission is a shot of
the book shared on Twitter (or
your completed order on Amazon) with the hashtag #ScoutSpeak.
Here's an example. We'll get started at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST, and we'll go about an hour. There will be plenty of discussion on topics such as the Wentz vs. Goff debate; whether the Titans tried to move up and get Zeke (and how
Derrick Henry fell to them); how five receivers could go before
Michael Thomas; and many more topics that we've outlined in
this week's blog at Succeed in Football. Make sure your tweet is out by Monday, when we'll do our final roundup of email addresses for the Zoom link. Don't wait!
Get your copy today.
Spreading the word: We at the
College Gridiron Showcase are constantly getting questions such as, what's your week like? Do NFL scouts attend? Do players get good coaching? Are the
players there really prospects? The answer to all the questions, of course, is "yes," but seeing is believing. You can check out our documentary of the 2020 event on a growing number of stations across the country. Check out the grid to see if it's playing in your area.
Catching up: Les Miller, 84, "officially" retired in 2002, but sometimes, retirement is just a word. After a career that included work with the Dolphins, Chiefs, Chargers, Browns and Rams, as
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well as a foundational role in the World League of American Football, he still works with National Football Scouting in coordinating nightly team interviews at the NFL Combine. His longevity was honored in 2019. "I missed last year's combine due to back surgery and wasn't able to go," he said, "but the year before . . . in 2019, they gave me a special award and also Under Armour made me a special sweat suit that had 37 on it because I had been to 37 combines in a row. That streak was stopped last year, but that streak will resume next year if we have a combine."
We caught up with him this week.
- Where are you living and what are you doing now?: I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I grew up in extreme northeastern Oklahoma, and in small towns north and east of Tulsa, and I went to Oklahoma State, so a lot of former high school and college classmates and teammates and people I coached with in high school are here. It became the best place to retire. Moved here about 11 years ago.
- Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: "Sundays. I don't miss Monday through Saturday, and I don't miss the airplanes, the rental cars and the hotels, but I do miss Sunday games and being a part of that. I do miss the camaraderie of visiting with the coaches and other people in personnel, but I don't miss the 20-hour days. But I do dearly miss Sunday afternoons.
- Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: "I'm in contact with quite a few of them over the course of time, like Dick Daniels, Jerry Hardaway, Phil Neri, a whole bunch of them who are retired. . . . I probably talk to 4-5 guys a week. John Beake, Steve Ortmayer, we stay in touch, and a lot of coaches."
- Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: "I have friends of mine who are minority owners of the Bengals, and I usually go up once or twice a year with them. Also, Memorial high school here in Tulsa, I follow them pretty closely. Will go to some Oklahoma State games, too, and some Tulsa games, but not regularly. I don't travel quite as well as I used to."
- Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: "Hard to say. There are so many that I really enjoy watching. Obviously, this might be a mundane answer, but because of what he was when he came and out and what he is today, Tom Brady. I remember I was with the Browns in 1999 and we signed a tight end named Mark Campbell, and when I brought him in to sign his undrafted free agent contract, he said, 'Mr. Miller, I want you to watch the best player in this coming draft, Tom Brady, our QB. He is fabulous. You just wait and see.' And by golly, he was right. Guys like that, I really like. When I was with Kansas City, I loved guys like Deron Cherry and Stephone Paige, who were undrafted. Those kinds of guys attract me."
Rep Rumblings: With players opting out (and trying to opt back in) and various leagues looking at upping their respective games, we had plenty to discuss in four reports this week.
On Monday, we had agency vetting updates on Ohio State's
Shawn Wade, Georgia's
Jamie Newman and LSU's
Tyler Shelvin. We also had the lowdown on the NFL's injury replacement bubble being organized in Canton, Ohio.
Tuesday, we looked at an Aggie who's passing up the fall, an update on scouting progress and policies across the land, and a look at The Spring League, which is doing some of its own updating.
On Wednesday, we looked at more players who are in and out of fall play and their agent choices, and also had a new job title for a former NFL executive. Finally,
on Thursday, we had more Spring League info and more players saying goodbye to college football and signing with agents. Make sure to stay current by checking the
ITL Signings Gridregularly where we keep our data on who's out, who they've signed with, and where they're training. Also, make sure to keep up on all our reports since the beginning of 2020
here.
Prayers for Mobile: Hurricane Sally hit the Florida/Alabama coast line pretty hard this week. Based on what we've heard, Mobile, the home of the Senior Bowl, avoided a direct hit. However, Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy said there was damage downtown around the game's offices and some windows were blown out of the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel. In addition, power outages still dog the area and many who live and work downtown suffered damage to their homes as outlying areas were harder hit. Keep the city and its residents in your thoughts and lift up prayers as they dig out.
Next week: With a big weekend of college and NFL football ahead of us, plus
the Big Ten coming back,
momentum for the MAC and
positivity in the Pac-12, it's a great time to be in the game. Never mind that the NFLPA still doesn't know when (or if) there will be an exam; set aside
your study materials for now. We're hearing and seeing new opportunities for players just around the bend (to say nothing of the XFL), as well as
new ways to grow and educate yourself if you aspire to scout in the NFL. Almost all of the
2021 ITL Team Scouting Reports are in the books as we begin our last week of reports.
West Virginia, Western Kentucky, Western Michigan, Wisconsin and
Wyoming are on the way next week after
Virginia,
Virginia Tech,
Wake Forest,
Washington and
Washington State this week. We'll also have our updated list of
Agents by Total Clients and maybe even our
Agent Changes report next week for the August-to-September term. We'll also have our Tuesday night session with Blake Beddingfield breaking down the 2016 NFL Draft as it happened; directions on how to get "a ticket" are
here. We'll also have another edition in our weekly blog,
Succeed in Football, and last but not least, we'll continue to follow the opt-outs, the opt-back-ins, the new leagues forming, schools opening up (or closing down) to scouts and so much more in our
Rep Rumblings. There's so much to learn and so much to know.
Let us help you with that.
Neil Stratton
