Random thoughts before the draft

 

Ashton Jeanty...

The comparison to Emmitt Smith and/or Saquon Barkley, his vision and ability to find the hole and cutbacks lanes, the ability to catch the ball out if the backfield and make players miss in the open field. He's got the low center of gravity, tough body build, mental toughness, high football IQ, and great breakaway speed. The only "knock" on him is the caliber of competition he faced playing in a group of 5 conference, but as far as I'm concerned, football is football, if you can play, you can play....

Jeanty, in my view, will help bring back the RB position and put eyes on it again like Barkley, Harris and other great running backs that are in the league today. Eventually, his name will be among the best RB's in the league soon enough...

Brice Underwood...

Today (April 19th) Brice experienced what is going to be like as the starter at a big time football program (Michigan) and the results was mixed. The freshman is going to have some growing pains in his first year but he will have a lot of success as well. I believe that with enough reps during fall camp before the season and a chance to get some valuable reps against Oklahoma, he'll be ready to take control and command of the starting job in 2025..

Jadyn Ott...

Oklahoma has made it official and signed the former Cal Bears RB to their running back room and strengthen the backfield with Mateer and all of the returning receivers. With a disappointing season last year, the Sooners and the coaching staff needs a rebound season in 2025. There are already some grumbling in Norman, but if the upcoming season produces little or no results, there's going to be some changes coming at the place on the prairie...

The NIL...

The decision that Tennessee made regarding Nico Iamaleava was the right one.. for Tennessee... and maybe for the NCAA as a whole. Simply because at the major collegiate level, it's still team over individual. Although the players are starting to garner some form of power with the advent of Name, Image and Likeness along with the transfer portal, there's something to be said about some kind of regulation in how the conferences are going to deal with this kind of transactions and holdouts. With more and more college teams going toward employing a GM to deal with the growing presence of getting players from the portal, dealing with NIL money that comes with it and being a bridge between donors and boosters the college game is changing to meet the challenges...