I will say that the National team's coaching staff is reason enough for them to win. Dick Vermeil's the head coach again this year, and he won last year's game. He has Isaac Bruce coaching wide receivers, and he looks about as intense as he looked in his playing days. Looks born to be a coach. Speaking of which, Jim Hanifan is back this year to coach o-line. Not to suggest that Hanny is into his work, but he's wearing eye black and sporting a huge bandage covering half his forehead.
Vermeil's got a lot of his old hands around him: Terry Shea, Priest Holmes, John Bunning, Carl Hairston... Frank Gansz Jr. coaching special teams... all the way down to Billy "Gotta Go To Work" Long as the "physical fitness coordinator."
Then again, the QBs on this team... eesh. Two of them were benched during their senior season. The best is probably Jeff Tuel, a 6'3", 221-lb spread-offense QB from Washington State. McShay's analysis said he was only accurate with short stuff, but he made the best plays I could pick out in11-on-11. He quickly found Eric Stephens wide open in the flat after the LBs forgot to pick him up, and also fired a sweet pass to Xavier Boyce in traffic. There was a play where Shea got on him for not taking off and running. Tuel informed him the DE would have had him, so he threw it away.
Dayne Christ (Kansas, 6'4", 232) was also benched at times this year due to inconsistency, but he supposedly has all the tools. Shea commented that he runs the huddle well and takes it over. Looks to have a quick release, but also got a pass batted down in 11-on-11. I'm not sure I've ever seen that in the few years I've been watching these kinds of practices.
Struggling QBs, I've seen. Ryan Higgins, 6'2" 191 out of Fordham, has a funky sidearm motion and it looked like his head was swimming today. He forced passes to covered receivers and failed to spot wide open receivers that ESPN's on-field announcer could spot. He caused a false start by making the wrong call and nearly blew the pitch on a toss sweep. Shea wanted him to stay after practice to work on something, possibly pitches or the exchange from center. McShay says he can make some throws, and that his accuracy and release have improved throughout the week. How bad was he when he started the week then?
McShay's top 5 prospects on the National team:
1. ILB Taylor Reed, SMU. 5'11" 242. Good hitter, explosive, very bright. Good quickness and agility, not top-end speed. McShay called him a 4th-5th round pick but questioned his work ethic. I don't think he's especially well-built. Looked like a fire hydrant.
2. C Mario Benavides, Louisville. Offensive line was barely discussed in this broadcast, though.
3. ILB Bruce Taylor, Virginia Tech. Legit day 3 prospect. Not big and physical, but is quick, ideally suited for a Tampa-2. 6'1" 234, lacks the size to be a pure Mike LB. Film room rat with excellent instincts and recognition. Athletic enough to cover tight ends, and gets his hands on a lot of passes, but is also easily looked off by QBs. Made a nice play to blow up a run during a goal-line drill.
4. RB Mike James, Miami Fla. Good-sized at 5'11" 220. Related to Edgerrin James. Catches well. Had a flaw in that he was drifting too far away from the QBs when taking handoffs.
5. S Duron Harmon, Rutgers. Defensive backs, and linemen, were also ignored by this broadcast for the most part.
Robert Smith did say the player he was most eager to see was Stanford DT Terrance Stevens, but that guy's the epitome of the player who gets invited to this game. Very undersized (6'1" 294) and was suspended for several of his team's games. They also talked a lot about Nebraska ILB Will Compton. Again, undersized, at 6'1" 232, but very strong for that size and takes on blockers well. Smart, physical, very coachable, projects to Sam at the next level. Turns well and flips his hips well. McShay said there's more talent overall than there was here last year but they have a ways to go compared to the other all-star games.
The best defensive player I picked up on in 11-on-11 was Donovan Carter (6'1" 315) of UCLA. Clogged up a running lane to stuff James once and batted down the Christ pass I mentioned earlier. (No, a Christ pass and a hail Mary are not the same thing.) Alex Debniak (Stanford, 6'1" 235) beat Elliot Mealer (Michigan, 6'4" 319) from a wide-nine position for what would have been a sack. He also did a fine job recognizing the fullback going into a pattern and forced a throwaway with blanket coverage. R.J. Mattes (NC State), a 6'6", 312-lb guard playing out at tackle, missed his block and let Taylor blow up the goal-line play.
Texas RB D.J. Monroe took the bad pitch from Higgins in for an easy TD behind a strong block by Penn State fullback Michael Zordich. Zordich, again, no surprise for this game, is WAY undersized for his position in the pros at 6'0" 233, but he'll run through a wall for you. He can catch and he's a good blocker, though athletically limited.
That leaves the receivers. TE T.J. Knowles (6'7" 254) looked like he knew what he was doing as a blocking TE, better than some of the linemen, even. Myles White (Louisiana Tech, 6'0", 179) had the only drop I saw in 11-on-11, a very catchable quick hitch. Isaac Bruce commented that most of these receivers are getting real position coaching for the first time here, which is consistent with what Brian Quick has said about his college experience. Isaac called Xavier Boyce (Norfolk State, 6'3", 215) a big, long strider who has to learn to play lower and get out of his breaks quicker. He did flash nice hands.
There was a lot of talk about Sam McGuffie (Rice, 5'10", 198), who has been both a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiver in college and projects to slot receiver in the NFL. Elusive, really good hands, explosive, gets upfield quickly. Has return potential. Has to improve his route running.
The National team has another solid receiver in Trey Diller (Sam Houston, 6'0", 206). Consistent player and good route runner. Caught everything thrown his way this week and has made nice catches in traffic. Finds ways to separate though he doesn't have ideal quickness. Has plenty of college playoff experience, so he shouldn't be overwhelmed by the NFL stage.
No time tonight to run down the Thursday practice for Herm Edwards' American team, so I'll save that for tomorrow, or later.
-$-
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