Drafting Gators

Given how many players Miami has had drafted some years and how many players left our national championship roster (17 starters if you count the part time fullback Latsko) that we had nine drafted was hardly surprising. Three of those were in the seventh and only three were first day picks. Befitting how the defense carried us last year seven of them were defenders (Dallas Baker and DeShawn Wynn went in the 7th). There were no major surprises, maybe Joe Cohen was a little high in the 4th and Brandon Siler a little late in the 7th, but neither far from where they should have been. I was a little surprised where Marcus Thomas went (4th round) given his drug habits, but he has the talent to have gone much higher (which I half expected). Jarvis Moss and Reggie Nelson both slipped a bit in the 1st, especially Nelson. Nelson is now supposedly dumb (because he went the Juco route?) but he landed in a great spot as he is on a good defense and can just focus on being a playmaker. Moss supposedly had character issues (again, based on what?) and went to Denver, which is not as good of a fit as Nelson got because the pressure will be on him to be an elite passrusher from day one as they don’t have anyone else (unless Elvis Dumervil takes a step). The other guys who left early did not do well. I mentioned Siler, hero CB Ryan Smith fell to the 6th, although given that his stock might never have been higher it might not have been bad for him to have come out. Wynn was probably the most borderline guy to draft – G/C Steve Rissler the best guy not taken (not Chris Leak – who is a Bear if you are curious) and I would have liked to see Billy Latsko get taken just because he is a good guy. Ray McDonald, Joe Cohen (both of the 49ers via the 3rd the 4th round respectively) and Thomas should see some playing time if not start. Siler (Chargers) will be buried on the bench and special teams, Wynn (Packers) may see some time as Green Bay has nobody established at RB (although they took someone from Nebraska in the 2nd). Even with Pacman Jones suspended for the year Tennessee still has enough CB depth that Smith won’t be playing. Given how limited the Steelers talent at WR is after Hines Ward Baker may see a little action (and no, I have not forgotten about Santonio Holmes).

National Champions

I was asked to give my thoughts on the OSU game:

Well I don't like doing analysis of games I saw on TV (to say nothing of trying to remember a month past), but I'll take my shot. To begin with I did not expect us to win - maybe I am too much of a cynic or too critical of a team that I saw up close and personal all year (flaws stand out that way), but I did not try to get tickets because I did not think we would win and thought it would be better to save up for the Super Bowl (which worked out for me by the way). However after USC just roadkilled Michigan I felt much more that we had a legit chance (and I said at the time that the Arkansas game was our best game of the year). When they sprung that return to start the game (with the help of a MASSIVE hold) I was not worried - at the time I told the guy I was watching with if we were good enough to win, we were good enough to come back from seven down this early in the game (which I repeated to some Colts fans about a month later when I WAS AT THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!!!!).

I'll attribute our win mainly to Captain Sweatervest being an idiot. I don't buy the OSU believed its own hype or got rusty with 50 days off (we were off for a while too) and did not play hard. That said whatever they were doing for those 50 days it sure didn't seem to involve studying game film of us. We didn't do anything that was that widely different than what we had been doing all year but OSU sure looked surprised. Because TV angles are tight I never saw what type of coverage the were running all game but it looked to be some deep shell zone. We kept hitting plays underneath and they miraculously never made an in-game adjustment - Leak was good but hardly on fire. I was floored by this, early on I figured we needed to rack up the points quick before they altered their coverage, but they never did. No blitzes (or very few, which is stupid because that was the only time they go pressure), no attempts at man-to-man, no short zones rotated underneath, nothing! I really don't get it. I suppose you could say they were afraid of our mythical SEC speed, but you have to take risks when the game is starting to get away from you. I am not sure I buy that speed argument anyway - I remember OSU being able to handle Miami quite well in 2003. Although there was on play when Derrick Harvey was closing in on Troy Smith and he went to run away but only went half speed because he was focused on looking upfield. Harvey caught him easily and it was clear from the way he played Smith was used to just being able to run away from people. We certainly played a harder schedule to get to the game than they did (maybe I did not recognize that enough before the game and that is why I expected a loss).

On offense I don't know what was wrong with Smith, but aside from that they were stupidly coached again. They got their second TD on a drive where they used their bigger OL to push our smaller DL and they did not have much trouble doing it. Then they promptly gave up on the run (they were only down seven - and only 13 until the fumble right before the half). Basically Tressel was a moron.