Monthly Archives: September 2010

Scout’s Notebook: Notre Dame @ Mich. St.

SCOUT’S NOTEBOOK: NOTRE DAME@MICHIGAN STATE- Pt. 1

The following is a player review of Notre Dame in the team’s thrilling 34-31 loss to Michigan State. The Fighting Irish employed a high-tempo spread offense to move the ball on the Spartans, but their defense did little to contain the opposition.

Crist the savior

A Savior? Not exactly. But junior quarterback Dayne Crist showed promise in an uneven performance in which he completed 32 of 55 pass attempts for 369 yards with four touchdowns and one interception.

Although his numbers look great, there were times when Crist appeared rattled by the crowd noise and hurried his throws as a result. There were also instances during the first half where the signal caller tried to change protections and lost sight of the game clock, earning him a delay-of-game penalty on one occasion.

His tendency to rush his throws at the slightest hint of pressure saw

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Inside The Numbers: The Devin Hester Effect

This past weekend in the National Football League 641 passes were completed, but it was one pass in the corner of the end zone of Cowboys Stadium that caught my attention. It brought back memories of one of the greatest players I had ever seen play his position.

Seizing the ball thrown by Jay Cutler like an eagle clutching its prey, Devin Hester displayed why Head Coach Lovie Smith and staff switched him from defensive back (where he started all his games as a rookie in 2006) to receiver in 2007.

Almost immediately upon arriving in the Windy City, the kid from Riviera Beach, Florida was bringing major excitement to the Bears’ return game. Hester’s entry into the league as a rookie and arguably the best return man the game has ever seen seems like forever ago.

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Interview With BCS Exec Director Bill Hancock

Bill Hancock has achieved a unique double-double at the upper echelon of intercollegiate athletics. He was the first full-time director of the NCAA Final Four and is now the first executive director of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Serving as executive director since 2009 Bill Hancock was also named in 2005 to the College Sports Information Directors Hall of Fame. Please don’t be fooled by all those fancy titles Bill is by far one of the most genuine and kind gentleman you will be lucky enough to cross paths with. Join host Bo Marchionte on the NFL Draft Bible All Access Football Show with executive director of the BCS Mr. Bill Hancock.


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NFL Practice Squad Tracker

Football is a funny game as more times than you might realize a guy lands on the practice squad that might have outplayed or played a veteran pretty close to even but for the team to keep him in the fold they “hide” him on the practice squad to get him more experience before exposing him to the active roster.  Some guys end up living on the practice squad for a few years before ending their football dreams but sometimes those players are motivated to keep improving their game and get signed by other teams to the active roster when a need arises.   These players would have been great stars in NFL Europe, too bad the NFL does not believe in a triple AAA system as in these players might be the next Kurt Warner, La’Roi Glover, or Jake Delhomme.

Some of the practice squad guys that

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Scouting the Nation: Week 3- Part II

Scouting the Nation: Week 3 Part I | CFI Week in Review | CFI Medical Report | Big Ten Week in Review<br

Nebraska’s Pass Catchers

Senior Niles Paul is considered the top prospect in this group but he had a quiet day, making just one grab for 24 yards. Not many wide receivers can match his size/speed combo–the 6’1”/220-pounder runs a 4.45 40-yard dash. On his sole reception Paul drove his man up the field, came back to get the football and was quickly able to change his direction to get back up field after making the catch to pick up the first down. He is blessed with great quickness and agility for a big kid. Rated as the top senior receiver by BLESTO and

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Scouting the Nation: Week 3- Part II

Scouting the Nation: Week 3 Part I | CFI Week in Review | CFI Medical Report | Big Ten Week in Review<br

Nebraska’s Pass Catchers

Senior Niles Paul is considered the top prospect in this group but he had a quiet day, making just one grab for 24 yards. Not many wide receivers can match his size/speed combo–the 6’1”/220-pounder runs a 4.45 40-yard dash. On his sole reception Paul drove his man up the field, came back to get the football and was quickly able to change his direction to get back up field after making the catch to pick up the first down. He is blessed with great quickness and agility for a big kid. Rated as the top senior receiver by BLESTO and

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Scouting the Nation: Week 3 – Part I

Scouting the Nation Pt 2 | CFI Week in Review | CFI Medical Report | Big Ten Week in Review

Stop! It’s Mallett Time

Looking at the numbers—21 of 33 passing for 380 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions—one would assume stock up…way up. But it says here that this was closer to stock even. Okay, maybe stock up a little bit. To begin with, two of Ryan Mallet’s three touchdown passes were thrown to players that the Georgia defense simply failed to cover. On the opening drive, he connected with number-one target Greg Childs on a big third down conversion and then hit receiver Chris Gragg for what is likely going to be the easiest 57-yard touchdown pass of his career.

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Scouting the Nation: Week 3 – Part I

Scouting the Nation Pt 2 | CFI Week in Review | CFI Medical Report | Big Ten Week in Review

Stop! It’s Mallett Time

Looking at the numbers—21 of 33 passing for 380 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions—one would assume stock up…way up. But it says here that this was closer to stock even. Okay, maybe stock up a little bit. To begin with, two of Ryan Mallet’s three touchdown passes were thrown to players that the Georgia defense simply failed to cover. On the opening drive, he connected with number-one target Greg Childs on a big third down conversion and then hit receiver Chris Gragg for what is likely going to be the easiest 57-yard touchdown pass

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The Rosstradamus: Week 2 Ramble

What a difference a week makes. Several teams eased their fans’ concerns—at least for the time being—while other performances brought those same concerns to light. It’s still too early to completely separate the wheat from the chaff, but we know more than we did a couple of weeks ago.

We know the Jets can muscle up and play the brand of football they claimed they could play. Gang Green’s performance against the hated New Englanders was exactly what the doctor—and the tabloids, their fans, and their critics—ordered. Mark Sanchez and the defense led a second-half assault on the Pats, shutting out their division rivals 18-0 over the game’s final 30 minutes en route to a 28-14 win. This is what Sanchez can do with the training wheels off: 21-30 for 220 yards and three touchdowns. He didn’t throw an interception and looked sharp throughout, forcing Jet fans

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Big Ten: Week 3 Review

CFI Week in Review | CFI Medical Report

Comments from the week’s action around the Big Ten.

We were one drive (Michigan), one gutsy play (Michigan State) and one extra point (Wisconsin) away from September 18th, 2010 deconstructing the retooling of the mighty conference’s reputation.

Under the constraints of space, time (where’s my DeLorean?) and lack of energy due to my new baby boy, I would like to offer a few observations in the order of our previous CFI rankings:

#3 Iowa proves us wrong in loss to #25 Arizona. The Monday morning pontificators can now harass us for our seemingly inflated ranking of the Hawkeyes after their disappointing late night let down against the Wildcats.

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