Coffee and Cigarettes: College Football Links for Saturday

For those of you that don't like these link-dumps, I offer apologies. I will say though that I do spend some time trying to find interesting and possibly relevant articles for you to read on your Saturday morning and today's are pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Quarterback Profile: Film Breakdown of USC's Matt Barkley - Hogs Haven
Well, it's becoming more and more obvious that the Redskins are going to be drafting pretty high and that we desperately need a franchise QB with that pick. One of the top rated QB prospects coming out this year is Matt Barkley. Couple people on twitter were asking for Barkley and Jones breakdowns, hence this post. If you do have any suggestions for me, hit me up on Twitter @UkRedskin1, I'm always looking for stuff to breakdown. This post sort of follows on from my Robert Griffin III post, so go check that out if you haven't already.  

Film Breakdown of Robert Griffin III. - Our Daily Bears
There are measurable's (agility, athleticism, durability, height, mobility, speed, strength and weight), intangibles (character, competitiveness, intelligence, leadership, toughness and work ethic) and football abilities (accuracy, arm strength, checking progressions, consistency, decision making, footwork, mechanics, pocket awareness, poise, reading coverage). Basically a long list of things we use to evaluate a quarterback, you get the idea. So lets start with the measurable's.

Griffin is listed as 6'2", 220 pounds, maybe an inch or so smaller than would be ideal but its about the right weight. CBS Sports attributes him with a 4.52 second 40 yard dash. In comparison onlyTyrod Taylor, who ran a 4.51, ran faster among quarterbacks at the combine last year. While the 4th overall pick of the draft, wide receiver A.J. Green, was only a shade faster. His athleticism saw him successful on the running track as well. From Wikipedia:

Prospect of the day: Louisville TE Josh Chichester | National Football Post
Massive tight end prospect could be mismatch piece at next level.

Prospect of the day: NC State TE George Bryan | National Football Post
He’s nothing worth getting excited about, but he’ll play in the league for a long time. 

NFL Draft: Stop Wasting Picks on QB's - With the First Pick - An NFL Draft Site - News, Mock Drafts, Blogs, Opinion and more.
Back in 2007, the NFL draft was full of quarterback prospects. Besides likely high-first round selections JaMarcus Russell and Brady Quinn, there were four other prospects that were thought to have starting potential: Kevin Kolb, John Beck and Drew Stanton went in the second round and Trent Edwards went in the third.

Small School Scouting Notebook: November 14th | Articles
For this week's Small School Notebook, we take a look at a handful of FCS and  Division II programs, starting off with Nicholls State and Lamar. Also, Southern Utah, Merrimack, Dixie State and Humbolt State were also scouted.

Diamond in the Rough: Charles Deas and Stanley Porter, Shaw | Articles - How is it that two people, from two different places, can have so much in common? The Defensive Coordinator Robert Massey of Shaw University had an answer.

Peyton Manning only thing in way of Colts taking Andrew Luck in 2012 NFL Draft - Mocking The Draft - If it weren't a given already that the Indianapolis Colts would have the first pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, it looks like a certainty now. Every team in the NFL has at least two wins except for the 0-10 Colts.

2012 NFL Draft stock up spotlight - Mocking The Draft - Throughout the season we'll take a look at some players who helped their 2012 NFL Draft stock with great performances in the previous week's games.

Big Board: Underclassmen could supercharge draft - NFL - CBSSports.com - NFLDraftScout.com - Early in the college football season, the goal of every scout is to grade each individual prospect. By late in the season, scouts begin to lump prospects together by position to gain an idea as to the strengths and weaknesses of the incoming crop of talent. It has become clear that the 2012 draft could be a very talented one.

Should a few of the top underclassmen listed below elect to make themselves eligible for the draft early, 2012 could be especially rich at quarterback, wide receiver, offensive tackle and cornerback. Teams in search of tight ends or pass rushers, on the other hand, may not have nearly as many options. Creating a "Big Board" at this point in the year isn't necessarily designed to predict who will be the first 32 picks of the 2012 NFL draft. Obviously, with a full season, all-star games, workouts and interviews each playing critical roles in determining a player's final grade, much will change between now and April.

Week 11 Rewind: Oregon's pint-sized RB James can excel in NFL - NFL - CBSSports.com - NFLDraftScout.com - Each week, we rewind the game film to highlight the star-worthy performances that could impact the 2012 draft rankings:

Kellen Moore's pro potential being compared to Drew Brees - Tony Pauline - SI.com - The crowd at the top of the college football mountain thinned out a bit this weekend after Stanford suffered their first loss. And while most of the talk in the NFL Draft world has centered around Andrew Luck, several other signal callers have built a buzz around themselves. So, too, have a few run-stuffing linebackers, and one really big sleeper on the defensive line.

Scout’s corner: Is Melvin Ingram the most versatile prospect in the draft? | National Football Post - Plus, a rundown of some of the top prospect performances from this past weekend.

Updated 2012 NFL Draft running back rankings - Mocking The Draft - It's been almost two months since the site rankings have been updated, so it seemed like a good time to do some tweaking. There has been not changes at the top with the running backs with Alabama's Trent Richardson and Virginia Tech's David Wilson being the top two. I moved up Temple's Bernard Pierce and Washington's Chris Polk. Both have had impressive seasons and good size for the next level. Check out the running back rankings after the jump.

Mocking the Drafts YouTube Channel Update 11/16/11 - Mocking The Draft - Welcome to the latest look into whats new over at Mocking the Drafts Prospect Film Library. Last update highlighted three of the bigger games from week one and now we move on to week two. The out of conference "game-of-the-week", Alabama vs Penn State, wasn't much of a game after halftime as Penn State couldn't get anything going offensively till it was too late. The Tide's loaded defense was up to the task and the Nittany Lions offense couldn't get going with their two QB system.

Our second game was a barn burner in the desert as Missouri and Arizona State took their game into overtime. The Tigers and Sun Devils amassed 993 total yards, so there wasn't a lot of successful defense played. The final game uploaded is the SEC match-up between South Carolina and Georgia. As it tends to be the case, there are a lot of prospects on both sides of the ball for each team and which means even more to scout. Lets start with Alabama vs Penn State.

Updated 2012 NFL Draft strong safety rankings - Mocking The Draft - After the jump, check out the updated strong safety rankings. The most notable difference from the previous rankings is the drop of Miami's Ray Ray Armstrong. He just can't get on the field. While there will sometimes be a pass for injured players, Armstrong's inability to get on the field is his own fault. Also, it's true, there are two South Carolina players listed as strong safeties after the jump. DeVonte Halloman plays a more true safety role for the Gamecocks while Antonio Allen plays the Spur, a combination linebacker/safety position.

Updated 2012 NFL Draft wide receiver rankings - Mocking The Draft - Today's rankings update looks at the wide receivers. There have been several dramatic shifts on where players are ranked compared to two months ago when this was last done. Namely, players like Dwight Jones of North Carolina, Mohamed Sanu of Rutgers, Nick Toon of Wisconsin and Marvin McNutt of Iowa have risen quite highly. The biggest dropper is Greg Childs of Arkansas. He's been passed over by several teammates this season partly due to injury. Jeff Fuller of Texas A&M has slipped as well due to numerous shaky performances this season. Check out the wide receiver rankings after the jump.

Everything You Need To Know About The Division II Football Playoffs | November - The Division II playoffs start this weekend as 16 teams face off in eight games to determine whose season is over and who will move on to try and make it to the National Championship game in Florence, AL. I will warn you now the preview below is very long, so I advise you to bring a snack and possibly a pillow with you if you try and read it all in one sitting.

Draft Breakdown — 2012 QB Rankings
The college season is winding down and the 2012 quarterback class is starting to take shape behind Andrew Luck.   After countless hours of film study, I’ve concluded the passing-driven NFL can expect one of the strongest crops seen in years when April’s draft rolls around. It appears as if up to six QBs could potentially come off the board in the first 50 picks or so. The class is deep as well with some middle- to late-round gems that could outplay their draft position.   Here are my top 10 quarterbacks likely to be part of April’s draft:

Draft Breakdown — New 2012 NFL Mock Draft
8. Seattle Seahawks Trent Richardson – RB – Alabama*   Richardson may be the hardest player for me to project. RB is commodity that is increasingly easy to find and therefore less valuable in the 1st round. But Richardson is an exceptionally talented runner, combining speed & power into a potentially elite talent. Seattle has to draft a QB, and I believe will do everything it can to get that done, so while Richardson is unlikely, he’d provide line coach Tom Cable with the toy he needs to build a dominant run game.

The Seahawks are better off winning " Seahawks Draft Blog
Some Seahawks fans think the team is better off losing than winning this season. I understand the viewpoint. There are many examples of NFL teams going from average to perennial contenders by picking a quarterback in the top five. It appears that Peyton Manning alone is the difference between the Colts being one of the best teams in the league and being easily the worst. Colts fans probably say to themselves daily, "Thank goodness we lost all those games in 1997 and got to draft Manning."