Stream-of-Consciousness Notes
2010 Senior Bowl
By
Pete Fiutak
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2009 Senior Bowl
Stream-of-Consciousness Notes
-
2007 Senior Bowl
Stream-of-Consciousness Notes
By Pete
Fiutak
Welcome again to my pretentious, goofy and self-serving
stream-of-consciousness thoughts and notes on the big games, the
broadcasts, the ads and the teams for the attention deficit
disordered. E-mail
me with your own thoughts and notes and what you'd like to see.
Pregame
- I'm expecting nothing. Basically, the buzz around the
Senior Bowl practices this year was that just about
everyone sucked. The quarterbacks were bad, Tim
Tebow was worse, and outside of a few players that
aren't going to be taken in the first round like
Troy's Brandon Lang, Cincinnati's
Mardy Gilyard, and
Ole Miss's Dexter McCluster, there hasn't been much
of a WOW factor outside of the blubber on Terence
Cody's junk in the front (the dude weighed in at 370
pounds).
- The rule of thumb is that you can’t really help yourself
in the game if you were a dog in practices, but you
can certainly lose ground if you look lost when the
bullets start flying. However, an unknown can make a
huge name for himself with one big play or a few big
moments.
- Tebow: "Just one team has to like you." The team that likes him and
hopes to rely on him to do something special will be
bad. Very bad. To a man, everyone who actually matters is saying that he can't play quarterback in the NFL.
- I'm waiting for Mike Mayock to destroy Tebow.
It'll be interesting to see if he can keep it
relatively nice.
- It's all about the Combine. This is step one in
the whole process. If you're really good, you're
probably not here.
First Quarter
- Bob Papa, it's Ole Miss. Dexter McCluster
is from Ole Miss, not Old Miss.
South on its own 26
- Tebow under center. It just looks
weird.
- McCluster isn't Chris Johnson, but there are a lot
of people looking at him like a lesser version.
- The South is in a hurry-up with Tebow. There's no
reason to use any Wildcat; it's all about seeing if
Tebow can make something happen.
- Tebow can make that throw. He had an open
Chris McCoy to throw to, but he didn't
drill it. He was a bit tentative.
North on its 38
- Cincinnati's Tony Pike starts. He's been a big bowl of suck this
week and needs a huge game.
- C'mon ... a reverse to Jacoby Ford?
There's no reason to get cute in a game like this.
-- USC's Taylor Mays blew a tackle
that he needs to start making on a more regular
basis to make more money. He has everything you
want, but there's a big question mark about his
basics when it comes to his tackling ability.
- Wayne State's Joique Bell is an X
factor in the process. He runs hard and in a few
carries looks like he belongs.
- Pike has hit his first three throws, but he has to
show he can fire. Yeah, he can dink and dunk it, but
in this game, he has to drive a throw down the field
and show a bit more pop in the gun.
- NICE ... Tennessee DT Dan Williams
occupied two blockers without much of a
problem, but the North still got the first down.
- Idaho's Mike Iupati gets nailed
for a hold that negates a touchdown after getting
beaten on the inside. Even so, Pike did a fantastic
job of checking off his first receiver and threw a
nice pass to Wisconsin's Garrett Graham
for the score. And then Pike screws up and
misfires on an easy throw that he needed to put on a
rope.
- Mayock is right ... Iupati is a holding machine.
- There's no excuse for Pike to not be on the same
page as Gilyard. He had a free play and he
air-mailed his deep throw.
- Pike is in the shotgun. This doesn't do anyone any
good; he needs to show he can operate on a regular
basis under center.
- In windy conditions, Michigan State PK
Brett Swenson nails a 43-yard field goal.
North 3 ... South 0
South on its own 28
- Alright Tebow. Show SOMETHING.
Give us a reason to care about you as a potential
pro.
- Auburn's Ben Tate gets two
straight carries. He wasn't able to make much happen
with no room to move, but he escaped and avoided a
tackle for loss. I love him as an early third round
pick. He'll be someone's rock-solid No. 2 back.
- Tebow gets time and makes a strong, accurate deep
curl throw against Boise Staet's Kyle Wilson
for a first down.
- Neither offensive line has been able to show much
of a push so far, but LSU's Ciron Black
showed some athleticism on a reverse and USC's
Jeff Byers moved extremely well.
- Tebow has room to run, should've been able to get
the first down, and TCU's Daryl Washington
put an end to that forcing a Leigh
Tiffin field goal attempt. Washington read
the play and exploded to the ball. Tiffin will nail
this ...
- He does.
North 3 ... South 3
North on its own 41
- Sneaky-nice return by Gilyard. It
wasn't a big run, but he should've been stopped on
the 25 and instead he did just enough to get out
past the 40.
- Again, Pike is in the shotgun. He almost needs to
ask if he can be under center.
- He runs a little option and shows some mobility
for the first down.
- Oregon's LeGarrette Blount has
had a nice week. He has shown that he's not the
monster everyone made him out to be after the Boise
State game and he has looked good. He made a strong
run with a great juke on USF's George Selvie
to make something out of nothing.
First Quarter Score: North 3 ... South 3
Second Quarter
- Pike looks a little unsure of himself and
didn't force a throw he needed to try to make. He
and Tebow have been way, way too cautious.
- I really, really like Blount. He got a little
hole, showed a nice burst, and got his way into the
end zone. Iupati erased the left side of the line to
give Blount room to run for his 14-yard score
finishing it off nicely with a dive for a score. I'm
not sure he's a feature back for a full season, but
he can be Jonathan Stewart.
North 10 ... South 3
South on its own 25
- West Virginia's Jarrett Brown has
had a strong week and showed that he's worth a
longer look. He replaces Tebow.
- McCluster is in the Wildcat. Every general manager
is quietly ticked off that McCluster is getting so
much hype; everyone wants him.
- Now that's a true pro quarterback play; the first
of the game. Brown is under center, reads the
defense, finds his target, and fires a strong,
decisive throw for a first down.
- USC's Stafon Johnson gets his first carry and comes up with a nice run with a good cut to make something happen that wasn't there.
- Brown doesn't want to risk a timing pattern, pulls
it down, and tries to buy himself some time. As good
as his first throw was, that's how indecisive he was
on his second throw ...
- ... and then he air mails an open target after not
setting his feet on a throw he should be able to
make 99 out of 100 times.
North on its own 20
- Dan Williams ...
again. As if he needs more reason to be a first
round pick, he held his own against two blockers and
batted down a Pike pass.
- Slippery run for Fresno State's Lonyae
Miller. He's a forgotten player after
working behind Ryan Mathews, and he needs to have a
decent showing. That first run will make many do
some more work on his 2008 season when he was able
to show off his speed a bit more.
- Missouri's Danario Alexander has
had a rough week in all areas, and he didn't make
things better by not getting his head in the game on
a timing play and Pike misfired.
- Pike isn't having much luck. No one around him is
making enough plays to give him any time.
- Williams sniffed out a running back screen and
blew up the play.
- The guy in the game who'll have the longest
career? Michigan punter Zoltan Mesko,
who rolled up a decent kick.
South on its own 21
- And there's an all-star game. NC
State's Ted Larsen threw the
shotgun snap ten miles over Jarett Brown's
head, Austen Lane from Murray State
fell on it, got up, and scored. No one remembered
that this is a pro game now; you have to touch the
man. He's not down just by falling down.
North 17 ... South 3
South on its own 41
- Brett Swenson has
been awful on kickoffs. It would be interesting to
see if he's being asked to put it in play on
purpose.
- Michigan's Brandon Graham just
obliterated West Virgina's Selvish Capers.
Capers had a nice week, but no one blocked Graham
this week and he came up with a
blur-in-the-backfield sack on Jarett Brown.
- Arkansas guard Mitch Petrus all
but tackled Penn State's Jared Odrick
for a drive-killing holding call.
- Brown simply isn't trusting his reads. The North
defense is playing well, but Brown has to show he
can make a throw to a covered man.
North on its own 40
- Oregon State's Sean Canfield
has nice upside as a pro backup, but he
struggled this week.
- Terrence Cody blew into the
backfield and forced Joique Bell to
fumble. Bell got it back, but it was a great play by
the overweight Tide star.
- Troy's Cameron Sheffield rips
past Virginia Tech's Ed Wang and
Canfield didn't have a chance. The South gets the
recovered fumble.
South on the North 33
- With Sheffield on one side and
Brandon Lang on the other, Troy
should've had a stronger defense this year.
- Brown hangs in the pocket and rifles a throw over
the middle for a first down. He patted the ball and
double clutched, but it was a strong throw.
- Terrific play by Brandon Graham.
The South tried a little trick pitch play,
Stafon Johnson had Graham on an island, and
the play went nowhere.
- Everyone loved Missouri LB Sean
Weatherspoon before, and that play just
made him even more money. He managed to not only
stay with Dexter McCluster on a
pass into the end zone, but he looked like a corner
batting the play away.
- Leigh Tiffin nails the chip shot
field goal.
North 17 ... South 6
North on its own 41
- Again, Mardy Gilyard
with a sneaky-good return. He won't have
the measurables, but he's a playmaker.
- Sean Canfield is back under
center ...
- ... NICE throw. Canfield makes a strong, accurate
throw on the run to Oregon's Ed Dickson.
- Canfield has a nice way of keeping his focus and
his head down the field when things break down.
Everyone else so far is looking to just survive.
Canfield is trying to find ways to make something
happen.
- LeGarrette Blount again comes up
with a strong, NFL run. He has a little bit of
a crease, breaks through it, and uses his power to
tack on three extra yards.
- Florida State's Patrick Robinson
gets flagged for a pass interference. He and the
rest of the defensive backs will have to be used to
not being able to touch receivers.
- Robinson is hurt ... nothing serious, it looks
like a hamstring.
- He's jogging off the field.
- Blount is running really, really hard. He's always
going forward and he's dragging tacklers with him.
Alabama's Javier Arenas didn't have
a chance one-on-one.
- Canfield didn't look like he believed Georgia's
Geno Atkins could close. Atkins
blew past Mike Iupati for a sack.
- USC's Taylor Mays baits Canfield
into a bad deep throw. There was only one option,
Canfield tried to lay it in there, and Mays was
sitting there waiting for the pick. Great play by
Mays, poor read from Canfield.
South on its own 18
- Oklahoma State's Zac
Robinson needs to have a nice drive and a
few good throws. He had a so-so week.
- Good first play, but that was more a big play from
Tulane WR Jeremy Williams than it
was a big throw from Robinson. Robinson rolled to
his right, hung it up, and let Williams make a big
play.
- This is going to sound strange. Robinson almost
got picked off and he badly missed his target, but
he showed a gun firing the ball to the outside. It
was actually a positive play off a bad throw.
- And then he rolls to his left and made a good,
accurate throw to Florida's Riley Cooper.
This is exactly the drive Robinson needed to have in
the final moments of the first half.
- Terrific, terrific play by Robinson. He was
looking off his target, looking off, looking off,
looking off, and then boom, he came back to his open
receiver hitting Alabama's Colin Peek
for a 21-yard touchdown. Unlike
Taylor Mays on the previous drive,
Nebraska's Larry Asante didn't read
the play and got beaten for a touchdown, even though
he blasted Peek.
- Robinson just got on the radar.
Second Quarter Score: North 17 ... South 13
Third Quarter
North on its own 46
- Terrific return from Devin
McCourty from Rutgers. He'll get a look at
corner, but he'll make his mark at the next level as
a special teamer.
- Sean Canfield is back under
center and throws a good, quick pass getting the
ball out of his hands ina hurry for a 2nd and short.
- You have to really be holding to be nailed for a
penalty in this game.
- Lonyae Miller is producing. He's
getting positive yards on every run even when
there's nothing there.
- They're not calling a horse-collar. Florida
State's Dekoda Watson flies to
Miller and made a stop.
- I just praised Miller, and then he gets tackled by
Watson and then gets stuffed on fourth and short by
Lamarr Houston of Texas.
South on its own 35
- Wooooooo. Brandon Graham
blows up the play getting to the
Dexter McCluster run, and Sean
Weatherspoon cleans it up. Graham is having
a terrific day.
- Robinson buys time, scrambles a bit, and throws a
dart across the middle between four defenders to
Citadel's Andre Roberts. It was a
throw Robinson should get yelled at for trying in
any game other than an all-star scrimmage.
- I might have an accident over Graham. He's
unblockable flying around LSU's Ciron Black,
getting to Robinson and forced a fumble.
North on the South 49
- Central Michigan's Dan
LeFevour in ... welcome to the NFL. He gets
his arm hit on the first play and should've been
picked off.
- He's taking shotgun snaps. I want to see him under
center.
- LeFevour gets the ball out of his hands quickly
and tries to throw a dart, but the receiver isn't on
the same page.
- Javier Arenas time. It'll get
called back, but he was able to burst through and
come up with an excellent punt return for 62 yards.
- It was flagged for a block in the back, but wow.
South on its own 11
- Zac Robinson is
back in. He comes out wining, but he's showing too
long a throwing motion. It needs to be a bit more
compact.
- Robinson gets buried. North Carolina's Cam
Thomas keeps working and working and
working and makes the sack. Someone's going to fall
in love with him in the second around.
- Clemson's Jacoby Ford gets an
easy ball to return, and he takes it 40 yards. That
was a horrible punt by East Carolina's Matt
Dodge. That was the type of punt that gets
you cut in camp.
North on the South 29
- Again, I don't want to see LeFevour
running a spread.
- Now he's under center ...
- And the timing is off. He had to do a three step
drop and make a timing throw, but that's going to be
tough in a game like this.
- That's what he can bring. The play broke down, he
had a wide open field, and he took off for an easy
first down out running Miami's Darryl
Sharpton.
- LeFevour comes up with a good fake and finds
Wisconsin's Garrett Graham for
another positive play. The South defenders can't get
to LeFevour.
- Woooooooooooooo. LeGarrette Blount
blew through the hole and drove over LSU's
Harry Coleman and put him on
skates. It should've been called a touchdown, but
instead he's down at the one.
- LeFevour fumbles the snap, picks it up, and walks
in for the score. It was like his own personal
Fumblerooski.
North 24 ... South 13
South on its own 35
- TEEEEEBOWWWWWWW!!!!!
- Tim Tebow gets kissed as he
floats a pass out to UAB's Joe Webb.
Webb isn't an NFL quarterback, but he could end up
being a poor man's Joshua Cribbs.
- Larry Asante makes up for his
misread for a score at the end of the first half
with a textbook stick of Dexter McCluster
to force a fumble.
North on the South 42
- There's an NFL throw. The scouts are
looking to see a quarterback throw a rope and drive
the ball to a spot, and LeFevour did that to
Jacoby Ford. Kentucky's Trevard
Lindley didn't read the play right.
- LeFevour connects with Mardy Gilyard
for a 44-yard play, but the deep arm didn't
look all that great. He got time, stepped into the
throw, and underthrew it. Gilyard made a great
adjustment.
- Lindley has lost a lot of money on the last two
plays.
- Lonyae Miller is making up for
some soft earlier runs by finishing his last two
runs well to get down to the goal line.
Third Quarter Score: North 24 ... South 13
Fourth Quarter
- Terrific penetration by the defensive
interior of the South and LeGarrette Blount
never had a chance. Dekoda Watson
forced his way into the backfield from the
outside and Terrence Cody and the
inside guys cleaned it up.
- Fourth and goal from the one. LeFevour rolled to
his right and didn't have anyone to go to or
anywhere to go. Florida State's Patrick
Robinson covered Gilyard
like a blanked. LeFevour got stuffed at the one.
SouSouth on its own 1
- The focus of the necessity of this game is gone.
Now it's about trying to win the game and not about
trying to showcase pro prospect.
- Ben Tate gets the South out of
trouble. Again, he's going to be a productive back
as someone's No. 2 for a long time.
- Tebow has yet to do anything that screams NFL
starter.
- He hits Tulane's Jeremy Williams
after working out of the shotgun, and he actually
showed a better throwing motion than normal. It just
takes a while.
- Yeah, if you're going to commit to the shotgun,
Tebow could be effective. But you're limited in what
you can do.
- Oh Tebow. Utah's Koa Misi forces
the fumble and Iowa's A.J. Edds gets it.
North on the South 32
- My kingdom for a deep ball ...
- As I type that, Dan LeFevour, who
sort of has a Phil Rivers shotput style delivery,
throws a perfect deep ball to Mardy Gilyard
for a touchdown. Javier Arenas
got torched.
- Again, Gilyard isn't going to time well and he's
not going to measure the right way, but he can
certainly play.
North 31 ... South 13
South on its own 10
- Arenas got out to the 29 yard when
any other returner might have been stopped cold.
That was an impressive return that got brought back
thanks to a hold.
- Oh sweet lord ... Tebow is having a disastrous
time. Cal's Tyson Alualu ripped
into the backfield and got to Tebow and forced a
fumble recovered by the South.
- That play just showed why Tebow's mobility won't
matter at the next level. At Florida, with the seas
open up like they just did for Tebow, he gets that
first down on 3rd and 11. That doesn't fly anymore
against NFL speed. He's not going to make anyone
miss and he's not going to run over an NFL
linebacker.
North on its own 45
- Patrick Robinson had a chance to make a big play with an open field
tackle and got run over.
- The South players aren't tackling nearly as well
as North defenders.
- Auburn's Antonio Coleman fought
off a block to get in a position to make a play, but
Joique Bell fought through it for
the first down.
- Robinson got away with a hold on Dorin
Dickerson or LeFevour would have another
deep touchdown pass.
- Coleman isn't having a great game production-wise,
but he's always in position.
- Nice punt by Zoltan Mesko to
force Arenas to make a fair catch.
South on its own 15
- Zac Robinson back
under center for the South.
- The South front four is pinning its ears back.
- The ball slipped out of Robinson's hand, and now
hand size will be a must-check by all the scouts.
- Robinson is now pulling the string on his throws.
They aren't as decisive as they were at the end of
the first half.
- Brandon Graham made yet another
big play. That motor is always running.
- Robinson continues to roll one way and throw back
into the middle of the field.
- If you're a South running back, you're ticked that
the score is so lopsided and the coaches are trying
to make this about the score.
- I'd like to see Joe Webb under
center a little bit.
- Robinson just isn't consistent enough. He's
spraying the ball a bit because he's not in any sort
of a rhythm like he was in the two-minute drill. The
North is hanging back and letting the South dink and
dunk to run the time off the clock.
- At this point, with two minutes to play, the
evaluation process all but stops. All that matters
is that no one gets hurt.
- The South keeps fighting, though. Dexter
McCluster takes a short pass and makes
something big happen.
- Speaking of making something big happen,
Sean Weatherspoon reads Robinson and picks
him off. Robinson never, ever looked off his primary
target.
North on its own 39
- Five turnovers from the South, and
now, three turnovers from the North. A fumble,
picked up by Jamar Chaney, he
fumbled, and George Selvie gets it.
South on the North 38
- Jarrett Brown back
in. One minute to play ... time to bomb away.
- Brown does a nice job of feeling the pressure,
gets away from it, and throws a strike to Miami's
Jimmy Graham.
- And then Brown gets picked off. A.J. Edds
gets a gift as Brown overthrew Graham and
it was an easy play.
North on its own 29
- Victory formation. Brandon
Graham gets MVP honors.
Final Score: North 31 ... South 13
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