Ron Jumper of SportsOverload.com comes back to BlitzRadio to revisit the 2010 Fantasy College Football Invitational expert league draft held on Sunday, plus share his insights on the exciting Arkansas Razorbacks, led by QB Ryan Mallett.
After three years and three consecutive national championships, the SEC has one heck of a resume to hang their hat on. However, all that bling serves as a shield toward a pretty awkward couple of issues: the league only runs two deep at the top right now and fantasy players tail off in a hurry down south of the Mason Dixon. Attrition caused its own mess, so …now what? Now we have a couple of guys who are impact players, a few guys who could be, and then a heck of a lot of hope.
Big arm, big body, big-time coach - yes, Arkansas' Ryan Mallett looks like the real fantasy deal (Icon SMI)
At least we have trophies…
QUARTERBACK
1. Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
2. Cam Newton, Auburn
3. John Brantley, Florida
4. Jeremiah Masoli, Ole Miss
Let’s start with the obvious: Ryan Mallett is as close to a fantasy QB beast the SEC is likely to get for the near future. He has a system designed to maximize his talents, he has a quality crop of WRs, and he’ll get the opportunities. After that …. yikes. Sure, Stephen Garcia is still floating around, and Greg McElroy is a great real-life QB, but they have systemic issues – McElroy isn’t in an offense that lets him pass enough, and Garcia is going to be yanked out of at least 3-4 games (plus is still playing behind a swinging gate of an offensive line).
Instead, we’re left with what systems are likely to produce. Newton, Brantley, and Masoli are all untested in SEC play, excepting Newton’s garbage time as a Gator his freshman year. However, they’re all in systems that can maximize their talents (and to be brutally frank, I flipped their order a few times writing this). For now, I trust Newton more than either of the two guys ranked below him. Brantley has all the tools, but after what happened to Florida’s offense under Steve Addazio last year, I’m a bit gunshy. Masoli by all rights should be going to an offense that will let him run – Matt Jones in 2004 as a good example of Masoli’s potential – but there’s the simple matter of, well, not trusting that Houston Nutt has any idea how to coach QBs. At all. Couple that with Ole Miss breaking in three new guys on the line and there are some red flags here, even with Masoli’s production last season.
Don’t get me wrong – Newton, Brantley, and Masoli all have a chance to be the best fantasy QB in the SEC. But in the absence of any history, we’re left to fall back on what we’ve seen guys like them do, and the production potential of those three guys doesn’t outweigh what we already know about Mallett.
We get some interesting emails every week – one of my 2010 goals is to post the best ones so great ideas get a voice to the freakiest and geekiest college football fans in the country.
Today, we highlight Mickey the Piker:
“Here’s a statistic that will tell you how difficult it is to win football games at Vanderbilt — Bobby Johnson won 29 games in eight seasons … which is the fourth most in school history…..”
Bobby Johnson retires from Vanderbilt 50 days before kickoff
I pull for teams like Vandy almost as much as my alma mater. I mean, how can you ever root against kids who have to work their ass off in the classroom and on the field for their sport?! I’ll wager you this: 90%+ of the guys that play football at Vandy are better MEN than the guys that play at <insert State U here>.
I remember a few years ago when QB Jay Cutler played that OT game at Florida – I sat there watching it obviously wanting Florida to win but also thinking how “great” it would be for college football and student-athletes everywhere if Vandy won.
Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking FBS football is anything more than “minor league” – except they don’t get PAID over the table anyway – football. THAT’s WHY people love Tim Tebow but even St. Timothy majored in some BS like “Family, Youth and Community Services.” What a football degree that is… He could have at least majored in “Religion” or “Philosophy” but he couldn’t hack the academic workload plus football.
At Vandy, they don’t get that break…maybe Johnson realized he no longer had the fight to continue.
You have to RESPECT what Vandy, Duke, Stanford, Rice, “Weak Forrest”, et al are up against in “FBS” football. Baseball and basketball are different and they can compete because they need far fewer players for a team but football will always be the most difficult academic/sport challenge.
Below is an excerpt from NPR’s Frank Deford’s latest column, in which he analyzes on the eve of the 2010 NFL Draft, that in the case of QB prospect Tim Tebow, it’s the rare situation of “game hating the player.”
Photo: AP via NPR.org
Come up here, please, to the presidential suite and give a big NPR welcome to Tim Tebow, proclaimed by many the greatest college football player ever and now ready for the NFL draft. Heisman Trophy winner; the hero who steered Florida to two national championships; bright; strong; a natural leader.
Now, if you’ll come downstairs here, in that bunch of wannabes crowded over by the Murphy bed, give a nod to Tim Tebow, the quarterback with the strange throwing motion; religious fundamentalist; lightning-rod misfit and obvious classic example of the Peter Principle, pro football version. Read the rest of this entry →
Derek Dooley’s(pictured left, thanks Icon SMI) departure from Louisiana Tech only turned heads because of where he was going – and even then the general perception of his arrival to Knoxville was “who the heck is this guy?” (or, in some circles, “why is Tennessee getting the son of Georgia’s AD?”). Dooley has the misfortune of following Phillip Fulmer as Tennessee’s next functional head coach, since the only thing we can really count on from the Lane Kiffin Blip (Era implies a multi-year stint) is entertaining press. Fulmer, for all his faults, had a fantastic run in the 90s which serves in part as the reason Tennessee fans have been so frustrated these past few years.
Dooley …well, he may be successful, although I think he may be a bit in over his head for the next season or so. There’s a bit of a learning curve when going from the WAC to the SEC, pedigree or no, and given the difficulty filling the coaching positions so far (as of this writing, Tennessee still doesn’t have a defensive coordinator) it’s going to be a slower process than usual. The only mitigating factor – and it’s a big one – is that the Volunteers are so decimated by losses that it’s not going to make a ton of difference in 2010. Read the rest of this entry →
Derek Dooley’s (pictured left, thanks Icon SMI) departure from Louisiana Tech only turned heads because of where he was going – and even then the general perception of his arrival to Knoxville was “who the heck is this guy?” (or, in some circles, “why is Tennessee getting the son of Georgia’s AD?”). Dooley has the misfortune of following Phillip Fulmer as Tennessee’s next functional head coach, since the only thing we can really count on from the Lane Kiffin Blip (Era implies a multi-year stint) is entertaining press. Fulmer, for all his faults, had a fantastic run in the 90s which serves in part as the reason Tennessee fans have been so frustrated these past few years.
