BCS Championship Game: I Stayed Away on Purpose and Bucks Are Flee..Errr…Leaving
Posted January 16th, 2007 by George Thomas
Yes, after last Monday night's game I stayed away from this space purposely. The Disintegration in the Desert proved a bit hard to digest for a myriad of reasons, but there's little sense in rehashing them. It's best to just thank the Buckeyes for the ride this year and deal with what's going on around the team.
Well, gee, George, what might that be?
Well, considering that other than Troy Smith, who is graduating, Anthony Gonzalez, Ted Ginn Jr. and Antonio Pittman are all coming out as juniors. That's gotta leave Coach Jim Tressel wondering who the heck is going to be scoring for him next year. Yeah, that's a good question. That will sort itself out in spring practice, I assume. We shall see, but Bucks fans should probably forget any dreams of a national championship sprint for the next couple of years. But no one should begrudge the three above for pursuing NFL dreams, because they have to believe they've done everything they could to get the Bucks over the top. All of them, however, should find success playing on Sundays.
What I'm going to be interested in seeing, however, is where they fall. The only sure-fire first round pick the experts claim is Ginn. I can believe that, but he may not have been the best receiver on the Buckeyes' roster coming out. The NFL loves speed and he's got that to spare, but Gonzalez may actually be the better receiver. Reports say Gonzalez is just as fast as Ginn, but he's also savvy, comes through in the clutch and has reliable hands. Reports say that he would fall to the second round. With all due respect to those suffering from a case of Homeboyitis (those who want the Browns to draft Troy Smith), I'd take Gonzalez before him, but of course the Browns have too many glaring needs to ever consider drafting yet another receiver in the second round. And they'd best not be casting their eyes on a quarterback either, no matter how attractive and popular he might be. It's football, not public relations.
Pittman is an interesting case. He's projected as a second or third rounder. With Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson coming out, he's going to fall a wee bit further down the draft ladder unless he blows the scouts and execs away with a stellar workout. We shall see. If nothing else, this off season is setting up to be an intriguing experience.
January 17th, 2007 at 8:34 am
I've read that Gonzalez is as fast as Ginn before but when Ginn turns on the jets he looks as fast on the football field as anyone I've seen since Deion Sanders or Bo Jackson.
Like Troy Smith, Gonzalez might have been exposed in the Florida game. He sure wasn't getting open much without Ginn around to stretch things out.
January 17th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Larry,
That wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Florida could key on him and not have to worry about any other receiver now, would it? Of course considering Smith was constantly running from the Gators' D-line or was on his back, who actually noticed what Gonzalez was doing?
January 17th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
As you pointed out a couple weeks ago, Hartline and Robiskie aren't bums. I'm not saying Gonzalez is either but if we're talking about NFL potential he's got more Brian Brennan in him than he has Marvin Harrison.
Maybe the game revealed how much Ginn was keyed on all season, and as a corollary, the limitations of Gonzalez and Smith.