The KP question
posted by LW, Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Given the struggles endured by Kyle Parker during his sophomore baseball season, some might consider it grossly premature to begin wondering if Parker will have played his last down of college football late Sunday night.
This story, written by Paul Strelow of The State, suggests it's not premature at all.
"I still have a lot of things to figure out and a lot of decisions I have to make soon," Parker said. "But the biggest thing was I enjoyed being out here (playing football). I'm not going to be able to do both forever, so right now I'm enjoying having the opportunity."
The term "soon" stands out, because it's the first time I've seen or heard Parker referring to his situation with such apparent urgency.
Two things:
1) I'm far from sold on the notion of Parker being a high enough pick in the 2010 MLB draft to impose such a decision.
2) I'm far from sold on the notion that Parker is ready to give up football.
Regarding the first point, I spoke with Jack Leggett about this (among other topics) a few weeks ago. Leggett is certainly happy to have KP in the fold and thinks the world of him, but he intimated that Parker has a long way to go before he'll be highly coveted by the MLB folks.
On the second point, Parker had a lot of fun and showed a lot of progress in his redshirt freshman season as the Tigers' starting QB. Had he come in and sat the bench and/or struggled, you could've easily seen him giving up football after one year. But as we all know, that wasn't the case.
I'm not going to sit here and predict Parker will be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft years from now. But the kid clearly has an NFL arm and an NFL release.
As Strelow correctly points out, Drew Brees is about the only 6-foot QB who has managed to flourish in the NFL.
But if Parker continues to get better, I don't see how we could rule out him finding a place in the NFL.
That's a long way off, obviously, and a lot still has to happen for him to be an NFL-caliber QB.
But just the same, a lot still has to happen for him to be an MLB-caliber OF or IF.
And one more thing: Parker might not lose all his leverage by remaining for his senior baseball season. If he keeps doing the two-sport thing and has a really good redshirt sophomore football season, he'll have some leverage in the form of sticking with football.
But again, KP's suggestion that a decision will need to be made soon does indicate he's mulling this over more now than before.
Man, would it be a bummer if he did hang up his helmet. Kid is a lot of fun to watch.
Also in The State, Bob Spear says C.J. Spiller is the top Tiger of the decade. Hard to argue there.
Travis Sawchik of The Post and Courier gets philosophical and psychological in exploring the concept of fear in smaller athletes.
Ed McGranahan of The Greenville News impersonates Dabo Swinney writing a letter to Santa Claus.
Hey, it's not easy to come up with new angles after 13 games.
A Jake Nicolopolous update in the Independent-Mail.
Jake Nicolopulos has shown enough improvement to move to a rehabilitation facility in Atlanta.
T.L. Hanna coach Kenya Fouch said on Monday that the Hanna senior linebacker, who suffered a stroke, was scheduled to be moved today or on Tuesday. Nicolopulos has been treated at AnMed Health Medical Center since he suffered the stroke at home before school on Dec. 9.
“They’re confident he made it past that point, that it wasn’t as critical,” Fouch said. “It’s kind of an exciting time. They’re still working on him doing things. They want to get to a point where he can do it on command.”
Since surgery was performed on Dec. 10 to relieve pressure on Nicolopulos’ brain, he has shown slow but steady progress with movement of the right side of his body, which the stroke effected.
Clemson is committed to giving Nicolopolous a scholarship, according to the GN.
Kentucky has wrapped up on-campus bowl workouts and is ready to head to Nashville.
And a look at the Wildcats' young running backs.
Southern Cal ... Joe McKnight ... SUV ... ruh-roh.
LW
Click here for the "Eye On The Tigers" blog archive.
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Given the struggles endured by Kyle Parker during his sophomore baseball season, some might consider it grossly premature to begin wondering if Parker will have played his last down of college football late Sunday night.
This story, written by Paul Strelow of The State, suggests it's not premature at all.
"I still have a lot of things to figure out and a lot of decisions I have to make soon," Parker said. "But the biggest thing was I enjoyed being out here (playing football). I'm not going to be able to do both forever, so right now I'm enjoying having the opportunity."
The term "soon" stands out, because it's the first time I've seen or heard Parker referring to his situation with such apparent urgency.
Two things:
1) I'm far from sold on the notion of Parker being a high enough pick in the 2010 MLB draft to impose such a decision.
2) I'm far from sold on the notion that Parker is ready to give up football.
Regarding the first point, I spoke with Jack Leggett about this (among other topics) a few weeks ago. Leggett is certainly happy to have KP in the fold and thinks the world of him, but he intimated that Parker has a long way to go before he'll be highly coveted by the MLB folks.
On the second point, Parker had a lot of fun and showed a lot of progress in his redshirt freshman season as the Tigers' starting QB. Had he come in and sat the bench and/or struggled, you could've easily seen him giving up football after one year. But as we all know, that wasn't the case.
I'm not going to sit here and predict Parker will be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft years from now. But the kid clearly has an NFL arm and an NFL release.
As Strelow correctly points out, Drew Brees is about the only 6-foot QB who has managed to flourish in the NFL.
But if Parker continues to get better, I don't see how we could rule out him finding a place in the NFL.
That's a long way off, obviously, and a lot still has to happen for him to be an NFL-caliber QB.
But just the same, a lot still has to happen for him to be an MLB-caliber OF or IF.
And one more thing: Parker might not lose all his leverage by remaining for his senior baseball season. If he keeps doing the two-sport thing and has a really good redshirt sophomore football season, he'll have some leverage in the form of sticking with football.
But again, KP's suggestion that a decision will need to be made soon does indicate he's mulling this over more now than before.
Man, would it be a bummer if he did hang up his helmet. Kid is a lot of fun to watch.
Also in The State, Bob Spear says C.J. Spiller is the top Tiger of the decade. Hard to argue there.
Travis Sawchik of The Post and Courier gets philosophical and psychological in exploring the concept of fear in smaller athletes.
Ed McGranahan of The Greenville News impersonates Dabo Swinney writing a letter to Santa Claus.
Hey, it's not easy to come up with new angles after 13 games.
A Jake Nicolopolous update in the Independent-Mail.
Jake Nicolopulos has shown enough improvement to move to a rehabilitation facility in Atlanta.
T.L. Hanna coach Kenya Fouch said on Monday that the Hanna senior linebacker, who suffered a stroke, was scheduled to be moved today or on Tuesday. Nicolopulos has been treated at AnMed Health Medical Center since he suffered the stroke at home before school on Dec. 9.
“They’re confident he made it past that point, that it wasn’t as critical,” Fouch said. “It’s kind of an exciting time. They’re still working on him doing things. They want to get to a point where he can do it on command.”
Since surgery was performed on Dec. 10 to relieve pressure on Nicolopulos’ brain, he has shown slow but steady progress with movement of the right side of his body, which the stroke effected.
Clemson is committed to giving Nicolopolous a scholarship, according to the GN.
Kentucky has wrapped up on-campus bowl workouts and is ready to head to Nashville.
And a look at the Wildcats' young running backs.
Southern Cal ... Joe McKnight ... SUV ... ruh-roh.
LW
Click here for the "Eye On The Tigers" blog archive.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Donnie Patterson. Donnie Patterson is the founder of Patterson Tax Service, located in Easley, S.C. He has been active in tax preparation since 1970, and offers a full range of tax and bookkeeping services.
Larry Williams. Larry has covered the daily beat at Clemson since 2004. Williams, who worked for the Charleston Post & Courier from 2004-08, joined Tigerillustrated.com in November of 2008. He may be reached by email at ldubya08(at)gmail.com. Replace (at) with @.