Inside the draft: Skill sets
posted by LW, Wednesday, April 21, 2010
When C.J. Spiller is selected tonight in the first round of the NFL Draft, it'll break a dubious drought for the ACC.
The last ACC running back to be taken in the first round? Thomas Jones of Virginia, in 2000.
That's a long, long time. And it illustrates one of the main areas where the ACC has lagged behind the powerful SEC.
In recent years, the ACC has more than held its own with the SEC in several draft categories. No conference can top the ACC's 30 first-round picks over the last three years. Over the past four drafts, 148 ACC players have been selected. The SEC has had 149.
Impressive numbers, no doubt. Yet the SEC has claimed the past four BCS national champions, and the ACC has compiled an ugly record in BCS games while also failing to send a team to the title game nine straight seasons.
How to explain the gaping disparity in actual on-field production?
You can start with the so-called offensive skill positions, where the ACC has been way behind.
Let's start with quarterback. From 2000 to 2009, the ACC had two quarterbacks selected in the first round: Matt Ryan in 2008, and Philip Rivers in 2004.
Over the same stretch, the SEC had three No. 1 picks at quarterback -- Matt Stafford, Jamarcus Russell, Eli Manning -- while totaling six first-round selections at quarterback.
Here are the others:
Jay Cutler, Vanderbilt
Jason Campbell, Auburn
Rex Grossman, Florida
To illustrate the point further, the ACC had just eight quarterbacks drafted total from 2000 to 2009:
Ryan
Rivers
Charlie Whitehurst (3rd round)
Adrian McPherson (5th)
Matt Schaub (3rd)
Ronald Curry (7th)
Chris Weinke (4th)
Joe Hamilton (7th)
At receiver, there's not a huge chasm. The SEC had nine receivers selected in the first round from 2000-09, the ACC seven. And the ACC will close the gap further tonight if Georgia Tech's Demaryius Thomas is taken in the first round as expected (the SEC will not have a WR taken in the first round this year).
Here are the SEC's first-round WR selections:
Percy Harvin
Dwayne Bowe
Robert Meachem
Craig Davis, LSU
Troy Williamson
Matt Jones
Michael Clayton
Donte Stallworth
Travis Taylor
And the ACC's:
Darrius Heyward-Bey
Hakeem Nicks
Calvin Johnson
Javon Walker
Koren Robinson
Rod Gardner
Peter Warrick
One thing to note: There was a pretty big gap between Walker (2002 draftee) and Johnson (2007 draftee). That's a lot of years without a big-time receiver.
Now we move to the running backs.
Take a look at the first-round picks from the SEC over the last 10 drafts:
Knowshon Moreno
Darren McFadden
Felix Jones
Joseph Addai
Ronnie Brown
Cadillac Williams
Deuce McAllister
Jamal Lewis
Shaun Alexander
Good gosh. All of those guys were absolute horses in college. There's been a glaring lack of comparable horses in the ACC -- save Spiller, of course.
And there's your biggest difference. The ACC appears largely on par with the SEC when it comes to high-end defensive players, offensive linemen, and maybe even receivers.
But there's a lot of ground to make up at QB and RB, two monumentally important positions.
In fairness to the ACC, the conference had three fewer teams from 2000 to 2003, and one fewer team in 2004 before it became a 12-team league in 2005. Thus there was less available talent in the draft from 2000-05. But the gap in skill-position talent is nevertheless glaring.
In the context of Clemson, Spiller will be the Tigers' first first-round pick on offense since Rod Gardner in 2001. And he'll be the Tigers' first running back taken in the first round since Terrence Flagler in 1987.
When Flagler was drafted during the heyday under Danny Ford, who'd have imagined 23 years would pass before another Clemson running back would go that high?
In the Independent-Mail, Greg Wallace writes about Clifford's big night.
Brandon Jacobs says he'd be insulted if the Giants draft Spiller.
Ricky Sapp apparently is not sweating his draft status.
The baseball team got a much-needed kicking of a tomato can last night.
In the Greenville News, members of the women's track team look forward to the Penn Relays.
Man, this Jim Delany is just not a likable guy. After letting all this expansion talk dominate discussion over the last few days, he emerges from the BCS meetings and wonders what all the fuss is about.
Mike Slive of the SEC says his conference is ready to throw down.
More on the saber-rattling from Delany in USA Today.
"We have not accelerated anything," Delany said, refuting a Chicago Tribune report late last week that the league had alteredstepped up its timetable. In revealing it would ponder adding topanding beyond its current 11 members, the Big Ten said in December that Delany would take 12-18 months to draw up recommendations to its council of school presidents and chancellors.
He met with those officers in conjunction with semiannual meetings of the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, but described the discussions as routine. While "I'm not saying it didn't come up," Delany said of expansion, he insisted it merely was one of several league issues addressed.
He declined to go into details of the discussions.
LW
Click here for the "Eye On The Tigers" blog archive.
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When C.J. Spiller is selected tonight in the first round of the NFL Draft, it'll break a dubious drought for the ACC.
The last ACC running back to be taken in the first round? Thomas Jones of Virginia, in 2000.
That's a long, long time. And it illustrates one of the main areas where the ACC has lagged behind the powerful SEC.
In recent years, the ACC has more than held its own with the SEC in several draft categories. No conference can top the ACC's 30 first-round picks over the last three years. Over the past four drafts, 148 ACC players have been selected. The SEC has had 149.
Impressive numbers, no doubt. Yet the SEC has claimed the past four BCS national champions, and the ACC has compiled an ugly record in BCS games while also failing to send a team to the title game nine straight seasons.
How to explain the gaping disparity in actual on-field production?
You can start with the so-called offensive skill positions, where the ACC has been way behind.
Let's start with quarterback. From 2000 to 2009, the ACC had two quarterbacks selected in the first round: Matt Ryan in 2008, and Philip Rivers in 2004.
Over the same stretch, the SEC had three No. 1 picks at quarterback -- Matt Stafford, Jamarcus Russell, Eli Manning -- while totaling six first-round selections at quarterback.
Here are the others:
Jay Cutler, Vanderbilt
Jason Campbell, Auburn
Rex Grossman, Florida
To illustrate the point further, the ACC had just eight quarterbacks drafted total from 2000 to 2009:
Ryan
Rivers
Charlie Whitehurst (3rd round)
Adrian McPherson (5th)
Matt Schaub (3rd)
Ronald Curry (7th)
Chris Weinke (4th)
Joe Hamilton (7th)
At receiver, there's not a huge chasm. The SEC had nine receivers selected in the first round from 2000-09, the ACC seven. And the ACC will close the gap further tonight if Georgia Tech's Demaryius Thomas is taken in the first round as expected (the SEC will not have a WR taken in the first round this year).
Here are the SEC's first-round WR selections:
Percy Harvin
Dwayne Bowe
Robert Meachem
Craig Davis, LSU
Troy Williamson
Matt Jones
Michael Clayton
Donte Stallworth
Travis Taylor
And the ACC's:
Darrius Heyward-Bey
Hakeem Nicks
Calvin Johnson
Javon Walker
Koren Robinson
Rod Gardner
Peter Warrick
One thing to note: There was a pretty big gap between Walker (2002 draftee) and Johnson (2007 draftee). That's a lot of years without a big-time receiver.
Now we move to the running backs.
Take a look at the first-round picks from the SEC over the last 10 drafts:
Knowshon Moreno
Darren McFadden
Felix Jones
Joseph Addai
Ronnie Brown
Cadillac Williams
Deuce McAllister
Jamal Lewis
Shaun Alexander
Good gosh. All of those guys were absolute horses in college. There's been a glaring lack of comparable horses in the ACC -- save Spiller, of course.
And there's your biggest difference. The ACC appears largely on par with the SEC when it comes to high-end defensive players, offensive linemen, and maybe even receivers.
But there's a lot of ground to make up at QB and RB, two monumentally important positions.
In fairness to the ACC, the conference had three fewer teams from 2000 to 2003, and one fewer team in 2004 before it became a 12-team league in 2005. Thus there was less available talent in the draft from 2000-05. But the gap in skill-position talent is nevertheless glaring.
In the context of Clemson, Spiller will be the Tigers' first first-round pick on offense since Rod Gardner in 2001. And he'll be the Tigers' first running back taken in the first round since Terrence Flagler in 1987.
When Flagler was drafted during the heyday under Danny Ford, who'd have imagined 23 years would pass before another Clemson running back would go that high?
In the Independent-Mail, Greg Wallace writes about Clifford's big night.
Brandon Jacobs says he'd be insulted if the Giants draft Spiller.
Ricky Sapp apparently is not sweating his draft status.
The baseball team got a much-needed kicking of a tomato can last night.
In the Greenville News, members of the women's track team look forward to the Penn Relays.
Man, this Jim Delany is just not a likable guy. After letting all this expansion talk dominate discussion over the last few days, he emerges from the BCS meetings and wonders what all the fuss is about.
Mike Slive of the SEC says his conference is ready to throw down.
More on the saber-rattling from Delany in USA Today.
"We have not accelerated anything," Delany said, refuting a Chicago Tribune report late last week that the league had alteredstepped up its timetable. In revealing it would ponder adding topanding beyond its current 11 members, the Big Ten said in December that Delany would take 12-18 months to draw up recommendations to its council of school presidents and chancellors.
He met with those officers in conjunction with semiannual meetings of the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, but described the discussions as routine. While "I'm not saying it didn't come up," Delany said of expansion, he insisted it merely was one of several league issues addressed.
He declined to go into details of the discussions.
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 @.