Drafting Small School Players: Much Ado About Nothing
by Alfie Crow on May 9, 2011 7:44 AM EDT
in 2011 NFL Draft
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PrintFor the third year in a row, Gene Smith has gone to the "small school" well for some of his draft picks. For the third year in a row, it's garnered much hand wringing from some Jacksonville Jaguars fans. If you listen to local Jacksonville sports talk radio, you'd get the sense that if the Jaguars don't draft a player from the SEC or ACC, it's considered taking someone from a "small school". I remember last year when the Jaguars selected Tyson Alualu10th overall, there were complaints about him being from a small school (Cal.. in the Pac-10) and I just had to laugh.
Am I afraid Gene Smith is going to go to the "small school" well one to many times? Sure, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get upset about it before the players hit the field.
Part of the problem is, I'm not sure many fans understand what's considered a small school. Is it just a non-BCS school? Is it a non-Division I-A school? To me, a small school is one that cannot qualify for bowl games... AKA anything beyond the Division I-A level.
By my count, Gene Smith has drafted 9 out of 20 players from "small schools" by my definition. The vast majority of which came in his 2009 draft class. Here's a list of "small school" players he's drafted in total:
- Rashad Jennings - Liberty (he originally attended Pitt and kept LeSean McCoy behind on him the depth chart but transferred to be with his family, thanks JPQ! for reminding me)
- Zach Miller - Nebraska-Omaha
- Derek Cox - William & Mary
- Scotty McGee - James Madison
- Deji Karim- Souther Illinois
- Austen Lane - Murray State
- Larry Hart - Central Arkansas
- Will Rackley - Lehigh (thanks Nuke, he slipped me)
- Cecil Shorts - Mount Union
Some people consider Rice (C-USA), Wyoming (MWC), Middle Tennessee State (Sun Belt), Temple (MAC), and Louisiana Tech (WAC) as "small schools", but they're not. They're all Division I-A schools. They can all qualify for Bowls and potentially, though very unlikely, BCS bowls.
A lot of people are already pinning the 2010 draft as "another Gene Smith small school draft" when really the only small school players he drafted were Cecil Shorts and Will Rackley. The rest of the players are all Division I-A college football players. Just because you've never seen Wyoming or Middle Tennessee State play a game, doesn't mean they're small schools. Would anyone say a player from TCU was a small school player... ? I highly doubt it, yet they play in the same conference as Wyoming.
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great point
And I think it’s further validation of the bias a lot of Jags fans have against all schools not in the SEC or Big 10.
Hell, Zach Miller played for a school that is discontinuing its football program next year.
These small school kids just can't cut it
They haven’t played against elite competition, only backwater college rejects. They haven’t been on the field against SEC speed! Sure, Shorts ran an unofficial 4.30 40 and Prosinski a 4.39, but that wasn’t against the likes of the greatest football conference in the history of college football.
Good grief
You think Shorts and Prosinski would have run slower 40 times if they’d run “against” big schools?
No, not at all
I’m really just sick of the Jacksonville locals complaining non-stop how we will field a losing team for not drafting SEC (ie, Gators). Of their myriad, inane, completely nonsensical reasons, my favorite is their argument that because these players didn’t compete against SEC players, they aren’t really fast, and won’t be able to handle it in the NFL.
On one hand, I really do like Gene drafting small school players. It creates a fine line of separation between the real Jags fans that will root for the team regardless of the players picked, and those homers who want their pro team to be an extension of their college team. I’m fine without the latter group.
Yeah, that's completely sarcastic
I don’t care where the players come from, as long as they can play. I’m not going to be upset some kids picked from a ‘small school’ that I have never even seen play, with the exception of highlight clips.
Small school kids are the same as big school kids right now; they’re all potential. They’ve done nothing yet.
I assume this is tongue in cheek
Exhibit A: Reggie Nelson
Exhibit B: Derrick Harvey
Exhibit C: Matt Jones
Exhibit D: Reggie Williams
Exhibit E: RJ Soward
1 team. 17 drafts in team history.
We have also had good players come from the SEC
If you are going to give examples please provide facts from both sides like
Marcus Stroud(SEC)
John Henderson(SEC)
Tony Bosseli(Pac-10)
Kevin Hardy(Big 10)
Fred Taylor(SEC)
Fernando Bryant(SEC)
Tony Brackens(Big 12)
Now saying that I think this small school stuff is a bit of a reach and is just something fans come up with to complain about Gene, but time will tell.
Bryant is a bit of a stretch
but I will give you the others. My point was probably the same as yours.
All the guys you mentioned (except Brackens who went early 2) were first round picks. All of Gene’s first round picks have been from BCS conferences. And his only second round pick was also from a BCS conference. And Coughlin spent plenty of early round picks on guys that were total busts that came from BCS. James Boyd, Larry Smith, Eric Westmoreland come to mind.
by Fivus Viener on May 10, 2011 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions
Excellent points.
I might further point out that Rashad Jennings was a big prospect coming out of the state of Virginia after H.S., and went to Pitt for freshman year (and played in 8 games as a true freshman). He transferred back home to Liberty to help his family care for his father.
Pitt is a very big football school.
Fidelis Ad Mortem
What about Will Rackley?
He went to Lehigh, which is FCS.
I think this is going to continue
because Gene believes in his evaluations no matter where these guys went to school. While some organizations put a premium on playing in a larger school/conference.
Therefore, in the later rounds of the draft Gene will almost always have a higher grade on small school guys than other teams and therefore according to his board, there will be some that have fallen.
It’s similar to when only a couple teams played a base 3-4 defense. There were always 4-3 tweeners available because there were a lot of teams that would rate them lower because their size/speed didn’t fit the 4-3 so those few 3-4 D’s had easy pickings. Now that quite a few teams employ the 3-4 base defense, they have to work a little harder to find them.
DG is the best we have and help is not on the way. I realize he's not perfect, but I feel a lot better about him at QB than I do the O-Line, DB's, or LB's ability to cover a TE.
I wish Michael Lewis
would follow Gene around for a year and then write a football Moneyball centered around Gene.
What about Rod Isaac?
5th round draft pick (147th overall) this past year…. out of Middle Tennessee State.
Just a high school student who lives his ambitions of working for the NFL,
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by Ice0ne (CAJ) on May 9, 2011 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions
HS grades are an issue also
Some guys are forced to attend these “small schools” for the simple fact they did not have the correct ACT or GPA scores to attend these big schools so to say these guys were not good enough to make it in the SEC, ACC, Big 10 or Big 12 is also not fair without knowing the back story as to why these players chose these smaller schools in the first place.
Shorts was an All-American track guy
but I think the 55-meter hurdles is only about 48 meters for small colleges
Section 442, RIP
"You think you know, but you don't know."
by unhipcat on May 9, 2011 11:38 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Big school, little school, elementary school Gene doesnt care.
I do not believe that he bothers with the level of competition that a collage player faces. He looks at all the upsides that a kid has regardless of the size of the school he played in. How hast is he? How strong is he? Is he a smart kid? Does he have a good understanding of the game? Can he be taught? These are some of the questions that Gene wants to know. He doesnt draft a player in the 5th rd with hopes of him starting all 16 games. Isnt it called draft and develop? Talent is talent no matter where you find it.
The way I see it is
I want guys who can play. I don’t care where they come from, but I do think a lot of bcs conference players adapt to the game quicker in the NFL. I don’t care if they’re from the bcs conferences though as long as they can be starters and successful a few years from now
by Dwalk1217 on May 9, 2011 12:19 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
"Small School" does not mean "non-FBS school"
It means a school that is not known for its football prowess and is in a non-major conference. I’d say the teams that routinely come in after about 80th in the final rankings count as small schools.
Wyoming, MTSU, and Louisiana Tech meet that definition for me. Rice is on the line.
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good thing I read first
my definition was if you’re homecoming fodder and at best have to settle for a Papa Johns, GMAC, or Poulon Weedeater Bowl, you’re a small school. Only reason I’d put Rice on the cusp like you is because at one time they were part of the baddest conference ever, the SWC. I think there was one year where every team was on probation.
I agree with Brian. His definition seems to be more on point IMO.
Personally, I don’t care where the players come from. I just care whether they can contribute to a winning NFL team.
"Filling a need doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting a good player," said Schwartz. "It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re getting a player that best fits; it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re getting a player that’s better than what you have already."
A lot of guys
also peak in HS and that gets them into the big named programs. But they might never get any better than that. Some others don’t peak until maybe their Junior year of college and in those cases they may already be at one of the smaller schools and tear it up.
An extreme example of this was Dennis Rodman who grew about a foot when he was 20 years old. He had graduated HS and was working as a mechanic and some JuCo coach saw him playing pickup ball and offered him a scholarship. Something he wasn’t getting at 5’8" coming out of HS.
DG is the best we have and help is not on the way. I realize he's not perfect, but I feel a lot better about him at QB than I do the O-Line, DB's, or LB's ability to cover a TE.
TY Gene Smith...
Got to hand it to Mr Smith…. if he didn’t draft from smaller schools what would be talking about right now…. but any way … as long as they develop into good players I don’t care, but like anything they need time to develop. Like others have said only time will tell
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