On reforming the draft process for underclassmen
Im not opposed to guys coming out early for the draft. And for the most part, there have only been a few guys who have not made a good decision. Part of that has been, were open all the time. When scouts come in, I always tell them to look at all of our potential guys because I want them to be able to get accurate information. Having been in the NFL, there are two parts to the draft: Theres what a guys draft grade is, and theres where hes going to be drafted. That gets affected by supply and demand and a lot of other things. Well, its very difficult for the NFL to just submit a junior draft grade. They dont have background on the guy, speed on the guy, measurements.
So I recommend that instead of waiting until December for guys to submit grades, why dont we do it in the spring before the season? When your seniors work out and get measurements, they can actually test the younger guys and give them all the tests, the Wonderlic and all the stuff they do at the combine, so that they have the information. Then they can evaluate that guy through the season just as they do the seniors. So when you do submit your name, you get a much more accurate assessment.
If youre not going to get drafted in the first two rounds, you shouldve stayed in school.
But the inaccurate information is what the external world uses to convince guys they should come out. In other words, you can get a Back to School grade, but theres a bunch of people telling you six guys got drafted in the first round that got Back to School grades. So you should come out anyway, because they might be wrong. And you can go to the combine and improve your draft status. What they dont understand is, once you enter the draft, everyone is looking for reasons not to draft you. Character checks, physically, mentally, everything. Theyre looking for reasons not to draft you. Well, most people go down, not up.
The basketball model doesnt work. We cant say, You declared for the draft. Go to the combine and do all of this stuff, and if it doesnt work out come back. We have 85 guys on scholarship. We would have 15 guys doing that every year. I wouldnt know in March when spring practice hit, who we would have available. Then how could you manage your recruiting numbers? It just involves too many numbers.
We had a conference call [with the NFL] about it. I think everyone was in agreement. Basically I called, Jimbo [Fisher], Dabo [Swinney], Bob Stoops, Urban [Meyer]guys that have a few guys every year, and tried to get their input. This is the comprehensive input from all of us. Then we had a conference call with the competition committee, and they had some ideas too. Whether this gets implemented next year or not, I dont know, but I havent seen a lot of resistance from either side.
On the growing divide, stylistically, between the college and NFL game
Yeah, I kind of do think there is. Theres one rule that affects that: linemen downfield. Because what college offenses have done, we call it RPOs [Run Pass Options]. If you're on a running play, and these two guys are on a slant, and the quarterback just pulls the ball and goes on a slant and the offensive linemen dont even know if its a pass. So its impossible to coach defensive players.
That rule has changed college football dramatically. Im not saying its good, bad or indifferent. But if you dont do that as a college team, youre not taking advantage of a rule that grants you tremendous latitude in how you play offense. However, in doing that, the quarterback doesnt really have to go through a progression, doesnt have to read coverage, doesnt have to change a protection. He doesnt have to be an NFL quarterback. From that standpoint, the skill players on offense dont develop in the same system that they will learn to play in the NFL.
Does it affect defensive players? Probably not as much, even though they get put into some impossible run-pass conflicts. Theyre still learning how to take on blocks, theyre still learning how to read plays, theyre still learning how to cover people. Im not sure it affects the defensive players all that much. I do think it affects the quarterback, and his development. These guys can have tremendous success and not be NFL ready. Blake Sims was a great example of that. AJ McCarron is going to be a fine NFL quarterback and he ran what was basically an NFL system. But Blake Sims was not that kind of guy. Blake actually set [Alabamas] all-time record for total offense, but as an NFL quarterback he didnt have a lot of opportunity.
