Mel Kiper's too-early 2016 Big Board (ESPN Insider)
I know this is all with a grain of salt but interesting to take a look at the talent on the opposition. Mel has 6 OSU players ranked in the top 26 of next year's draft with Bosa 1 overall. Cardale Jones is listed as 25 which totally could be way off if he doesn't start this year. Interesting State has two, Conklin OT (#12) and Cook QB (#15), in the top 15 of the draft. I had no clue MSU had a near top ten offensive lineman on the roster. Also sad to see a couple near M recruiting hits (Treadwell and Cravens) on the list.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/draft2015/insider/story/_/id/12868907/osu-joey-b…
This must be "Fellate Your Rivals Day" on MGoBlog.
Nope - I think that was yesterday. Today is "create a post out of your most obtuse thought not related to sports" day. This one's just an carry-over cause there wasnt enough room for all the good things going on at MSU & Ohio State on yesterday's board.
I'M OLD AND THINGS AREN'T GOING THE WAY I'D LIKE AND I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT BOTH OF THESE THINGS
They prefer anal
who doesn't?
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Great this means Ohio State will have to rebuild after next year-
Oh wait they oversign. NM
I feel like Cook is a much better QB on paper than he is IRL. Some of the throws and decisions he has made just make me scratch my head. I must be missing something because he looks to me like a first rounder only because the QB class looks weak for 2016.
Might be my bias as well but he seems like a decent, not great (though possibly "good") QB. I can't imagine him going before the 5th round, but apparently I know nothing compared to Mel Kiper. Of course, Mel Kiper liked as the Lions WR picks so maybe he doesn't know much either.
Yeah... I mean I would take Cook as our starting QB if it was possible. But I don't see him as a top 15 pick... don't think I'm being a hater to scratch my head on that one.
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This is why the 'need to win" level for the OSU game for 2016 is 12 out 10. They will lose massive amounts of talent to the draft. Six guys in the first round alone? It wouldn't surprise me. Add to that all of the other guys who will go in later rounds and likely a few more who are good but won't get drafted. You're talking what -- a dozen starters gone? 2016 will probably be the weakest OSU team that Urban Meyer will have for the next ten years. Meanwhile, we will have a ton of fourth and fifth year guys left over from the 2012 and 2013 classes who will depart after next year. It's as "must win" as "must win" gets.
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Not for me, it isn't. OSU is the odds on favorite to win the national championship and it's unlikely that they will come into the game with a loss. Maybe not even a win by less than 7 points. 2015 needs to be about building a positive narrative for 2016 and 2017 recruiting. 9-3 with a few close losses accomplishes that, especially if one of those losses is to the unanimous #1 team.
2016, on the other hand, needs to be about hardware, plain and simple. MSU will lose some serious talent and OSU will be experiencing the closest thing to "rebuilding" that we will see as long as Urban Meyer is there. We will be loaded with upperclassmen, many of whom were 4* and 5* guys. After that, the team will suffer from the misses of the 2014 and 2015 recruiting classes for a couple of years. Plus, we haven't won in Columbus since 2000. We desperately need that win. In the last 15 years the only games that might trump it in the "must win" department were the 2011 OSU game and the 2012 MSU game.
There are times when Connor Cook looks like a #1 overall pick. He can thread the needle as well as any QB I've seen in the past couple years.
...and then there are times when he looks like he shouldn't be considered in the top 4 rounds.
So I don't know what to make of his NFL ceiling (I'd probably stay away...especially considering that if you do a twitter search on his name, you'd see a lot of MSU students complain about him being an asshole on-and-around campus...apparently has some Manziel-esque character traits), but you can't really argue with his college production.
Cook also has the benefit of one of the best offensive lines in the country (dude usually has ALL DAY to throw), which is why I'm surprised that you are surprised about them having linemen rated high. Conklin, Allen & Clark are all considered to have pretty high NFL potential.
Gener ally all points I've made in the past and agree with. People need to keep in mind the desperation to find quality QBs in the NFL so they get drafted higher then they otherwise would be. And with the dearth of pro set prospects Cook also has an advantage there along with his size. Compare to Petty who has better stats at Baylor but (a) could be a system QB (b) doesnt have the same size and (c) plays out of shotgun his whole career so has to be retrained to take snaps behind center. Petty was more productive in college but wont go as high as Cook for those reasons.
As with you, sometimes you see Cook make passes (esp on the run) that look all world, and then he spends the next 6 passes sailing them over people's heads or through the hands of DBs. Dude must throw super hard because never have seen a QB who has had so many INTs dropped by opponents.
My main question for Cook will be how he plays when he actually faces pressure play afte play. Testament to MSU OL development that he has not faced that question in his college career.
I think Conklin could actually go top 10 as LT is a prime position and he wowed v Bosa and Gregory last year. OSU moved Bosa to the other side of the field to avoid Conklin once it became clear he was not going anywhere. Conklin gave up an early sack to dude from Baylor (Oakman I believe is his name) but then shut him down as well the rest of the game and Oakman (?) is projecting 1st round as well. So that is 3 first round type talents he mostly stymied as a rs so. Kiper said Conklin could have left last year and was borderline 1st rounder. Talent wise he is probably their best player.
Surprised Calhoun is not on this list - he was preseason top 10ish last year at this time and while I thought that was too high (he benefited from teammates causing a lot of turnovers which he was johnny on the spot to pick up and run back), he was still projecting late 1st in 2015 if he had left early.
Anyhow both these teams have a lot of NFL talent and we need to get there.
If anything last year just proved to me how great Meyer's system is, not how great their QBs are. It seems that he can just plug anybody in and win.
All 3 are great athletes, but I would never want my team to draft a QB where the learning curve will be that astronomical. His system is designed so the QB doesn't have to think.
Dad played very shortly at Michigan, and went to Michigan. Conklin wasn't really being recruited by anyone, he was like 6'2 225 as a SO, and up to 6'4" but still only like 240 as a JR, when everyone really turns up the heat on recruits. But he blossomed really late (he's now 6'6").
Basically, MSU offered him a greyshirt really late in the cycle. Turned out he's not a first round draft pick. Think those stories are kind of cool regardless of where a guy goes to school. I know some will say that's Dantonio's eye for talent, but that's more luck than anything else, and I think if Dantonio were to speak honestly about it, he'd admit the same.
I laughed when a 0 star committed to them. I guess they got the last laugh.
But it's yet another example of Dantonio myth-building. Sure, they developed him. But that only goes so far. They wouldn't be able to develop me into a first round anything, for example. You need the raw clay, which is what recruiting is.
Cousins wanted to go to Iowa, they didn't want him. Turned out great. Dennard wasn't the guy Sparty was looking at, they saw him when they went to recruit another player. Turned out great. Conklin comes in late, they hardly wanted him. Turned out great.
I keep waiting for the 2/3* lottery to come home, but between good luck, good development, a genuinely good eye for talent, and the goddamn Bullough family gene pool, they keep coming up in the black.
And now they're starting to turn that into actual good recruiting. One more year, which they'll have this year, and they'll be fully established. They're likely not going away for a few years at least.
Likely established? They are 54-14 in the last 5 years. I am quite sure they are already at the established part.
Oh sweet...another kick in the nuts. Yaaaaaay.