This section breaks down many college football games each week and highlights how 2017 NFL Draft Prospects have performed. Or look at the 2017 NFL Draft Stock page.
By Charlie Campbell.
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Penn State 24, Ohio State 21
Hooker was active from the start, coming over in zone courage to make an open-field tackle on a tight end and causing an incompletion covering the tight end along the sideline. After Barkley broke into the open field, Hooker made a good open-field tackle. He did have a play in the fourth quarter where he over-pursued, and that let Barkley get loose downfield. Hooker came back to burst into the backfield to pick up a tackle for a loss on a first-and-goal. That helped limit the Nittany Lions to a field goal. Against Penn State, Hooker recorded seven tackles with two for a loss and a pass broken up. Overall, this tape shouldn’t change Hooker’s lofty draft rating.
Both corners each had some good plays in coverage as well, so their draft grades shouldn’t be hurt significantly. Conley had two tackles and a pass broken up, while Lattimore had three tackles and two passes broken up.
LSU 38, Ole Miss 21
Late in the first quarter, Fournette exploded down the field for a 59-yard touchdown. He came close to another long score on a check-down pass where he darted downfield and trucked through a tackler, but had a foot step out of bounds. It wasn’t long before Fournette struck again, gashing the Rebels for a 76-yard touchdown as center Ethan Pocic pulled to open a big hole for Fournette to sprint downfield. Early in the third quarter, Fournette ran behind the right side and stiff-armed a safety about 20 yards downfield to break down the sideline for a 78-yard touchdown.
Against Ole Miss, Fournette totaled 284 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries. This amazing performance on his part set a LSU single-game record. Fournette looked faster and more explosive than he has all season. He ran decisively with balance, vision and power. The blocking for Fournette was tremendous, led by Pocic, and it is worth mentioning that the Rebels; linebackers and run defense has been weak all year. Still, this tape will help Fournette to remain a high first-round pick despite his banged-up season. Both he and Pocic will have their draft grades benefit from this performance.
Engram was held to three receptions for 15 yards, and Adams contributed to that good coverage on the play-making tight end. On the day, Adams totaled five tackles with .5 for a loss and a pass broken up. He had a nice play where he combined with a teammate to take down Chad Kelly in the backfield on a third-down run. On a punt return, Adams liad a crushing block that took out two defenders, and he also downed a punt inside the 10-yard line. It was a solid game for the LSU junior safety that will help his draft grade.
Alabama 33, Texas A&M 14
Throughout the early going, Robinson was having a lot of success getting a push in the ground game. In the first quarter, Robinson had a nice play hand punching Garrett and stopping a move toward the inside to give Jalen Hurts time to throw. Garrett had a good goal-line stop going through a block from a running back, and he had a tackle for a loss going unblocked. Robinson showed nice quickness to hold up a Garrett speed rush on a deep drop for Hurts. Garrett then had a nice play, pushing Robinson into the backfield before making a tackle for no gain.
In the third quarter, Garrett bull rushed Robinson close to Hurts, but Robinson held up Garrett enough to let his quarterback get out for a first-down scramble. Garrett then was virtually unblocked but couldn’t make the tackle on a back in the backfield. Garrett added another tackle for a loss in garbage time after firing his gap to the inside to swallow up the back.
Overall, Robinson helped himself in this game by not allowing a sack to Garrett. It was a good bounce-back performance after struggling with Barnett. Robinson showed that he has the ability to block an elite pass-rusher on the edge. Robinson was his usual steady presence in the ground attack as well. This was much needed performance from Robinson to help teams to view him as a left tackle and not needing to move to guard or right tackle. This tape won’t help Garrett, but it won’t cause any drop in his draft grade for the NFL.
Williams made his presence felt on a broken-screen play in the third quarter, as he sacked Trevor Knight for a loss of 14 yards. The very next play, Allen scored his second touchdown of the season. Outside linebacker Ryan Anderson forced the fumble in the backfield just after a zone read handoff. Allen scooped up the ball and rumbled about 25 yards for the score. Allen came close to other sacks, and when he was single-blocked, he was eating up the Aggies offensive linemen with his speed and strength. Williams added a sack in garbage time to pad his stats. This tape will definitely help Williams to be a first-round pick.
Late in the fourth quarter, Allen was banged up and walked off the field with trainers, but he didn’t seem to be hurt significantly. This tape will help Allen to be a high first-round pick. His speed, strength, and technique were dominant.
Late before halftime, Alabama was in zone coverage and Humphrey read the eyes of Trevor Knight to fall back and make a leaping interception in front of Aggie wideout Josh Reynolds. It was a superb play by Humphrey showing his intelligence, quickness, size and some ball skills. Humphrey has been great about being in good position all year, but has had issues playing the ball and this was a good sign of progress.
Humphrey was semi-responsible for a reception of 33 yards in the third quarter. He was in good position to the outside on a post route, but Humphrey didn’t get the inside safety help on the receiver. Humphrey came back to rock Christian Kirk on a wide receiver screen for a loss of two yards. Overall, this tape should help Humphrey, as he showed some nice coverage skills in zone after thriving as a press-man corner throughout this season. Continuing to improve on playing the ball has to be the goal for Humphrey down the stretch.
In the third quarter, Evans missed a tackle on a third down going for a knockout blow rather than wrapping up Jalen Hurts. That allowed Hurts to get a few more yards for a first down.
Wisconsin 17, Iowa 9
Overall, this was a good tape from King, minus the one very painful missed tackle. He was solid in pass coverage while showing that he is generally a very good tackler and a threat on special teams.
California 52, Oregon 49
In the first quarter, Webb made a pretty throw downfield but his receiver came up short in what could have been a touchdown. A NFL wideout probably would have made the play for Webb. Webb then had a wide-open receiver down the seam and the pass was too low to allow his receiver to run after making a shoe-string catch. If that pass were placed higher, it would have been a score. However, to finish that drive, Webb had a well-placed fade pass leading his receiver open in the back corner of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown.
Webb added a short touchdown toss on a zone read play-action fake and a 13-yard score in busted coverage. He did have a poor throw forcing a ball into a few defenders and an Oregon defender dropped an easy interception. Just before the half, Webb threw a beautiful pass to the sideline of the end zone for an apparent 15-yard score, but it was ruled to be incomplete as the receiver didn’t watch his feet along the sideline. Webb had a perfectly thrown pass on a roll out to the right where he lofted in a 14-yard touchdown pass to a well-covered receiver. Webb completed 42-of-61 passes for 325 yards with five touchdowns and zero interceptions.
The Cal offense did a poor job of developing Jared Goff for the NFL, and that has been one of the reasons why Goff is stuck on the bench. Webb will have some of the same developmental problems. Like Goff, Webb will have to learn to call plays in the huddle. Footwork will be a challenge to learn to work under center and not operate exclusively out of the shotgun. Another issue is that the passing routes and playbook will be drastically different. Cal has a numbers-inflating system with a lot of bubble screens, quick passes, and spread-option plays that aren’t run in the NFL.
Still, Webb has a quality arm and can make some well-placed passes downfield. He has good size and stands tall in the pocket. He shows some field vision to work through his progressions, but Webb doesn’t have mobility for the NFL. In terms of the critical characteristic of accuracy, Webb was impressive in this game, but the Ducks didn’t put much pass pressure on him and the Oregon secondary was nothing special. Overall, this was a good tape from Webb that illustrates he is an early-round prospect.
In the first quarter, Freeman showed poor vision and patience, and he made a bad decision to take a run to the outside for a loss when he had a better lane to go downhill. Oregon was having more success running with Brooks James, but still tried to get Freeman carries. Freeman wasn’t having success trying to run to the outside and needed to be getting more north-south. On a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Freeman had a hole, but was slow getting there and that allowed him to be stopped short.
Cal’s defense is not good and Freeman struggled to assert his will on them as he totaled only 10 yards on 15 carries, for an average of 0.7 yards per carry. This game will hurt Freeman’s draft grade compared to other running back prospects like LSU’s Leonard Fournette, Florida State’s Dalvin Cook, Georgia’s Nick Chubb, Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, and Tennessee’s Alvin Kamara.
Oregon junior wide receiver Darren Carrington had only one reception for 22 yards against Cal. In the first quarter, Carrington muffed a punt, but was lucky a teammate recovered the ball. Carrington should probably return for his senior year to improve on his draft stock before coming out.
Virginia Tech 37, Miami 16
On the first drive of the game, Kaaya took a sack when he had the rush bearing down on him and needed to get the ball out faster rather than holding onto it so long. Shortly later, Kaaya had a similar play on which he hesitated to throw when he needed to get rid of the ball and then ended up taking a drive-killing sack. Kaaya then found tight end Davi Njoku wide open in busted coverage for a 48-yard gain late in the first quarter, but Njoku fell down when he could have run the rest of the field for a score if he had stayed on his feet. That set up a field goal.
Early in the second quarter, Kaaya had a perfect pocket on a third-and-7 but forced a pass down the middle of the field into double coverage with zero opening for the receiver. The ball was batted by one defender, and another safety flew over to make a diving interception. It was a terrible decision by Kaaya to throw the ball into that crowd. On the next drive, he took a coverage sack on a third-and-3. He should have thrown the ball away, but no receivers were open.
Before the half, Kaaya made a few well-placed passes to move the ball. He finshed that drive with a pretty play that saw him step up in the pocket and loft in a 25-yard touchdown pass to the front corner of the end zone between a few defenders. It was an excellent pass and play from Kaaya, but he needs to do that a lot more consistently.
In the third quarter Kaaya made an excellent back-shoulder throw downfield to set up a big play down the sideline. A few plays later, Kaaya found his backup tight end wide open in busted coverage for a 35-yard score. It was an easy throw, but a good read by Kaaya.
After that pass, Kaaya had a hard time getting anything going. Once again, he was getting a lot of pressure and taking too many sacks. Kaaya has a bad habit of looking down at the rush once he starts to feel pressure. That leads to him taking more sacks and not finding last-second passes. Kaaya finished completing 23-of-38 passes for 323 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Aside from Kaaya’s field vision, one of the bad flaws for the 6-foot-4, 215-pounder is a lack of mobility. No evaluator is expecting Kaaya to be Cam Newton, but he needs to be Tom Brady in terms of moving in the pocket to avoid rushers. Kaaya has a lot of arm talent as a passer, but he isn’t dominating or playing like a high first-rounder. The way things have gone in recent weeks, Kaaya should return to school if he wants to have a shot at being a high first-round pick.
In the second quarter, Rogers showed his special ability by running down the seam to get open. He made the catch and broke three tackles while weaving around another defender for a 52-yard gain to set up a touchdown for the Hokies. Shortly later, Rogers ran a nice route with a shoulder fake on a linebacker to get open in a window for a reception with another 10 yards after the catch for a gain of 20 yards. In the third quarter, he took a run to the side and then threw a nice pass into the end zone for a 13-yard score.
Rogers did a nice job of lead blocking as well. This tape will help him to get consideration in the fourth or fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
The 6-foot-7, 245-pounder isn’t a forceful blocker for the NFL, but he could be a bigger version of a Jordan Reed-like receiving tight end. He is a big target with the speed to get down the seam. Hodges has length and height to make him a real mismatch problem for defensive backs. If Hodges decides to enter the 2017 NFL Draft, he probably will get selected some time on the second day of the 2017 NFL Draft.
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