Posts from May 1, 2007

No NFL team’s first-round draft choice last weekend brought as much scrutiny as that of the Miami Dolphins’ selection of the Buckeyes’ Ted Ginn Jr. ninth overall.

After all, it is rare when the head coach, in this case Cam Cameron, is booed by fans at his team’s draft party.

But I believe Dolphin fans and coaches will fall in love with the speedster following just one season. That is, unless Ginn’s foot injury is worse than we were led to believe.

In retrospect, it is easy to see why Miami decided to take Ginn so high if you examine tape of only two games. First, consider that cornerbacks Leon Hall of Michigan and Aaron Ross of Texas were considered first-round locks. And that is where they were selected.

Now remember that Ginn blew by each this past season just as a Ferrari blows by a Volkswagen.

Which leads me to a similar analogy, that of the Buckeyes leading the Wolverines when it comes to the NFL talent pool.

You wonder why Ohio State has been beating up Michigan lately, winning five of the six games since Jim Tressel became head coach?

One obvious reason is that Tressel has done a better job of preparing his players for The Game than Lloyd Carr has.

Here’s another: He has had better players to prepare.

Beginning with the 2001 NFL draft through the 2007 draft, Ohio State has had 53 players selected, including 12 in the first round.

Michigan?

The Wolverines have had 32 players taken in that same time frame, but only seven in the first round.

Other thoughts concerning the draft:

• I think it is now obvious that Antonio Pittman (fourth round, New Orleans) should have returned for his senior season. But he wasn’t the biggest loser among running backs who left college following their junior seasons for the NFL draft. That tag goes to Notre Dame’s Darius Walker. The running back whom Ohio State offered a scholarship four years ago, then became Notre Dame’s leading rusher but left the Irish early, and was not drafted at all. Ouch.
• Florida linebacker Earl Everett, whose helmet-less pursuit and subsequent tackle of Troy Smith in the BCS Championship Game raised his profile, was not drafted although nine of his Gator teammates were. By the way, the University Florida purchased several billboards on the Sunshine State’s interstates touting the school’s recent athletic success. The billboards include a picture of Everett’s tackle of OSU’s Heisman-winning quarterback.

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There is no doubt that Ohio State fans have been feeling a draft the past few weeks.

The NBA draft was the first to interest Buckeye backers when Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Jr., and Daequan Cook declared themselves eligible for the draft. Oden is gone for sure and has already signed with an agent. Conley and Cook did not, and intend to get a gauge on where they will fall on draft day before deciding whether or not they’ll go pro.

My take on this has always been fairly straightforward. In general, many people go to college to help further their professional careers. If a lucrative career is sitting there for the taking after just one year of school, it’s hard to compel someone to stay.

In the case of Oden, I think he undoubtedly made the right choice. Greg would have been the first choice in the NBA draft last year, just as he
will be this year and would have been next year had he elected to remain at Ohio State. For him, going pro makes a lot of sense.

I also don’t quarrel with Conley and Cook testing the waters. There is no harm in putting your name out there to see where it may fall. I do
hope that if either player learns that his draft stock is not high, he makes the right choice and returns to school.

We still have a few weeks before Conley and Cook make their decisions on whether to stay or go. For some Buckeye football players, their futures
have already been solidified.

Two Buckeyes-Ted Ginn, Jr. and Anthony Gonzalez-were selected in the first round of the NFL draft on Saturday. I wholeheartedly congratulate
both. They were huge parts of our success the past few seasons and I have no doubt they will make productive professional players.

I do admit that I was mystified at how far our quarterback Troy Smith fell in the draft. To me it was nothing short of ridiculous to see him go late in the fifth round. While I understand that some skepticism regarding Smith grew out of his performance against Florida, it doesn’t make sense to me to disregard an entire career’s worth of great games because of one bad one.

If there is any positive for Troy, it’s that he landed in a great situation in Baltimore. He is going to come in with very little immediate pressure and he’ll have a chance to learn from a great veteran quarterback in Steve McNair. Plus, both McNair and backup quarterback Kyle Boller’s contracts expire after this year, so maybe Troy’s chance will come sooner than we think.

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