The Senior Bowl-Come Get the Best before it's Gone!

In this day and age of money-grubbing and excessive greed in sports, it is a breath of fresh air to see a group of athletes who understand the importance of an education and completing their college degrees. Such is the case when you look at what is going on down in Mobile, Alabama. The Senior Bowl showcases the graduating players who are attempting to work their way into the eyes and hearts of NFL scouts and onto a professional roster. This year's exposition will feature the two most productive and exciting wide receivers in Boise State history. "Faster than a lightning bolt" Titus Young and Austin "Sticky Hands" Pettis take to the field to try and impress.

According to reports, many people have become enamored with Titus;

"Boise State's Titus Young was great in and out of his breaks. He can drop his weight without having to gear down and is a savvy route runner. In fact, he's a confident route runner -- he knows what he's doing. He was very streaky catching the ball today, but we are going to keep a close eye on him on how he handles adversity and how he carries himself. There are times when he looks like he's the most confident player on the field and has a swagger, but then the second he dropped one pass, it seemed like he went into a shell."

On the other hand, Pettis has some work to do;

"Pettis does a good job of getting his head around when a pass is coming in, but his greatest liability Monday was his route running in drills. The receiver coach repeatedly corrected Pettis’s mistakes with his breaks, pointing out his tendency to round off his routes or tip off his break with his shoulder at the top of his routes. Pettis eventually showed improvement in this area, but a few minutes later he was getting repeated coaching on his run blocking. Pettis needs to work on his hand placement, his initial punch and using his legs to sustain blocks. Although known for his ability to adjust to the errant throw, he had a pass thrown somewhat low and behind him bounce off his hands. This was not a standout day for Pettis."

That is great to hear about Young, and at the same time a little disappointing about Pettis. There is no arguing that the Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine Game are important for scouts to see many of these players in person, and some for the first time. However, the decision to draft someone should involve more than just dissecting an athlete's every move over a period of 6 days. This phrase breeds contempt and loathing in the minds of many people (when said in the same breath as BCS), but it is important to look at their "body of work."

Pettis and Young have done nothing but tear up opposing defenses since they were freshman. It even got to the point during their senior season that they were literally unstoppable. Game film and pure stats should be something that is taken into account by these scouts, possibly even more than how the kids perform during that one pressure-filled week in humid Alabama.

We all know that the Senior Bowl Weigh In and the Combine is the definition of a meat market. Seriously. Every single player is weighed, measured, tested (for body fat, etc) and picked over with a fine-tooth comb for any imperfections or "fudging" that may have taken place on college rosters. Their height is measured to the 1/8th of an inch and their weight to a fraction of a pound. If you don't have the "NFL Body," you are automatically looked at and thought of differently, regardless of skill level. Think about it, the scouts will poke, prod, touch, weigh, measure, and run any other test available on these players over and over again. It's like picking out a choice specimen. If that's not the definition of a meat market, I don't know what is.

It is extremely tough to make an NFL roster and even more difficult to keep your spot on one. With as productive as Titus and Austin have been at Boise State, as well as many other players from different schools, they should be able to make the cut and be playing on Sundays next season. It's just too bad they have to go through the physical and mental gauntlet of NFL scouts to prove their worth.

Kyle Wilson's NFL Transition

It is without question that the Boise State secondary has dropped off a little bit since the now graduated Kyle Wilson left for the NFL. I can still hear Bronco's offensive lineman Faraji Wright (with some back-up singers, of course) rapping about him at the Fiesta Bowl fan celebration party at Taco Bell Arena on campus; "He's goin' to the league!" Good times... As you know, Wilson went in the first round as the 29th overall pick to the New York Jets. As one would expect, the learning curve in the league has been steep. Couple that with the fact that head coach Rex Ryan is a defensive guru and expects a lot from his players and that cornerback is the toughest position in the game, and you understand why a rookie has a long way to go to get to the top level of his game. Trust me, Kyle is smart, he will do fine.

Wilson is from New Jersey and actually grew up a Giants fan. Coming out of high school he was only a two-star recruit. He found a place to hang his hat in Boise, Idaho. By midway through the season his freshman year, Kyle was starting and carried that all the way to the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma. It is amazing to look back and see how he transformed from the young, hot shot who needs to cut his dreadlocks and grow up, to the seasoned, experienced, wily veteran whose hair is a symbol of his ability and was a symbol of the team. In fact, his whole family has dreadlocks, I saw them at the Fiesta Bowl. His brother even made a Kyle Wilson bus that he took to all of Boise State's games around the country (expect for maybe Hawai'i). My guess is that it now resides somewhere in the New York/New Jersey area.



His hair is pretty intimidating. I mean just look at him. It's kind of scary...

Kyle Wilson in all of his Fiesta Bowl (version 2) glory!


Boise State and their incredible coaching staff had struck again. People like Darren Colledge, Ryan Clady, Quinten Mikell, Gerald Alexander, and now Kyle Wilson all went from lightly-recruited names in college scouts' notebooks to full time NFL contributors. It seems that these types of success stories keep coming out of the same small school in western Idaho; and don't expect that to change. Wilson is just the latest in a long line of them and there will be more. Here is Kyle, smiling on draft day as he holds up his green Jets jersey.



Along with the learning curve and expectations that come with being a first round pick, Wilson has found himself in a unique circumstance. All-pro cornerback Darrelle Revis selfishly held out of training camp in hopes of receiving a new contract as the highest paid player at his position. What that meant is from the beginning, Kyle was going to play a lot of downs. So he prepared for it and it's a good thing he did. Since getting his new contract and re-joining the team, Revis has been injured and has missed some games, therefore thrusting the former Boise State star into the starting secondary. It was a rough go for Wilson against the Baltimore Ravens at the beginning of the season, but since then he has played well, broken up passes, and even returned some punts. He has played well enough to force the coaches to keep him in there, even with Revis back in action. It will only go up from here for Kyle Wilson. I saw him Monday night against the Vikings. He looked good. The best part, he still has his Samson-like dreadlocks flopping in the wind as he begins to create "Wilson Island."