2006 SENIOR BOWL REPORTS
by Colin Lindsay, GBN Editor and Jamie Moore, GBN Chief Scout
North Practice; Tuesday morning, January 24...
This morning’s North practice got underway in real football weather – cloudy conditions, cool temps and a brisk wind – however the sun came out about a half hour into the workout to at least warm things up a tad. One can take it to the bank that the best QB at the Senior Bowl wears #6 for the North. That’s the easy part. The harder part of the equation is that Jay Cutler of Vanderbilt and Charlie Whitehurst of Clemson, easily the best two QBs in Mobile, are both wearing the same #6. And while Cutler came into the Senior Bowl as the higher rated player, Whitehurst may have an ever so slight lead between the two to date. The rangy Whitehurst certainly looks the part of a prototype pro pocket passer. Whitehurst is a long strider who sets up easily in the pocket and has a very smooth throwing motion. And Whitehurst was consistently hitting his receivers’ hands on the break in passing drills this morning. Cutler, for his part, is a little more compact than Whitehurst and not as smooth, but sets up and releases quickly, and like Whitehurst generally puts the ball where the receiver can cath it. On the other hand, Penn State’s Michael Robinson, the North’s 3rd QB, looks a little like a RB playing QB. Indeed, while Robinson likely will only work at QB this week, there is speculation that he may need to shift to RB or WR to play at the next level. Robinson has a strong enough arm, however, he is limited in terms of mechanics and accuracy.
This is not supposed to be a good draft year at WR, however, don’t tell Notre Dame’s Maurice Stovall, who may have been the best player on the field this morning. Stovall, who some observers thought might be better suited to playing TE at the next level, weighed in at a very svelte 216 pounds on Monday – he was listed at 236 – and got plenty of separation on just about every rout he ran this morning. The 6-4 Stovall is a big, physical receiver who was very smooth on the break with decent upfield acceleration. Stovall, though, had a chance to put an exclamation point on his day during 11-on-11 action, but dropped an easy pass for what would have been a big gainer after beating two defenders to get wide open. Meanwhile, Miami of Ohio WR Martin Nance showed similar skills to ND’s Stovall in that he’s a big, rangy receiver who can be physical. Nance, in fact, appeared to be considerably faster than Stovall and had that extra gear to separate deep, but didn’t appear quite as smooth coming out of his breaks. Michigan WR Jason Avant also had an interesting morning. Avant isn’t very fast, but completely lost his defender on 2-3 occasions coming out of his break. Oklahoma WR Travis Wilson, on the other hand, showed plenty of deep speed – he completely blew past a DB for a long TD early in the workout – but didn’t show much in the way of polish. On the other hand, Arizona State WR Derek Hagen really struggled; he lacked the speed and finesse to get much separation and dropped several passes when he just didn’t get his head and hands around in time. We didn’t watch the TEs much, however, both Joel Klopfenstien of Colorado and USC’s Dominique Byrd made tough catches in traffic in the 11-on-11 drills.
No question, Clemson CB Tye Hill is the quickest cover corner on the North team. Hill also showed nice flexibility backpedaling and has great recovery speed. Hill, though, did give up a number of underneath completions when he got too deep in his backpeddle and couldn’t recover. Miami of Ohio CB Darrell Hunter, on the other hand, lacked Hill’s natural fluidity; he also looks a little thick for a CB, but the speedy Hunter – he reportedly runs in the sub-4.35 range – stuck with the receiver all morning; in particular, Hunter had Oklahoma’s Wilson blanketed on a deep post off play action in the 11-on-11 action. Penn State CB Anwar Phillips, though, continued to struggle; Phillips was beaten once for a clean score on a deep pattern and didn’t look very instinctive on the underneath stuff. And Northwestern State CB David Pittman, the only non-Division 1A player in Mobile at least showed he wasn’t afraid to get his nose dirty with the big guys. Pittman broke on a couple of passes very well – and despite being under 180 pounds wasn’t shy about going after the ball in traffic – however, Pittman also was badly beaten on a couple of double moves that he probably never saw much of while at NSU. For the record, FSs Daniel Bullocks of Nebraska and Jahmile Addae had interceptions in the 11-on-11 drill.
Hit of the day – or at least the morning – came from Colorado LB Brian Iwuh, who really popped a back in a LB-on-RB blitzing drill. In that drill, unheralded Oklahoma LB Clint Ingram was almost unblockable, while D’Qwell Jackson of Maryland and Jon Alston of Stanford consistently got good pressure. Abdul Hodge of Iowa, on the other hand, really struggled to disengage and never got much penetration past the blocker.
The highlight of the morning may have been the 11-on-11 action when a pair of potential first rounders – Virginia OT D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Boston College DE Mathias Kiwanauka – went head-to-head. There weren’t enough plays for a knockout, but give the decision to Ferguson. The rangy Ferguson, the top-rated player at any position in Mobile, showed very quick feet and got great arm extension to keep himself between the QB and defender. If there is a bit of a knock on Ferguson is that he plays a little too high when blocking in space and doesn’t get great leverage on the move. For his part, Kiwanuka showed an explosive first step, but wasn’t able to disengage if he didn’t beat his man with his first move. Kiwanuka, though, did beat Boise State OT Daryn Colledge with a terrific spin move that would have been a sack had he been allowed to hit the QB. And actually other than that play with Kiwanuka, Colledge also showed solid skills at LT; Colledge consistently beat his man to the punch and locked as he kept his feet moving and arms extended. Minnesota OG Mark Setterstrom was also solid, in particular stuffing Michigan DT Gabe Watson on a passing rushing drill. Watson, in fact, wasn’t very good on the one-on-one drills, but was very disruptive in the full 11-on-11 action.
