Senior Bowl Thoughts

The best known of the college all-star games was played yesterday. The Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. The South won 20-10.

The South jumped out to a 20-0 lead. Neither offense really seemed to do much. The best player on the field was probably Auburn defensive end/linebacker Dee Ford. It was rare to see one of North offensive linemen or tight ends even slow him. He was named the MVP of the game.

My memory might be failing me but I don't remember a Senior Bowl with so many of the top seniors not in Mobile. Texas A&M tackle Jake Matthews, UCLA linebacker Anthony Barr, Buffalo linebacker Kahlil Mack, Michigan St. corner Darqueze Dennard, Alabama linebacker C.J. Mosley, and Oklahoma St. corner Justin Gilbert skipped the game. All are potential top-10 picks. Notre Dame tackle Zack Martin, Fresno St. quarterback Derek Carr, Pitt defensive tackle Aaron Donald, BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy were the top rated of the players that decided to play. It's pretty sad that the others had better things to do. The Senior Bowl seems like a terrific way to end a college football career but the choice is theirs and only theirs to make.

I especially missed the linebackers that decided not to play. Anthony Barr, Khalil Mack, and C.J. Mosley are among my top choices for the first pick of the Minnesota Vikings. If not one of the linebackers, I like corners Darqueze Dennard and Justin Gilbert. They weren't in Mobile either.

Pitt defensive tackle Aaron Donald was voted the top player during the week of the Senior Bowl practices. He also won nearly every defensive award available for his position this season. He will be a very intriguing player in the 2014 NFL Draft. He's a fantastic defensive tackle. He's also 6' and about 285 lbs. Quick with excellent hands, Donald can play at the next level. He's just tiny compared to pretty much every NFL defensive tackle. He could be a lot like Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame defensive tackle John Randle. Unlike Randle, Donald will get drafted. A current comparison would be to Geno Atkins of the Cincinnati Bengals. I wouldn't mind seeing Aaron Donald playing in Minnesota next year. Maybe new head coach Mike Zimmer can find a way to effectively pair Sharrif Floyd and Donald in the middle of the Vikings defensive line.

Arizona St. defensive tackle Will Sutton also has the size knock on him. He's only 6'1" but he weighs about 305 lbs. He really is Geno Atkins-sized now. Donald might get to 300 unless it hinders his quickness. Sutton made plays for the Sun Devils all year. He was named the Pac-12 defensive player of the year. He made some plays yesterday. What really stood out with Sutton was the ridiculous Sun Devils helmet. It looks like someone threw up on it.

The Senior Bowl really does a disservice to geography. The North quarterbacks were Tajh Boyd of Clemson, Logan Thomas of Virginia Tech, and Stephen Morris of Miami. I know of no map of the United States that shows South Carolina in the north. Miami is about as south as you can get. Virginia may be one of the more northern of the southern states but pretty much everyone considers it a southern state. Eastern Illinois quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo played for the South. Defensive tackle DeAndre Coleman was the only player from Cal. He played for the South. Defensive end/linebacker Trent Murphy and fullback Ryan Hewitt represented Stanford. They played for the North. Stanford has always been south of Berkeley. It would take quite an earthquake to shake that up.

If they are going to hack up the map like that, they should just drop the directional references. They should just use the color designations of Red and Blue.

It's the last part of January. The Super Bowl hasn't even been played. If I had to pick the top four picks of the Minnesota Vikings it might go something like this:

1.  Kahlil Mack LB Buffalo
2.  Jimmy Garoppolo QB Eastern Illinois
3a. Stanley Jean-Baptiste CB Nebraska
3b. DaQuan Jones DT Penn St.

The Vikings quarterback needs get all of the attention. Unless Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel, Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater, or UCF's Blake Bortles dropping to the #8 pick of the first round, I don't see the Vikings reaching for a quarterback in the first round.