SEC preseason out... Cutler 1st team QB!

All SEC Selections

1st team Vandy players

Jay Cutler - QB
Moses Osemwegie - LB

1st team Florida players

Mike Degory - C
Andre Caldwell - WR


There is a lot of uproar from Gator fans about Leak being sent to 2nd team while a QB from lowly Vandy takes the top spot. Not just cuz I went to Vandy, but Id personally take Cutler as well. Yea Chris Leak has better stats. But he has a better offensive line. better receivers. better running game. and he doesnt play on a slow tempo, ball control, eat up the clock offense that Vandy attempts to run. If Chris Leak played at Vandy, his stats would be awful.

Also, Cutler is physically superior to Leak. Bigger. Stronger arm. Better runner. Tougher. Cutler almost left school early last year to go to the NFL. The Chris Leak we've seen so far wouldnt sniff a pro roster. He isnt very big... listed just at 6 feet tall. And has very little velocity on his throws. Cutler on the otherhand, this may be shocking to say, is pretty close physically to an ideal NFL QB. 6'4, 225. strong arm. good athlete that can escape the pocket and run. Cutler at this point is a much better pro prospect. He is probably the best pro prospect at the position in the whole conference.

There was one Gator that did get screwed however. Brandon Siler. No way should be 3rd team. First of all he is the best LB on the team even though Earl Everett somehow earned a 2nd team spot. Secondly Brandon Siler might be the best LB in the conference. I really dont understand how the coaches think there are 8 better LBs in the SEC. I woulda guess because he is only going to be a sophmore but they have Ko Simpson, 2nd year player from SC, on the 1st team. Ill put money on the fact that he will be first team SEC at the end of the year!

What state produces the best football players?

thats an argument that has raged for a long time which will probably never produce an answer. its widely known that people from texas think that they have far and away the best football players. people from california and florida would argue otherwise. youd have a hard time convincing people from ohio and pennsylvania that the so called birthplace of football would no longer play it the best. the only way to ever know for sure is for each state to form there own teams and then play. that will never happen so we are left to guess. but instead of guessing, lets look at a few facts...

first, here is a list, thanks to nflhs.com, listing the number of players in the 2004 season of the NFL that come from each state. The top 10(with the number of NFLers per state) is listed here.

1)California - 200
2)Texas - 174
3)Florida - 173
4)Georgia - 86
5)Louisiana - 84
6)Ohio - 73
7)Pennsylvania - 60
8)South Carolina - 53
9)Virginia - 51
10)Mississippi - 48

Now obviously this doesnt prove everything because California has far and away more people than any other state so its no surprise theyve produced more players than any other state. So a better way is to see how many players come from each state based per population of that state. Here is the list of NFL players per state divided by the population of that state(per million's). 2004 population figures are provided by census.gov. so here are the top 10 players per population(ppp)...

1)Louisiana - 18.7
2)Mississippi - 16.6
3)South Carolina - 12.2
4)Florida - 9.9
5)Georgia - 9.8
6)Alabama - 9.3
7)Hawaii - 8.7
8)Iowa - 8.5
9)Nebraska - 8.2
10)Texas - 7.7

now i quickly ran through the numbers but im fairly sure they are accurate. to no surprise of my own, the top of the ppp list is dominated by SEC states(was there ever a doubt?). Hawaii scored so well due in part to low population but also the american samoan influence. Iowa really surprised me. 25 players from a state with only 2.95 million people. fairly impressive for a state with a low percentage of black people which make up a strong percentage of the NFL. Nebraska doesnt surprise me as much since the state is Cornhusker crazy and id guess kids grow up to be either farmers or football players. maybe the same is true for Iowa but i never would have guessed the crazed passion for football that their neighbors have.

the only thing may prove to be a sticking point is Washington DC. Its not officially a state so the 10 players who call the capital home are not being counted. Some would argue that DC should count as a state itself which would put it #2 overall on the ppp list. But that seems rather unfair considering if the city of Miami or Houston or San Diego was not affiliated with any state, their ppp would probably exceed District Columbia. They only fair thing to do is to lump it with either Virginia or Maryland. And even if you do include the DC players and population to either state, neither would crack to the top 10 for the ppp list so i dont think there is really anything left to debate.

Anyways back to which state wins the argument. Well Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia were the only states in the top 5 for both categories. I think Georgia can be eliminated because they have less overall and less ppp than Florida so they can not be the best which now leaves us with two. While my homerism wants me to pull for Florida, its hard to deny the fact that Louisiana produces twice as many NFL players per person. Although for a state with the population that Florida has(not to forget all the retiree's that have flooded the state and call it home), to have the 4th best ppp is pretty impressive in itself. so in my mind the only states that have legitimate claim are Florida and Louisiana. but ill have to settle that debate for another time...

Titans acquire Travis Henry

Saving the Jags a third round pick for a guy who might not even play all that much depending on fred taylors health, the titans traded for travis henry. not entirely sure why the titans would make this move. theyve already got a solid RB in chris brown. granted, he isnt anything special but he is a solid player who has only been in the NFL for two years. last year was his first as a starter and he gained over a 1000 yards in only 11 games for a lousy team averaging almost 5 yards a carry. the only problem with him is he may be injury prone missing time his first two years. but even still, why spend a first day draft pick on a guy and give a multiyear contract to henry if you are the titans? are you already convinced that brown isnt going to be the guy? youve been decimated by the salary cap so you have little depth and think that giving away first day draft picks is the answer? and its not like they are going to be any good next year so its not like they are beefing up for a run at the super bowl. i cant imagine them doing it just to prevent the jags from getting henry. its not necessarily a bad move for the titans but one that doesnt really serve a pupose. whatever.

Jags trading for Travis Henry?

Rumors fly about Henry...

and earlier this afternoon on ESPN radio John Clayton was also talking about this.

Couple things I dont get about this. Travis Henry only has one year left on his contract. So you mean to tell me the Jags are going to spend a first day draft pick on a one year player who may or may not play based on Taylor's health? If so, they better win the Super Bowl or else they are just wasting what could be a 2nd round draft pick. In that case, they would be better off letting Toefield, Jones, and Pearman get the remaining carries to learn how to play in the NFL. baptism by fire.

But maybe they wont do that. maybe they dont want to have Travis Henry for one year. Lets assume they agree to a long term contract for Travis Henry before trading away a first day draft pick. So then what does that mean for Fred Taylor? does that mean he is good as gone? Taylor cant be so hurt that he will miss the whole season or else the jags would have made a move for a RB long before now. So when Taylor does come back healthy, do they send Henry to the bench where he will sit and pout due to not starting like he is doing in buffalo? Or do they get rid of Taylor, who is the better RB, because they gave away a first day pick and a long term contract for a guy who complains when he isnt the starter?

and thats not the only concern with a guy like travis henry. on the field, he has a history of fumbling the football and obviously he isnt a team player. and off the field he is a fucking moron who doesnt have his head on straight. unless you want to argue that its quite normal for players in the NFL to sleep with 15 year olds. and on top of it, the guy is quite arguably the dumbest player in the NFL. most athletes get pushed along in school but no matter how stupid they are, the vast majority of them graduate high school with their classmates. Henry however was too stupid even for that and required a special "participatory diploma" in order to make it out of high school( no surprise he then got accepted by the university of tennessee). and then as a perfect example of his brilliance, he blew most of his money and had to sheepishly ask the Bills to restructure his contract so he could actually have money to pay the bills.

didnt wayne weaver say something about high character guys once?

21 days till football begins!

Jags first practice is saturday, july 30th, 10:15 AM. 21 days away!

Wyatt Sexton to miss 05 season

wow. God can get lyme disease. learn something everyday.

Urban Meyer > Ron Zook in every way possible

After three miserable years of Ron Zook, the only good thing we were left with a pretty talented team. Sure the team was full of underachievers and never got the best coaching, but at least they were talented. they had potential. Cant deny the fact that Zook was an above average recruiter.

But so far, in a little over 6 months, Meyer has been everything Zook wishes he could be when it comes to recruiting. First he landed a pretty good haul in 2005 with not much more than a month to work. While Zook was known for being a great recruiter, like Bobby Bowden he sometimes focused too much on stars instead of replenishing depth. as a result the secondary and LBs are super thin. But with only a month to recruit Meyer landed a 5 star CB from Daytona and Juco safety from melbourne along with a 4 star safety from Miami. And LB being the most desperate need he got 4 star players from Jacksonville, Pensacola, and Columbus Ga.

And so far this year he is already landing a pretty solid class. top 10 players in the country at their position from north carolina and texas. as well as two 4 stars from the state of FL. Zook never got this many highly rated players this early.

obviously Meyer is still riding his coattails from his perfect season at utah and one mediocre season at florida could change how effective he is in recruiting. but so far meyer has been willing to put just as much if not more into recruiting than Zook which happened to be his only redeeming quality. and since meyer has been the complete opposite of everything zook, i cant imagine him not being more successful on the field either.

Ive got my Jaguar season tickets

Section 433!