As I touched upon in my previous post, the competition for the upcoming NFL draft, at the running back position, is getting more heated by the day.
And now we can possibly add two more prospects to the tally: 2-time Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden and Oregon star Jonathon Stewart.
Although there are conflicting reports, multiple sources are maintaining that McFadden will absolutely enter the draft, while his father isn’t so quick to confirm the move.
Still no word from Felix Jones, McFadden’s teammate.
The deadline is Tuesday, so we’ll all know who’s in and who’s out within a few days.
UPDATE (1.13.07): Make that 3 juniors. West Virginia RB Steve Slaton has also thrown his hat into the ring for the draft.
At the close of the regular season, Mike Hart ranked pretty high on various draft boards. That was when the field contained nothing but seniors. Now that the season has come to a close, there have been various declarations from underclassmen. With those, we can expect that NFL teams in need of a tailback will have many quality athletes to choose from.
Noteable Juniors turning pro:
Kevin Smith - UCF
Jamaal Charles - Texas
Ray Rice - Rutgers
Rashard Mendenhall - Illinois
So far, Arkansas RBs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones have remained silent, as has Oregon’s Jonathan Stewart.
More light should be shed on how the NFL-bound running backs stack up within the coming month.
They did it! The Michigan Wolverines succeeded in sending their seniors and longtime coach, Lloyd Carr, out with a big win over the Florida Gators in the Capital One Bowl.
Despite turning the ball over 4 times to Florida’s 0, U-M came out on top 41-35.
It was great to see Mike Hart back to 100% healthy and it showed. What was surprising was the 2 times he put the ball on the ground near the goal line. He hadn’t lost a fumble since his freshman year, but he did it twice today. Luckily those turnovers didn’t cost the team the game.
But what can you do in that situation? You can either let it throw you off course or you can and try to move forward and continue to aggressively play the game. That’s exactly what Michigan did and it worked out in their favor.
The Michigan offense easily handled the Gator defense. One can’t help to imagine what may have happened without the 4 turnovers. The game wouldn’t have been close!
I was glad to see H20 close out his collegiate career with a big W. This site will continue to follow Mike Hart as he works towards his goal of competing in the NFL.
Since the Capital One Bowl is nearly upon us, I thought I’d share my favorite on-the-field Mike Hart moment of the 2007 season. I had a lot to choose from, but this one just stood out from the Purdue game. I hope to see more moves like this during the game!
Having already graduated from the University of Michigan, Mike Hart’s U-M responsibilities will be completed after the Capital One Bowl.
As already mentioned, Mike’s focus will turn towards preparing for the NFL draft.
Teammate, and close friend, Jamar Adams gives us a small look into his plans, for the immediate future while the team redeemed their Best Buy gift certificates. FYI: Mike picked up a PlayStation 3 during his spree.
Adams will make Florida his new home, at least for the next couple of months. When the Wolverines wrap their season with the Jan. 1 Capital One Bowl against Florida, Adams will start preparing in Naples for February’s NFL Scouting Combine.
To get ready for the combine, where players are closely evaluated by NFL scouts, coaches and front office personnel, Adams will work out at a Velocity Sports Performance training facility. He said he’ll be joined by Michigan tailback Mike Hart and former Wolverine safety Ryan Mundy, who is completing his career this season at West Virginia.
”We’re trying to go out there and make a statement and show that the SEC is the best and most competitive conference with the best athletes. We’re going to beat those guys and hopefully the other SEC teams can do the same thing to their Big Ten opponents. I don’t think they have seen that many athletes like us [fast]. They have a couple of them, but in the SEC we have a whole team of them. It’s a big difference and they think they have bigger, more physical teams, but they don’t.”
Man, who crapped in his cereal? Either he’s terribly misinformed, or he’s been sippin’ on that SEC Kool-aid. If the Big Ten teams are so horrible, why are their W-L record against the SEC in the past 7 meetings, 5-2? It’s probably because Florida blew out the Buckeyes earlier this year. Nevermind that the Big Ten vs. SEC bowl record from last season was 2-1 in the Big Ten’s favor. Guess our conference just got lucky, huh Caldwell?
Mike Hart’s “little brother” comment towards Michigan State’s program is still reverberating. One would have thought they’d have moved on, by now. Guess not. I understand the concept of bulletin board material and all, but the teams aren’t going to meet for 11 more months. Worry about it next season!
The teams were both on hand at the Bowl-a-palooza Wednesday, in Orlando, as part of the Kids and Fan Festival for Orlando bowl participants. So Michigan, Michigan St., Florida, and Boston College players were all in attendance and rubbing elbows.
When the subject of Mike’s November 3rd comments were brought up, it’s clear that he got significantly under their skin with his remarks as if he had just said them a couple of days ago.
Here is a gem from Javon Ringer:
“It all depends on the player. Some of the players, I’m pretty sure they got their own little personal agenda about how they feel about that stuff. Guys were (ticked). But that just varies from player to player. Some players, that’s still eating them to this day. And the rest of us … it still eats us, but we’re just good at hiding it.”
So, as the post title says, “Seriously? Let it go!” I’m well aware that the topic was likely brought up by the media and not MSU payers. However they would have been better served concentrating on Boston College and not their hatred towards U-M. MSU fell to Boston College today by the score of 24-21.
Mike shrugged off any suggestions that MSU players would confront him about his infamous “little brother” comments, telling the Detroit Free Press “I don’t care. What are they going to say? The only people who can say anything to me is Ohio State.”
As the 2007 college football season has officially come to a close, here come the final polls.
