[Husker] Washington Leaving (fwd)

[Bapi Gupta]

On Mon, 3 Jan 2005, Steve Reichenbach wrote:

> Didn't NU have more players taken in the NFL draft than any other
> Big 12 team last year?
>
>> Nebraska has not had enough talent.
>> Three or four very talented players are not going to make a great team.
>> Nebraska has been woefully lacking in depth for at least two years if not
>> longer. That is a talent issue.
>>
>> Gerald
>>
>>> I think the experts who call him a 1st or 2nd round draft choice should
>>> have to meet with the experts who say Nebraska had no talent.
>>> --
>>> Mike Nolan

Sure, we had 5 guys go in the draft last year, but none of them were early 
round picks.

Player 			Pos. Ht. Wt. 	Rd Sel# Team
Bingham, Ryon 		DT 6-3 303 	7 204 San Diego
Johnson, Trevor 	DE 6-4 260 	7 234 N.Y. Jets
Lord, Jammal 		FS 6-2 215 	6 175 Houston
Sewell, Josh 		C 6-2 300 	6 190 Denver
Williams, Demorrio 	OLB 6-0 232 	4 101 Atlanta

Ryon Bingham had 20 tackles this season, but the only real impact player 
is Williams, who has 57.

It is really unusual that no other Big 12 team had that many players 
drafted, but Texas had four and two were 1st rounders, so that's a more 
significant talent loss.

I still wouldn't be jumping up and down about our "strong" draftee group. 
That role is reserved for Ohio State who had *14* draftees or Miami, who 
had nine draftees, six of whom went in the first round.  By my assessment, 
there were 24 teams that had heavier draft losses than Nebraska in the 
2004 draft, which was commensurate with my 21st power rating.  I doubt 
this year's team, that I rated 62nd, has that many draftees.

Who will get drafted from the 2004 team?  Barrett Ruud and Washington are 
certain picks.  Lornell McPherson could go, but he's a little small for 
the NFL.  Maybe Bernard Thomas or Erickson and Andersen from the OL.  We 
had a lot of draftable talent for the 2006 draft - Seppo, Pilkington, 
Ross, Le Kevin Smith, Titus Adams and both Bullocks - all likely.

As far as my opinion goes, I think we've had decent talent, particularly 
on defense, in the last few years.  Aside from Pelini, I think our 
defensive coordinators have been very poor since Charlie McBride. This 
year I think we have misused our talent by forcing the round peg of our 
rushing oriented talent in the square hole of Callahan's WCO system.

Bapi