Plus more notes on Week 6 of the college football season, including prospects at Illinois and Texas.
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The last few years, my Six From Saturday notes have been included at the bottom of my MMQB column on Monday mornings. This year, they’ll be published as a separate post each week. Here are my thoughts on this weekend’s college action, geared mostly toward what should be of interest to NFL fans.
1) Back in the summer, we gave you the annual NFS preseason rankings of top draft-eligible prospects. To the surprise of no one, Alabama edge Will Anderson and Georgia 3-technique Jalen Carter were Nos. 1 and 2. Though some were surprised that Carter outranked Anderson on the list, both are, and have been, seen as elite prospects. What stunned a lot of people was who was ranked third. That was Texas Tech edge Tyree Wilson. Six weeks into the college season, it looks like NFS had it right. He may not be the third pick in the draft, but I had one NFC exec refer to him as a first-round “lock” Saturday, after the Red Raiders lost to Oklahoma State (Wilson had half a sack, a hurry and four tackles).
“The kid that blew me away when I went to see him was Tyree Wilson at Texas Tech,” said the exec. “He’s an ideal 3–4 outside ’backer. Long arms. Natural power and snap that he puts to use [against] both run and pass. Instinctive pass rusher that can finish. Wins with a variety of moves and isn’t a one-trick pony. He’s like a four-trick pony. He wins inside. Outside. Through your middle. That length gives him a major advantage at QB depth. I see so many guys that can rush that get close. This guy knows how to seal the deal.” So, again, he will probably be picked later than Anderson and Carter. But not much later.
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2) While we’re there, Anderson has done nothing to make anyone believe he’ll be anything but the first nonquarterback taken in April, and Saturday night’s nail-biting win over Texas A&M is a great example of how stats for players at his position can be deceiving. The Aggies held Anderson without a sack. However, they constantly had to sink resources into handling him, and he wound up with eight pressures on A&M quarterback Haynes King.
By the way, the breakdown below of the game’s last play from Nick Saban, seemingly right after the game (check the timestamp), is a pretty good example of why Saban is Saban. It’s not just his command of what the Tide’s call was there and his reasoning for it. It’s how clearly and simply he describes everything—in a way where you don’t need three years in his program to understand it.
3) Illinois has a real shot at winning the Big Ten West and, as was the case for Bret Bielema over all those years winning that division at Wisconsin, he has a bell-cow back he’s built the operation around. Meet Chase Brown, a fifth-year collegian from Canada who started his career at Western Michigan and rushed for 146 yards on 31 carries on a tough Iowa defense, as the Illini grinded out a 9–6 win over the defending West champs. He’ll be an interesting prospect for NFL teams to kick tires on after the season, a 5'11", 205-pound tough guy whose game is suited for the pros.
“He has three-down value,” said one AFC scouting director. “Compact NFL frame. Good inside and outside run skills, good in pass pro, catches it well. High-level trait. … Has not been held under 100 yards this season, second in the nation in rushing. So he’s similar to the backs Bret had at Wisconsin, but better in the passing game.” He’s got a shot at being a Day 2 pick in April and, for what it’s worth, he has a twin brother, Sydney, starring at safety for the Illini who has an NFL future, as well.
4) Through three starts, Texas redshirt freshman QB Quinn Ewers is justifying all the Mullet Mahomes hype he drew coming out of high school, and when he reclassified to go to Ohio State a year early (he transferred, with C.J. Stroud blocking his path to playing time in Columbus). Obviously, there’s still a lot to learn. But the talent is undeniable—and he’s produced to this point, too, completing more than two-thirds of his throws in all three games, carrying a 6-to-2 TD-to-INT ratio and showing command over Steve Sarkisian’s offense. He’ll be fun to follow, and between him and USC’s Caleb Williams, there’s some promise on the horizon at quarterback for the 2024 draft.
5) It was hard not to remember Nebraska’s firing of Frank Solich to try to modernize its football program 20 years ago when Wisconsin canned Paul Chryst last week—the Huskers, in the process of trying to get current, lost their identity completely and still haven’t recovered (the next coach will be the fifth full-time head coach in 20 seasons in Lincoln). Now, to be clear, if the play is simply to move up Jim Leonhard, I get that. The 39-year-old former Raven and Jet has gotten a lot of NFL coordinator interest the last couple of years (both the Packers and Rams loved him and nearly moved to hire him), and you can argue he’d be perfect, as a Badgers alum, to marry the program’s history to what it needs going forward. But what this can’t be, as I see it, is a move to blow up the program’s brand and start over. The brand, as it was at Nebraska all those years ago, is still strong, and it needs tweaks, not an overhaul.
6) All the best to Mike Hart. The Michigan assistant suffered what the Fox broadcast referred to as a seizure Saturday during the Wolverines’ game in Bloomington, Ind., and was taken to a local hospital. Hart, as I’d heard it, would’ve gotten serious consideration to be Jim Harbaugh’s replacement, had Harbaugh landed the Vikings job last year, so he’s pretty well thought of in that program, beyond just having been a star on the field for the Wolverines and having returned to coach. Here’s hoping he’s all right.
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