By: Carrington Caul
What if I told you that the best receiver on the collegiate level isn’t named A.J. Green or Julio Jones? What if I told you that the best receiver in the collegiate level had a chance to go to any D1 school he wanted to attend in the nation but decided to go to D3? What would you say if I told you that he has video-game like statistics and he didn’t even play 4 years at his primary position?
Well start thinking of the answers because that’s exactly what Division 3 Mount Union’s 6’0 205lbs WR Cecil Shorts III did. Shorts, born in Cleveland, Ohio played Quarterback at Collinwood High School under his father. After his senior campaign he did receive a few scholarship offers from quality Division 1 schools.
Against everybody’s advice Short decided to attend Division 3 Mount Union college. Once he joined the team he decided he wanted to play WR but being brought in as a QB that was the position he played. His freshman season he suffered an injury that required him to miss some of the season. With the playing time he did receiver, Short Completed 16-of-24 passes for 209 yards, caught 12 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns and also had 12 rushes for 108 yards with a pair of touchdowns. Not impressed yet?
Well at the beginning of his sophomore season Short decided he wanted to become a full time receiver. At the end of his first season as a pure WR Short caught 77 receptions for 1,484 yards and set a conference record with 23 Touchdown receptions. Also catching 7 catches for 178 yards and 2TD’s in the National Championship victory over UW-Whitewater it became evident that Mount Union has a special player on their team.
Starting his junior season with high expectations, Short didn’t fail to disappoint even though his team didn’t win the National Championship. Short finished his junior campaign with 100 receptions for 1,736 yards and 19 touchdowns. He also recorded 206 yards and 8 touchdowns and 34 carries. Failing to win the National Championship Short wanted to step his game up for his final season on the collegiate level and that was exactly what he did.
Rushing, passing and receiving wasn’t enough for Short, during his first three seasons with the Purple Raiders he caught 63 receptions for 1,106 yards and 17 touchdowns, 114 yards rushing with two touchdowns. But Short wasn’t finished yet, he also had 22 punt returns for two touchdowns averaging (16.1) yards a return and 9 kick returns with a touchdown and averaging (22.8) yards per kick return. Oh yeah he also missed three games that season due to injury.
Finishing his collegiate career with 55 games, Short also had 259 receptions for 4,705 yards and 63 touchdowns, he had 75 rushing attempts for 492 yards with 12 TD's on the ground along with two punt returns and a kickoff return for touchdowns. In total, he accounted for nearly 6,000 all-purpose yards (5,989 yards/108.9 yards per game).
He also finished with some impressive Accolades
‘08: Ed Sherman Award as OAC's top wide receiver
‘08: All-OAC First Team
‘08: D3football.com All-American
‘09: Ed Sherman Award as OAC's top wide receiver
‘09: All-OAC First Team
‘09: Consensus All-American named to D3Football.com
‘09: AFCA and AP Little All-America Teams
‘09: D3Football.com National Offensive Player of the Year.
By: Carrington Caul
Yesterday I started an article discussing who I thought could be the first overall draft pick taken in this year’s draft by the Carolina Panthers if they decided to keep the number one spot - to check that article out go here . Today I would like to continue breaking down the players that could be the top pick. In today’s article I will get to the defensive side of the ball where there are more choices than on the offensive side.
DL: Nick Fairley
First up is University of Auburn’s 6’5” 298lb DT Nick Fairley. Fairley decided to enter the draft early (as a junior) after having a great season and winning a National Championship with Auburn and Cam Newton. Finishing his junior year he recorded 56 total tackles, 32 solo, 12 sacks, and 1 interception. Fairley has the ability to put the pressure on the QB and stop the run up the middle. He has great footwork and hand movements that let him get around defenders and make the play. But the question is since he only has one year of production; Is this a great player or did he just have a great year? Can he lead a defense for the next 7-10 years? Can he make plays on the next level? Besides Cam Newton I think Fairley has the most questions about his playing ability.
DL: Da’Quan Bowers
Bowers is a player that I’ve enjoyed watching recently. Me being a huge ACC fan I think I was able to see a little more of his playing than the majority of fans outside of Clemson and the ACC. Bowers another Junior that declared early for the draft finished his Junior campaign with 67 total tackles, 41 solo, 16 sacks, 1 forced fumble, and 1 interception. Bowers was all over the field this season and seemed to continuously be in the backfield making sacks and hitting players for loses. Bowers lead the nation in Sacks (16) and was tied for first with Tackles for Losses (29) Bowers is a fast, strong DE that can come off the line and use good footwork and hand movement. To me this is probably the second best player in this year’s draft behind LSU CB Patrick Peterson. Bowers will make an instant impact on whichever team he gets drafted to.
DL: Marcell Dareus
Dareus is a 6’4” 319lb DT that ran a 4.92. That means that coming through the middle is a Truck and something people don’t want to get hit with. Dareus knows how to make plays and never gives up on the play. Not only does he have great footwork but he is intelligent on the field, he can read the offense and has great instincts. The problem with Dareus is even though he has good work ethics and he is a good player it doesn’t show in his stats. Dareus finished the season with 33 total tackles and 20 solo with 5 sacks. I think he is a top 10 pick. But kind of dangerous to take with the overall number one pick because he has the ability to be a bust.
CB: Patrick Peterson
Peterson is probably the safest most complete athlete in this year’s draft. A 6’ 219lb CB from LSU that ran a 4.32 at the combine is a threat on the Defense. No QB should throw towards him unless you are sure of yourself (Manning, Brees, Brady, and Rivers) and even then you still have a chance to get picked off and embarrassed. Peterson another one of the record setting 56 underclass men that declared for the draft.
The junior finished his season with 42 Total tackles, 29 solo tackles, and 4 INT with a 33.5 return average. Whichever team Peterson gets drafted to he will become an instant starter and contribute defensively and on special teams. Not only is he a hard hitter and a player that can read the QB and jump routes he is also a great cover corner. Being 219lbs and probably having to gain 5-15 more LBS in the NFL he could move to Safety like current New York Giants safety Antrel Rolle.
I think out of these four players Bowers has the best chance to be the number 1 overall pick, even though Peterson is the best player in this year’s draft. With a CB all you have to do is throw away from him to make him ineffective.
By:Carrington Caul
"With the first pick of the 2011 NFL Draft, Carolina Panthers pick”…. Hold on! We don’t know who, and that’s for two reasons.1)The NFL Draft is still a month away and 2) and most importantly,this is the first draft that I can remember, that we had no idea who was going to be the first pick. Normally we have a general consensus decision on who will go first; even if it’s not that person we usually can predict it. This year we have 6 Potential number 1 draft picks.
From QB’s: Cam Newton & Blaine Gabbert to DL: Nick Fairley, Da’Quan Bowers & Marcell Dareus and probably the best player out of the draft CB: Patrick Peterson. The most crazy part of it was from February till today every one of the players I have named have been projected to be the number one pick of the draft. Every one of these players has the chance to be a top draft pick and can all have great careers. During this article I will break down every one of the top 6 draft picks and explain why they could and couldn’t get drafted as the top pick of this year’s draft.
QB: Cam Newton
What is there not to love about this kid he came out of high school and was the top college prospect of his year. Signed his letter of intent and decided to go to University of Florida. Only problem with this is - he was behind arguably the greatest player to ever play the game on collegiate level Tim Tebow. After not liking getting the chance to start over Tebow, Newton transferred to Binns College where he won a National Junior College Championship before transferring to Auburn University taking them to a undefeated record and winning a National Championship in just his first and only season with the Tigers.
At 6’5” 248lbs Newton has tremendous upside and freakish athleticism. Running a 4.58 at the combine, Newton also has a strong arm that allows him to throw down field. But there are still plenty of questions surrounding him. Can he run a pro-style offense? Can he sit in the pocket and make the throws that NFL QB’s make? There are some off the field questions also. Honestly I would call Cam Newton a risk choice with him you could get the next Ben Roethlisberger or you could get the next Jamarcus Russell
QB: Blaine Gabbert
Gabbert is probably one of the best NFL Ready QB’s in this year’s draft. At the combine he ran a 4.61 being 6’4” 235lbs he has a strong solid arm though not as strong as Newton. During his pro day he completed 44-49 of his passes all under center while NFL Scouts said three of his incompletions were catchable and wasn’t his fault. He can make the short throws and also the deep ones.
During his sophomore season he completed 262 passes out of 445 attempts giving him a 58.9 completion percentage and 3,593 yards while throwing 24 TD’s and only 9 INT in his first season as a starter. Entering his Junior year and 2nd year as a starter Gabbert completed 301 of 475 passes for 3,186 with a 63.4 completion percentage and a 16-9 TD-INT ratio including 6 games were he threw over 200 yards and 3 where he cracked the 300yd mark. Gabbert is a exceptional QB With a high FB IQ.
If the panthers decide to go QB with their first pick I would expect him to be that pick.
