College Football Week 3 / 2022 NFL Draft Thoughts

Wow! Football happened more!

College Football Week 3 Thoughts

1. USC QB Kedon Slovis left the game against Washington State after an early sack and was replaced by freshman Jaxson Dart. It’s like was made (and named) in a lab designed to create football stars. He probably made a ton of money overnight and he won’t have to wait three years to get it. Dart had 391 passing yards, four touchdowns, two interceptions in USC’s easy win over WSU.

2. Stanford QB Tanner McKee, the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week last week, went 19/29, 218 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT and rushed for 1 TD against Vanderbilt. McKee could be that “out of nowhere” player, even though a few years ago he was one of the top recruits in the country next to Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields.

3. Nice list of Pac-12 NFL Draft prospects here by Jack Follman. And a list by Jon Wilner. Both came out in the offseason.

4. 49-yard rushing TD by Missouri RB Tyler Badie:

   Represent Mizzou @RepresentMizzou

   Tyler Badie to the house

5. In Alabama-Florida (31-29 Alabama), sophomore QB Bryce Young went 22/35, 233 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT. It’s interesting that for so long, Alabama wouldn’t produce NFL quarterbacks, and then suddenly it was like Nick Saban said, “Now I’ll try that” and has dominated the production, to some degree (Oklahoma can’t allow that). WR John Metchie III had six catches for only 42 yards on eight targets. WR Jameson Williams had four catches on nine targets for 61 yards. This looks good for the Florida secondary and first round picks like CB Kaiir Elam. From a statistical point of view, no Alabama receiver has taken ahold of that torch through the first three games. DL Phidarian Mathis, a potential first round pick, had five tackles and one sack. CB Jalen Armour-Davis, probably a highly-rated player in the 2023 draft, had an interception.

6. If you wanted to see Florida play QB Anthony Richardson, no such luck. Emory Jones went 17/27, 181 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 80 rush yards and 1 TD in the loss. RB Malik Davis had 10 carries for 96 yards and the senior now has 31 carries for 222 yards, which is 7.1 yards per attempt.

   CBS Sports @CBSSports

   MALIK DAVIS JUST KEPT GOING

7. Purdue DE George Karlaftis took part in a sack in a 27-13 loss to Notre Dame. WR David Bell was held to 64 yards on seven catches and 10 targets, with a long of 32 and left the game with an injury.

8. Notre Dame RB Kyren Williams is getting first round consideration and had 12 carries for 91 yards and a touchdown. Williams also had 47 receiving yards with another touchdown. Yeah, this is good:

   Notre Dame on NBC @NDonNBC

   Kyren Williams erupted for two long touchdowns to lead Notre Dame to victory. Check out the @GNCLiveWell Performance of the Week. ⬇️

9. Notre Dame S Kyle Hamilton had eight tackles and an interception and generally looks like a lock for the top-five of the draft:

   mike taddow  @MichaelTaddow

   kyle hamilton huge stop on 4th and 1 👀

   PFF College @PFF_College

   🚨 KYLE HAMILTON INT 🚨

   10. PFN players of the week: QB Sam Howell, QB Malik Willis, RB TreVeyon Henderson, Ohio State (freshman), QB Matt Corral, WR Calvin Austin III, Memphis, QB Tanner Mordecai, QB Brennan Armstrong, CB Ahmad Gardner, Cincinnati, WR Jahan Dotson, Penn State

   11. ACC players of the week: QB Sam Howell, UNC, RB Ty Chandler, UNC, WR Josh Downs, UNC, OL Marcus McKethan, UNC, OL Chandler Zavala, NC State, DT DeWayne Carter, Duke, LB LeVonta Bentley, Clemson, S Lummie Young, Duke, P Grant Carlson, Boston College, Freshman, RB Will Shipley, Clemson.

   12. RB Ty Chandler rushed for 198 yards against Virginia.

   13. WR Josh Downs caught eight passes for 203 yards.

   14. G Marcus McKethan had “five knockdown blocks”

   15. G Chandler Zavala had “10 pancake blocks” against Furman

   16. DT DeWayne Carter had two forced fumbles against Northwestern

   17. LB LeVonta Bentley had 13 tackles and 3 TFL against Georgia Tech

   18. S Lummie Young IV had seven tackles, TFL, FF, and INT against Northwestern

   19. Big12 Offensive Player of the Week: RB Jaylen Warren, Oklahoma State. Warren had 218 rushing yards against Boise State.

   20. Big12 Defensive Player: LB Jared Bartlett, West Virginia. Bartlett had three sacks against Virginia Tech.

   21. SEC Offensive Player of Week: QB Matt Corral, Ole Miss. Corral continues to move up 2022 draft boards after scoring seven touchdowns in a win over Tulane (3 passing, 4 rushing). I look forward to seeing Corral face tougher challenges than Austin Peay and Tulane.

   22. SEC Defensive Player: LB Will Anderson, Alabama. After names like Jonathan Allen and Ryan Anderson and Tim Williams, it’s no surprise to see another non-descript linebacker name dominating the field at Alabama. And I literally mean “non-descript NAME.” Will Anderson seems like a name that would have been used up many times already, but right now this Anderson has a chance to be the first draft pick of note with his name in at least a while.

   23. SEC Defensive Player of the Week part 2: OLB Nolan Smith, Georgia. Smith had eight tackles, 1.5 sacks, and a FF in a win over South Carolina.

   24. SEC special teams: P Nik Contantinou is another transplant from Australia, like Seahawks’ Michael Dickson. He had four punts; all four inside the 20, and three inside the 10.

   25. SEC D-line: DE BJ Ojulari, LSU. The brother of Azeez Ojulari, B.J. Ojulari might be even better. He has 4.5 sacks in three games this year, after having 4 sacks in only eight games as a freshman in 2020.

   26. SEC o-line, 1: OL Jeremy James, Ole Miss.

   27. SEC o-line, 2: C Ricky Stromberg, Arkansas. You like OL prospects? Here are two!

   28. SEC freshman: WR Adonais Mitchell, Georgia.

   29. PFF posted their list of players of the week from Week 3: Corral, Downs are the only two players I see who I’ve already listed here so far. The rest would be first-time mentions and I’ll start going through them with the notes below.

   30. RB Jerrion Ealy, Ole Miss and RB Sean Tucker, Syracuse. I did mention that Tucker had four touchdowns last week.

   31. WR Brandon Bowling, Utah State and WR Deion Smith, LSU. Smith and Kayshon Boutte could form the best 1-2 WR combo in the country in 2022. They might be ready to do it in 2021 also.

   32. TE Gerrit Prince, UAB. Prince had three catches for 136 yards and two touchdowns against North Texas.

   33. OL: LT Zachary Thomas, San Diego State / LG Ken Marks, Louisiana / Tyler Linderbaum, Iowa / RG Connor Colby, Iowa / RT Max Mitchell, Louisiana. Clearly, PFF is favoring the performances of the Louisiana and Iowa o-lines in Week 3, naming two players from each. We already know Linderbaum is becoming a first round lock and maybe the top center in the draft.

   34. Sleeper: EDGE Nelson Paul, SMU.

   35. DL: EDGE Paul, EDGE Scott Patchan, Colorado State, DT Jalen Redmond, Oklahoma, DT Jayden Jernigan, Oklahoma State

   36. LB: Donovan Mutin, Houstin and Chad Muma, Wyoming

   37. Secondary: S Kyle Hamilton, S Marquis Waters, Texas Tech, CB Jack Jones, Arizona State, CB AJ Hampton, Northwestern, CB Armani Marsh, Washington State

   38. MAC Players of the Week: QB Kaleb Eleby, Western Michigan, LB Zaire Barnes, Western Michigan, QB DJ Irons, Akron, DE Taylor Riggins, Buffalo

I’ll be back shortly with another college / draft update. This is just to get our whets whistle.

Kenneth