NEWS AND NEAR NEWS

Pigskins prospects preview … With this week’s college football action set to kickoff within hours, GBN Associate Editor Pigskin Paul Guillemette has posted his preview of this weekend’s biggest games including the players he’ll be watching tomorrow with an eye toward the 2019 draft.

FAU ILB out for year … Veteran Florida Atlantic ILB Azeez Al-Shaair reportedly will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. Since he has played in more than 4 games this season, Al-Shaair is not eligible for a medical redshirt season. Through 6 games this fall, Al-Shaair who is ranked as the #21 ILB on the GBN position ranking, has 43 tackles this fall, after posting a remarkable 147 in 2017.

Browns get 5th from Jags for RB Hyde … Jacksonville has acquired RB Carlos Hyde from Cleveland in exchange for a 5th round pick in 2019. Hyde will give the Jaguars some extra depth while Leonard Fournette progresses slowly from a strained right hamstring.

Pigskin’s prospects’ review posted … GBN Associate Editor Pigskin Paul Guillemette has posted his weekly prospects review column in which he highlights players who caught his eye last weekend.

Vols’ Kongbo done for year with ACL … Tennessee DE/OLB Jonathan Kongbo tore an ACL is Saturday’s upset win over Auburn and will miss the rest of the year. The 6-6, 265-pound Kongbo who was a star sprinter in high school, has always looked the part of a top NFL prospect, but he’s never been overly productive in college. However, he’s still considered to be a late-round or premier free agent candidate because of his physical tools, although its likely he now won’t be able to work out for NFL teams prior to this year’s draft. For the record, Kongbo is also considered to be the top Canadian prospect in this year’s draft; he’s also currently the #1 rated prospect for this year’s CFL draft.

Updated GBN Big Board posted … With the college football season essentially at the mid-point, the GBN Big Board has been updated and expanded to the Top 100-plus prospects for the upcoming draft.

OSU DE Bosa won’t return to program; draft prep up next … Ohio State junior DE Nick Bosa, the presumptive top pick at the 2019 draft, has told the program he will not play again this season once he heals up from a core muscle injury suffered in mid-September. Bosa had surgery would have been available at least for any post-season games with the Buckeyes, but has chosen instead to begin preparing for the upcoming draft once he gets healthy.

Giants keep #1 pick for another week … Things were all over the place the past day or so, but when the smoke had cleared the NY Giants held onto the #1 pick overall in the first round selection order for the 2019 draft were it to be held this week. Here is the full, updated weekly opening round selection order for the 2019 draft were it to be held today.

Ole Miss WR Metcalf out for year with neck injury … Mississippi redshirt sophomore WR D.K Metcalf, an emerging big-play prospect, is out for the rest of the year after injuring his neck in Ole Miss’ win over Arkansas on the weekend. According to team sources, Metcalf will likely require surgery, but the issue is not believed to be career-threatening or even to have long-term consequences. Metcalf, who is part of ‘the’ Metcalf football family and is currently the #3 WR on the GBN positional ranking, could still opt to enter the 2019 draft, however, he might be wiser to get healthy and return to school as NFL teams tend to be cautious about investing high picks in players with those types of injuries.

USC OLB Gustin out for year with ankle … Southern California announced late yesterday that veteran LB Porter Gustin will miss the rest of the year after breaking an ankle in the Trojans’ win over Colorado. Gustin will undergo surgery, but hopes to be ready go at some point during the draft process. And Gustin will be an interesting prospect for NFL teams to deal. He’s a talented player – he’s currently ranked 7th among OLBs on the GBN positional listing – who has 7 sacks in just 6 games to date this year. However, Gustin also has had durability issues in his career which could impact his final grade. In addition to missing half this year, Gustin missed 10 games last fall with toe and knee injuries which needless to say will give teams pause.

Top pick still too close to call … Updated: With all but the Monday night game to play this weekend, its simply too close to call which team will be sitting atop this week’s updated opening round selection order for the 2019 draft. As a result of New England’s dramatic win over Kansas City in the Sunday night game, the NY Giants edged ahead of Indianapolis – by .001 – for the top pick, but the margin of difference between the respective strength of schedules of the Colts and Giants is so small that who holds the top pick this week won’t be decided until after tonight’s Monday nigh game between San Francisco and Green Bay. A 49ers win and the Colts move back to #1, while the Giants will hold the top pick if the Packers win. Ironically, who ultimately picks #1 overall this year could come to the second last week of the schedule when the Colts and Giants play in Indianapolis on December 23rd. Meanwhile, the rest of the top ten and beyond, at least for this week, also won’t decided until after tonight’s game as the 49ers will have the 3rd pick with a loss in Green Bay, but will drop down with a win with Arizona moving up to #3 and Oakland to #4. Stay tuned as we’ll have the full selection order after tonight’s game.

UM DE Gary out for Badgers … Michigan DE Rashan Gary, a top 5-10 prospect for the 2019 draft, is not in uniform for tonight’s game against Wisconsin because of a shoulder injury. In fact, it is the second week in a row that Gary has not played as he also missed last week’s win over Maryland. According to Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, Gary has been dealing with an Acromioclavicular AC injury, which a google search identified as a dislocated shoulder.

Pigskin’s prospects’ review and preview posted … With a little over 15 hours until college football Saturday kicks off, GBN Associate Editor Pigskin Paul Guillemette has posted both his weekly prospects review column in which he highlights players who caught his eye last weekend, along with a preview of prospects to watch in this week’s games.

Tide CB down for year; other college injury notes … Alabama has now confirmed that star junior CB Trevon Diggs, the brother of Vikings’ WR Stefon Diggs, will be out for the rest of the season because of the broken foot he incurred Saturday in the Tide’s win over Arkansas. Diggs will undergo surgery later this week and is expected to be out 4-6 months. That time frame is somewhat problematic for Diggs if he still wants to enter the 2019 draft. Diggs has second day potential were he to opt to enter the 2019 draft, but four months and Diggs could just make the combine, but a 6-month recovery period would make it problematic to even be able to workout before the draft. Elsewhere, Appalachian State RB Jalin Moore, #23 on the GBN’s rankings for the position, suffered what appeared to be a serious leg injury during last night’s win over Arkansas State and could miss significant time. Meanwhile, Boise State DE David Moa, #22 on the GBN’s DE ranking, is out for the rest of the regular season with a calf injury that has limited him to just one game so far this season. Boise State is hopeful that Moa could be available to play in the Broncos’ bowl game at the end of the year; it is also possible that Moa could petition the NCAA to get a 6th season of eligibility to be able to return next season. GBN Investigative College Football reporter Larry Parker contributed to this story.

Tide CB Diggs out indefinitely with foot injury … Not much has gone wrong for top-ranked Alabama so far this fall, however, the Tide did take something of a hit this past weekend when junior CB Trevon Diggs, a potential second-day pick at the 2019 draft if he were to opt to turn pro, suffered a broken foot in the big win over Arkansas on Saturday and is out indefinitely.

Safety rankings posted … The staff warmed up for tonight’s Monday nighter by finishing off the safety ranking for the upcoming draft.

We are #1 … The NY Giants came into the week sitting way down at the 8th pick in the proverbial if the draft were held this week selection order for the opening round of the 2019, but due to a series of odd developments they come out of the weekend sitting on the first pick overall, at least for this week. For starters, the Giants found another way to lose a heartbreaker when Carolina’s Graham Gano kicked a 63-yard FG on the last play of the game to hand them a frustraing 33-31 loss. At the same time, a number of other 1-win teams all won their games, while the Giants strength of schedule was lowered significantly when the other three NFC East teams all lost their games. Meanwhile, if the draft were held this week, Indianapolis would have the second pick, while San Francisco would pick 3rd, Arizona 4th and Atlanta 5th. We’ll have the full opening round selection order as it stands this week after tomorrow night’s Monday nighter.

Cards-Niners to shake up early selection order … We’ll be posting the first full ‘if the draft were held today’ selection order for the opening round of the upcoming draft at the conclusion of this weekend’s games. And there could very well be some movement in the top 5 in today’s action as Arizona, the NFL’s last remaining winless team which currently would have the #1 pick were the draft held today, plays at San Francisco in a late afternoon game; the 1-3 49ers currently would flip with the NY Jets for the 3-4 picks. Those same Jets will host Denver in one of today’s early games. Meanwhile, Houston, which currently sits on the 2nd picks overall, hosts Dallas in the Sunday night game later today.

Neck injury ends career of Canes’ WR Richards … It wasn’t all good news at Miami today where the Hurricanes rallied from a 20-point deficit to defeat Florida State 28-27 in a rivalry game earlier this afternoon as afterwards the program announced that star junior WR Ahmmon Richards’ football career is over because of a neck injury. Richards had been considered to be a potential first round pick in April, but hasn’t played since suffering an injury early in the Canes season-opener against LSU.

Pigskin’s prospects preview … With another intriguing day of college football on the horizon, here’s who GBN Associate Editor Pigskin Paul Guillemette’s will be watching with an eye toward the upcoming draft.