This weekend former college football players (that’s official now for seniors) will be arriving in Tampa, St. Pete and a few other West Central Florida airports to begin taking part in the Shrine Game week activities. The first practices will be Monday afternoon, after a closed weigh-in session (archaic) in the morning. The week will be filled with daily practices, community events, banquets and such leading up to an actual football game next Saturday, the 23rd of January. I’ll have my flat feet planted firmly on the practice field grounds starting Monday, pen in hand, watching, commenting and mingling with the 100-plus players here to help the Shriners raise money for their Children’s Hospitals, and enhance their own personal pro prospects in preparation for the 2016 NFL Draft.
I thought this would be a good time to lay a few pre-Shrine Week thoughts and information for your consideration this upcoming week.
This may be the strongest overall list of players since the game moved to Florida 6 years ago. Some of that can clearly be attributed to the consulting work done by DAN SHONKA/Ourlads.com, who does advisory scouting for the game. It seems like every year more Shrine players are drafted by the NFL, and this year should be no exception. That being said I do not see any First Rounders on the rosters, and I would guess with the apparent 100+ Underclassmen group of entrants there may be no more 10-12 of these players drafted in the Top 100. But there should be plenty of players in this game that will go in Rounds 4-7, not to mention a lot of URFA who will get their chance to earn jobs playing pro football in Training Camps next summer.
One of the “nice” things about the Shrine Game is their historic propensity to bring in a solid group of small school players to compete. I count 7 players from non-D1 schools listed on current rosters. Most of these players will not have been on your TV screen this past season, and watching them compete at the highest level during this week can be a treat, and often eye-opening.
The initial rosters will strike some of you as geographically challenged. Ideally, the Mississippi River would divide East from West, but just like the population demographic there are quite a few more colleges producing players in the Eastern USA than out in the plains and mountain states.
As a result, for instance, we are scheduled to see 4 Wisconsin Badgers in the contest. QB/JOEL STAVE will play for the East team, while DEREK WATT/FB, TYLER MARZ/OT & MICHAEL CAPUTO/S play for the West. Nothing new here since schools don’t conveniently cover all positions with players on a perfect split by campus location. ILLINOIS fans will find the same situation for their players with 4 on the West and 1 on the East. IN this instance the game at times resembles a Civil War of sorts.
The very nature of an All-Star game dictates that the passing game will dominate for both sides, given the short time span to put systems and plays in during a 1-Week training camp, per se’. Both rosters currently show only 3 RB/FB each, while WR corps number 6 per team and 3 TE each.
This year’s game may have the strongest QB contingent in recent memory, with very good depth. The East lists the aforementioned STAVE as well as BLAKE FROHNAPFEL/UMASS & JAKE RUDOCK/MICHIGAN. The West meanwhile has VERNON ADAMS/OREGON, NATHAN SUDFELD/INDIANA & BRANDON DUGHTY/W. KENTUCKY. There is a 7th QB in this game, or at least a former QB, in Navy’s TD maker KEENAN REYNOLDS #19. REYNOLDS will spend most of his time in the RB group, since the NFL is still not inclined to draft 5’10, option attack QB prospects.
The next strongest position group might be the DB corps. The last rosters I printed up showed a total of 10 CB and 9 S on them. Takes a lot of DB to defend against QBs who are likely to put the ball in the air 2 of every 3 plays from scrimmage.
I should also point out that because the Shrine Organization stretches internationally they always place Canadian College players in this game. This year there are 3 Canadians represented.
Although the teams are not coached by NFL team staffs like the Senior Bowl, there is no shortage of experience at both the pro and college level to prepare these players for he game as well as their pro futures. JUNE JONES/West & CHARLIE WEISS/East are the head coaches. With familiar football names like BRADY QUINN, TROY BROWN, MIKE ALSTOTT, SAM MADISON, JERRY GLANVILLE, TIM KRUMRIE. MIKE MASER and more lending a hand. The full list of coaches can also be found at the Shrine Game website.
Just to get the chatter and speculation started I’d like to give you my list of the Top DOZEN (Bakers’ style) Pro Prospects as I currently peruse team rosters:
DEON BUSH/S MIAMI
KYLE CARTER/TE PENN STATE
BRANDON DOUGHTY/QB WESTERN KENTUCKY
JOSHUA FERGUSON/RB ILLINOIS
KEYARRIS GARRETT/WR TULSA
GRAHAM GLASGOW/OC MICHIGAN
CORY JAMES/LB COLORADO STATE
ALEX LEWIS/OT NEBRASKA
DEAN LOWRY/DE NORTHWESTERN
DAVID ONYEMATA/DE MANITOBA(CAN)
RASHAWN SCOTT/WR MIAMI
TERRANCE SMITH/LB FLORIDA STATE
R.J. WILLIAMSON/S MICHIGAN STATE
Here is a link to the Shrine Game website if you choose to check out more about the game, print the rosters, the Shriners themselves, etc. http://www.shrinegame.com/
