College football is underway, so each week we’ll begin looking ahead to the 2015 Draft to find out who’s helping and hurting their NFL status.
NFL Draft report: Old issues remain with Brett Hundley, Bryce Petty
In Week 1 of the college football season, we saw some of the same past troubles with top quarterbacks, Todd Gurley is still great and a few top wide receiver prospects appear interchangeable.
Joe Robbins
It feels like much of this season is going to be spent finding a third quarterback prospect after Florida State’s Jameis Winston and Oregon’s Marcus Mariota. Two of the chief candidates will be Baylor’s Bryce Petty and UCLA’s Brett Hundley. Both players are obviously talented, but the same flaws they showed last season were present in Week 1.
For Hundley, the big issue is dropping his eyes from looking down field and pulling the ball to run. Too often, Hundley bailed after his first read. Part of Hundley’s issue is the offensive line in front of him. Hundley is so gun-shy because of poor offensive line play that he’s constantly moving his feet around in the pocket. There is a lot of talent in Hundley, and he showed it some Saturday – particularly in the second half. But he’ll be fighting an uphill perception battle all season and his play against Virginia didn’t help it. Just remember that his offensive line and wide receivers don’t much either.
The question about Petty is his deep ball accuracy. He can pick teams apart in the short passing game, but he’s proven to be off routinely on deep routes. He was off again against SMU, overthrowing a few deeper passes in the first half. That may be attributed to a back injury early in the game that left the senior unable to really plant and drive the ball accurately.
Gurley good in return
A running back hasn’t been picked in the first round of the draft the past two years. Georgia’s Todd Gurley could be the exception to this trend.
The junior is coming back from a 2013 season where he struggled with a quadriceps injury and sprained ankle. On Saturday, Gurley had 293 all-purpose yards against Clemson, including a kickoff return of 100 yards.
Running the ball, Gurley had several impressive carries. A 23-yard touchdown up the middle showed his easy elusiveness. A 51-yard touchdown showed his speed to get to the outside and break a deep run. He runs like someone much smaller than 230 pounds. But he showed that bulk on this run, which I thought was the most impressive of the day:
Top wide receivers bunched up
Expect some of the top wide receivers in college football to be graded out similarly as NFL prospects. Those players include Southern California’s Nelson Agholor, Alabama’s Amari Cooper and Florida State’s Rashad Greene. Neither of the three are a massive 6-foot-4 easy mismatch wide out. Instead, they all create mismatches with quickness, speed and precise route running.
If you were to rate the three after Week 1, it would be Greene, Cooper and then Agholor. Greene had 11 catches for 203 yards and a touchdown against Oklahoma State. He was catching the ball outside his frame and showed breakaway speed.
Cooper pulled in 12 catches for 130 yards. He doesn’t get used often enough on deep routes, but has probably the best hands of the three. He didn’t have a bad game, but not a standout one like Greene. Agholor, who had a few splash plays against Fresno State comes in third due to some drops.
A player like Michigan’s Devin Funchess isn’t really comparable to those three. The converted tight end is a much bigger athlete and does some things the others cannot.
Injuries to note
There were several notable injuries from the weekend to keep in mind.
Petty won’t need surgery for two “cracked transverse processes,” but how the injury impacts him the rest of the season is worth monitoring. He is expected to play Saturday against Northwestern (La.) State. Although Petty (and Baylor) are after a Heisman Trophy, that doesn’t seem like the best decision.
Lauded Utah State linebacker Kyler Fackrell is out the rest of the season following a torn ACL against Tennessee. Fackrell is only a junior, but early speculation was that he may go pro after the season.
Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon had just four carries in the second half of Saturday’s game against LSU because of a hip flexor injury. Gordon still put together a good game (16 carries for 140 yards), but he was barely in the game the second half.
South Carolina running back Mike Davis is doubtful for the team’s game against East Carolina.
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