Mel Kiper is a draft guru who consults for ESPN, so he’s on throughout their draft coverage–which this coming year will be April 25-27. He’s a controversial figure–you either love him or hate him. But he was a pioneer in analyzing players for the draft. My brother used to order his draft guide back when he and his wife produced it in a mom-and-pop operation in his house.

For the last few years, I’ve taken to watching the coverage on NFL Network rather than ESPN; Mike Mayock is the draft guru there. But I still have a lot of respect for how Kiper helped make draft analysis must-see TV. And he’s made some great calls through the years on players with pro potential.

You kind of have to be a draft buff … but both the Combine in February and the Draft in April are on nonstop at my house.

You’re kidding, right?

If not, then I guess you don’t have April 25-27 already marked on your 2013 calendar.

That goes right over the heads of the haters.

Sheez!

Why are some Irish fans so nervous? Let them play the game first.

No crap, Dick Tracy.

Go Irish.

The regular refs were back the next week.

Another aspect no one has mentioned was the way the crowd was in the game last night, both sides.

Good college football.

True. The NFL’s hypocrisy over gambling blows my mind. The only reason NFL coaches are required to give injury reports is to facilitate oddsmakers. From a competitive standpoint, it’s insane to provide your opponent information on who will be starting or who is injured–and precisely how he’s been injured–for an upcoming game. But how can the oddsmakers safely make their bets without that information? However, let a player invest in some casino property in Mississippi or a slots joint in Alabama and the league goes berserk.

I do think the league has to draw a hard line between players/coaches/owners and gambling. But I’d have more respect for them if they toed the same mark.

I like old time announcers like Lundquist and Mussberger (sp?). Lindsey Nelson was my favorite.

30-40y ago there were persistent rumors that Keith Jackson had property in Baton Rouge and was going to relocate.

If last night’s game wasn’t a great game, we wouldn’t be talking about it today.

I just wish the season could wind up by Xmas instead of being drawn out for so long, but it is a business after all and $$$ speaks.

At least the gambling industry isn’t the power it is with the NFL.

My brother likes Danielson because he’s knowledgeable, which is true. But he never shuts up. It’s grating after a while.

Yes, he drove me nuts on that hit. It was a dirty hit, no doubt. And it should have been flagged. But it would have been a 15-yard penalty on the kickoff–period. It wasn’t a game-changing play. It was no more brutal than the previous hit on McCarron. Murray clearly wasn’t hurt, and Richt blew it off when asked. It made no sense to keep implying that Murray may have had some secret head injury.

However, what angered me most was when he made a point of targeting the Georgia receiver who caught the tipped ball at game’s end. That was a fluke play, and the kid acted on pure instinct. Yes, it would have been better to let the ball fall to the ground–but don’t lay the loss on that kid. The primary blame falls on the coaches. These aren’t NFL players–they’re college kids. It irks me when announcers start laying blame on a kid for a game of that magnitude.

Totally agree, except for that ending about the Gators. Louisiana passed a reciprocal law when they found out Florida had such a law that it is illegal to speak good of or support the Florida Gators, especially when they beat you in that season. (I think the law may have been in effect since Tebow’s days.) Even air space is included in the law.

It was offered that Murray motioned to spike the ball and his coach(es) rejected that and signaled for him to proceed with the called play. Another complication may be that the final pass from Murray may have been deflected and was caught by a receiver to which it was not thrown. If not for a fingertip, the pass may have been compete for a TD or out of bounds, clock stops. Another play can be run.

I don’t have proof for these things but some who have seen it say it is so. Someone with better vision and maybe some better technology may be able to confirm this. Would be quite an interesting and entertaining conclusion to the SEC championship game.

But as a coach, he blew this one. As JT appropriately pointed out, and I think every fan (for BOTH teams) expected, spike the ball, regroup, and run 2 or 3 plays, all passes, into the end zone. If Aaron Murray is as advertised, and I think he proved he is, give him potentially three shots at the end zone, and I think UGA is boarding a flight to Miami for the meeting with ND.

BTW, as much as I love my Gators, if only one other SEC team gets a BCS bowl bid, I hope it’s Georgia. They earned it. They beat us, then they proved they belonged among the best in the country. Heck, they came 4 yards short of playing for it all. They deserve a BCS bowl slot. Just my opinion.

While I have often thought Verne Lundquist needed to retire and that Tim Brando is just an arrogant ass who thinks he knows everything when he is often shown to be dead wrong, I had always liked Gary…until last night. The way he and Verne kept harping on the hit on Murray after the interception was ridiculous, and the clip of it got more airtime than Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction.” It sounded almost like they were going to cry after the interception with less than a minute left in the game that eventually got overturned on replay.

Also, Bama got lucky…..again! Can’t wait to hear this hypocritical good game crap after ND crushes you

Why would the SEC favor the higher team? ‘Bama was #2, Georgia was #3. Regardless of who won, that team would be #2 in the BCS and would go on to play Notre Dame for the national title.

Yes, I second, third, and so on your posts. To quote Andy, “What it was was football,” and these silly boobs will forever try to make it something else just to soothe their bruised egos. They’ll also never get why we’d have been rooting for whichever of our teams made it to this game, regardless of any animosity we experienced along the way. SEC! SEC!

@thecrazyasian …

Prevent defense … arrrgggghhh!!!

@thegamecocker …

You made me laugh out loud. So did the ND guy who doesn’t understand your name. Apparently they’ve never even heard of the South Carolina Gamecocks

Sent from my iPhone

Maybe they can get a video, if not him. Would be great for a promo or something…what a great idea.

“A-la-bam-ma” one more time