When Percy Harvin was reported by an obscure website to have tested positive for marijuana at the combine three weeks ago I said I wouldn't buy into that report until someone with more credibility put their name on it. While most of that original report's details were wrong, Harvin apparently is the one they got right. It's mind boggling to think someone could make that poor a decision knowing the exact time and place he was going to be tested, and it will hurt Harvin's stock. If he doesn't go to a pair of teams that have shown a willingness to take chances and need a WR - Baltimore at 26 or Tennessee at 30 - I suspect he will now fall out of the first round.
FSU continues to pursue their plan to appeal the loss of wins as a result of their NCAA academic eligiblity violations. One of Bobby Bowden's fellow ACC coaches is calling BS on that. Ralph Friedgen of Maryland puts it pretty bluntly too...
"Duke suspends a guy for a year. They (Florida State) got 36 of them and they don't lose a whole year?" Friedgen asked. "Yeah, I think it's [penalties] more than fair. They're [Florida State] playing with the guys I can't play with."
I give Friedgen credit for speaking out here. The easy thing to do is go along and get along. Unlike Lane Kiffin, Friedgen is correct about the rule and has credibility to back up his criticism. FSU got off very lightly, and they still don't seem to grasp that.
One of the questions any team asks as they prepare for the NFL Draft is how much emphasis they want to place on the Wonderlic test. Some scores had previously gotten out, but Pro Football Weekly's website has the first comprehensive list of everyone's scores I've seen this year. Percy Harvin had previously been reported to have gotten a 12, but now we know he actually answered 42 questions of the possible 50 in the timed test. I don't know how that compares with Cornelius Ingram getting a 13 out of 26 questions answered - do they give Ingram credit for being for more methodical as he looked for an answer or is he penalized for thinking too slowly? Interesting to note that no one got below a 9 this year. There've been some combines when kids have posted a 4. While I wouldn't be enthused about trying to be successful with a squad full of single digit Wonderlic guys, I think some teams go overboard on the importance of this thing.
We're all familiar with the basic college coach show format. Coach comes in to restaurant he doesn't want to be at, talks with the play by play guy about his team a bit, plays a ton of commercials (all of which feature the coach introducing himself in the opening), takes a few phone calls (that are heavily screened if the team is struggling), and says goodbye. They're a pretty dry exercise all the way around. Coaches are copycats, though, which gives us hope. Perhaps they'll steal an idea from Tom Izzo: The Musical! Instead of a dry discussion about post play, imagine a singing, dancing Billy Donovan performing Memory from Cats. It would add a whole retro, Dean Martin feel - ratings would be through the roof.
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