Mel Kiper Jr. seen here
eating his heart out.
Earlier this year, and I mean early, a series of discussions on various ND football boards, plus a lot of writing about how the talent on ND's roster so "clearly" "outclasses" so much of the talent on the rosters of the opposition of 2009, got myself and a few other ND football bloggers to thinking about what a mock-draft of all that talent (Irish and not) might look like. So we decided to hold our own mock draft, and very soon we'll start presenting each player picked in that draft across the various blogs.
The participating blogs in this inaugural (hopefully) exercise were, in alpha-order: The Blue-Gray Sky, Classic Ground, Rakes of Mallow, and HLS (with a guest appearance by Joe). And right up-front I'd like to thank the participants for trudging through the actual draft process in such patient and well-studied fashion. I eagerly look forward to reading their presentations of their picks and to writing my own.
Meanwhile, over there on the right of the screen (if you're actually reading this on the HLS site), you'll notice a little draft pick ticker I slapped together. Watch it carefully, as I'll be adding the names of draft picks and links to their corresponding presentations as they become available here and at the other participating sites.
And now for some details about the draft. First, the rules.
- Each team will include 11 defensive players, 11 offensive players, a kicker, punter, kick returner, and punt returner.
- A player can play only 1 offensive role, 1 defensive role, and may play both punt and kick return.
- A player can be drafted from anywhere on his real-world team's depth chart.
- Offensive teams must involve C, both T, both G, QB, one RB, one WR, and one TE. The other 2 remaining offensive slots may be filled with whatever combination of "flex" players, but may not include C, T, G, or QB.
- Defensive teams must involve at least 3 defensive linemen (DE and DT), and at least 3 linebackers. Also, GMs must develop either a 4-3 or a 3-4. So either your team will include 4 DL, 3 LB, and 4 DB or 3 DL, 4 LB, and 4 DB.
- No DCE'ing. We'd all like to know what Golden Tate could do from the tailback position, but let's leave him at WR. Same for DE/LB type guys.
- Draft order was determined by
random number generatorpicking names from a hat. Whoever has first pick in the previous round is rotated to last pick of the next round. After the first 2 rounds, GMs took turns making 2 consecutive picks at a time to speed things up.
And now for some meta-info on the draft results:
- 5 Teams were drafted by 4 "GMs" and one team of "co-GMs" among the 4 participating sites.
- As math would have it, 130 players were drafted.
- 12 different positions saw a player from another team drafted before any Notre Dame players were drafted for that same position.
- My personal team only includes 1 Michigan (sucks!) player.
- Notre Dame was best represented in the draft with a full 11 picks more than SoCal.
- 3 Midshipmen were drafted.
- Nevada was as well represented as MSU. In fact, Nevada was better represented than BC.
- UConn was represented even better than Nevada. And UConn was 1 pick shy of tying Michigan (sucks!).
- Washington State and Washington have the exact same number of picks.
- 36 picks separated the #2 QB pick and the #3 QB pick.
Soon, Joe will reveal the #1 pick in the 2009 draft, and then we'll have 130 opportunities for some great debate among the blogs and the readers. I hope you enjoy it.
By san diego irish July 29, 2009 - 5:09 pm
Good idea DMQ. It will be an interesting way to compare ND to the kids they will be playing. I would hope that Clausen, Tate, Floyd, Rudolph, and Walls would be first off the board at their positions.
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By trey July 29, 2009 - 9:15 pm
Doesn’t THE Blue-Gray Sky come after RAKES of Mallow, alphabetically?
…jk
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By BJDomer July 30, 2009 - 2:51 am
SDI, I’d take Kaepernick over Clausen. That is, if this were a fantasy draft. If this were an NFL mock draft, Clausen probably would go first. I’m really unsure as to what the criteria for choosing a player are. Other than that, though, I think the guys you mentioned will be top picks at their respective positions.
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By Adam July 30, 2009 - 6:47 am
3 Midshipmen were drafted, eh? I’m guessing they were Middleton, Pospisil, and Dobbs.
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By domer.mq July 30, 2009 - 8:13 am
You’re just gonna have to wait for the end of the film, Adam.
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By domer.mq July 30, 2009 - 8:13 am
Trey, I was doing it like this “Blue-Gray Sky, The”
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By domer.mq July 30, 2009 - 8:15 am
BJDomer, it’s hard to speak to the exact philosophy of each GM, as we left it a bit nebulous. We did discuss doing an actual Fantasy Season with our picks, but it’s too much work right now. Perhaps in the future, when we have the technology. Anyway, as the draft went on, it seemed people were picking based on actual talent for the college game rather than any perceived notion of an ability to accumulate massive fantasy points. If Graham Harrel had been available, I think he’d have been picked late.
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By san diego irish July 30, 2009 - 9:30 am
BJ–how many times have you watched Kaepernic play? I only saw his bowl game last year, and was not all that impressed with his passing ability or running ability. He may have put up good numbers and a lot of points, but until I see him play against some non-WAC caliber teams, I’m not jumping on his bandwagon. Against Missouri, Hawaii, Fresno State, Boise State and Maryland he completed about 50% of his passes. And against Maryland he only rushed for 15 yards (probably more if you take out the sacks). I know this is bad karma for me to be downplaying the kid right before he plays ND, but I’m not sure what all the hype is about.
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By BJDomer July 30, 2009 - 11:46 am
In terms of talent, Clausen should be the first QB, no question. But in a fantasy style draft, I would take Kaepernick. He was very average in the two games I watched (Boise State and Maryland). But he sure can run. He had 39 (22 pass, 17 run) total touchdowns last season. That total should increase this year. I doubt that Clausen will get to 40 total touchdowns. From a talent standpoint, there is no argument. But factoring in competition and offensive style, Kaepernick gets the fantasy edge in my book. Of course, DMQ said it was more of a pure talent draft, so I suppose Clausen should go first.
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By trey July 30, 2009 - 1:23 pm
Biscuit, just being a hardass and giving you some grief.
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By san diego irish July 30, 2009 - 1:42 pm
BJ — I see your point about the fantasy draft. I was just curious what you thought of him as a qb in general. Again, I haven’t seen enough of him to give a fair assessment. But based on stats, I think maybe he’s a tad overhyped. Time will tell.
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By Her Loyal Sons » 2009 ND vs. Opposition Draft: Classic Ground’s First 2 Picks… August 2, 2009 - 4:03 pm
[...] the first out of the gates with his first 2 picks in the inaugural ND vs. Opposition Draft with his choices of Taylor Mays and Golden Tate for his 1st and 2nd round [...]
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By Her Loyal Sons » 2009 ND vs. Opposition Draft: Classic Ground’s 3rd and 4th Rounders August 4, 2009 - 2:02 pm
[...] Ground keeps plugging away with his write-ups of his draft picks in our 2009 ND vs. Opposition Mock Draft. The terms “substantial” and “girthy” come to mind. Check them out. [...]
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By Her Loyal Sons » 2009 ND vs. Opposition Draft: Classic Ground’s Pick Are Brought To You By The Numbers: 7 and 8 August 6, 2009 - 5:02 pm
[...] just really starts digging deep in the talent pool with his picks for round 7 and 8 of the 2009 ND vs. Opposition Draft. He also starts to make me feel guilty about having only finished 2 write-ups. So, off to [...]
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By Her Loyal Sons » 2009 ND vs. Opposition Draft: HLS’s 6th Round Pick – #33 August 17, 2009 - 12:15 pm
[...] of 2009, folks from The Blue-Gray Sky, Classic Ground, Rakes of Mallow, and Her Loyal Sons held a mock draft from a pool of talent consisting of the rosters of the 2009 Notre Dame Fighting Irish a… for that season. As the season approaches, we’re presenting our picks in hopes of sparking [...]
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By Eighty Fiver August 23, 2009 - 2:01 pm
Hey Adam, my guess for three Mids would be Pospisil, Doyle, and Battipaglia. Middleton is good enough, but not on anybody’s radar. (Same with Big Nate, now a former Mid.) Dobbs is very good but fits only the Mids offense.
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By Her Loyal Sons » 2009 ND vs. Opposition Draft: HLS’s 7th Round Pick – #40 August 26, 2009 - 11:40 am
[...] of 2009, folks from The Blue-Gray Sky, Classic Ground, Rakes of Mallow, and Her Loyal Sons held a mock draft from a pool of talent consisting of the rosters of the 2009 Notre Dame Fighting Irish a… for that season. As the season approaches, we’re presenting our picks in hopes of sparking [...]
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