Earlier today Matt Brown of Sports on Earth dropped his updated list of the Top 100 Players for the 2015 Season. This seemed to dovetail quite nicely with HLS’s “Know Thyself, Know Thy Enemy” series (which will return next week after a brief hiatus). Obviously, this is prime time for making lists, “getting on the record,” and making sweet predictions. The blogger/writer/pundit glory that comes with pointing to something you wrote in June or July knows no bounds. However, I find myself oddly drawn to these lists.
Sometimes they help key me into a player that perhaps I haven’t paid enough attention to. Other times, they help me see where I disagree with some dude (or dudette, I’m equal opportunity here) that I’ve never met. For instance, While Brown had all of the QB’s I mentioned in last week’s KTKTE: QB piece, had he been writing it, the opponent to watch he’d have selected would be DeShaun Watson who Brown rated as the number one college quarterback in the nation coming into 2015 (He had Kessler at #2, Zaire at #24, and Golson at #25 among QB’s). Look, we’re quibbling a bit, but this decision surprised me a touch. Clemson lost a lot of weapons (as did USC), but Watson’s also coming off a torn ACL and lacks the experience of Kessler.
Needless to say, they’re both really good. Tex compared a lot of things to jumping off of things earlier this week, but for me, the worst part of “Fear Factor” was always the nasty things they made them eat. Facing either of these guys will be a lot like having to eat a mummified testicle (you can choose the animal…goat…bull…Whale Wolf) while listening to DJ Freakbass on the loud speaker and not throwing up. In other words, I’m not looking forward to it. But that’s the point of reading and considering these lists. I enjoy reading these lists even if I don’t 100% agree with them.
I went through Brown’s list and figured out how many players each opponent on ND’s schedule, along with ND had, and well…..it’s NOT all testicle consumption and base jumps! In fact, the Irish tied with USC for the greatest number of players on the list at 5 a piece (Ohio State, Michigan State, and LSU are all expected to be pretty good in a real spoiler alert as they each had 45 players on the list…or thereabouts….45 in an SEC-math-course-kind-of-way at least). Clemson and Pitt both checked in with 2 a piece. Virginia, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and Navy all had representation as well. Oh, and you’re not reading that wrong, Texas did not have anyone mentioned, and their mascot apparently tweets about not coming to ND.
For those of us who follow Notre Dame day after day, year after year, I don’t think the players identified on the list are shockers. What is shocking, to me at least, is to see that so many Irish players are being nationally valued at an extremely high level. Usually these types of lists come out and there is a collective groan from Irish faithful about how the team’s players are being disrespected. No such groan will be forthcoming this year, but be careful…
After all, this is just a list of players. Not a list of top teams, depth of talent, cohension of scheme, or general execution. This year is still far more about those types of things than it is about lists of top players. But dang it, it’s nice to feel invited to the national party. It feels even better that by the next time I write the calendar will read “August.”
So, let me finish with a list of my own. Moons’ Reasons for Why Notre Dame Should be Forced to Join a Conference:
1…………………..
Players Making Browns’ List (Rank in Parentheses):
Notre Dame
Will Fuller, WR (93)
KeiVarae Russell, CB (87)
Sheldon Day, DT (84)
Jaylon Smith, LB (19)
Ronnie Stanley, OT (7)
Navy:
Keenan Reynolds, QB (97)
Georgia Tech
Justin Thomas, QB (88)
Stanford
Joshua Garnett, OG (66)
Virginia
Quin Blanding, S (49)
USC
JuJu Smith, WR (100)
Max Turek, C (46)
Adoree Jackson, CB (44)
Cody Kessler, QB (14)
Su’a Cravens, LB (8)
Clemson
Mackensie Alexander, CB (42)
DeShaun Watson, QB (10)
Pittsburgh
Tyler Boyd, WR (36)
James Conner, RB (35)
Survivor of the Davie, O'Leary, Willingham football eras. Southern. Charming and more often than not the wittiest person at his dinner table (he eats alone quite a bit).
- Who the _______ am I Watching? ND’s Depth Chart (Literally) by the Numbers (Part II) - August 29, 2019
- Who the _______ am I Watching? ND’s Depth Chart (Literally) by the Numbers - August 27, 2019
- The People’s Free Guide to ND Football 2019 - August 26, 2019
Folston should be on there as well. He could possibly enter the draft after this year. Remember I said this.
I remember everything I read on The Internets.
#RTDTF.