Our weekly #TwitterTuesday file continues this week where you ask National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell your football questions via social media. Here are numerous questions including who leads the way for the 2019 NFL Draft.
MORE FARRELL: Three-point stance | Godfather & Gorney podcast
I’m still a big Nick Bosa fan when it comes to the NFL Draft, but I’ll give you my top 10 overall. Here it is….
Justin Hebert, Oregon
Christian Wilkins, Clemson
Ed Oliver, Houston
Devin White, LSU
Greedy Williams, LSU
Jonah Williams, Alabama
Rashan Gary, Michigan
Clelin Ferrell, Clemson
Deandre Baker, Georgia
And no, it’s not that deep a draft at certain positions and is top heavy at others. I like the defensive line prospects, especially at defensive tackle, and the offensive line is well-represented at the top as is cornerback, but positions like quarterback, running back and others appear to be very thin.
Gus Malzahn. Bobby Petrino and Larry Fedora are also up there and it’s not a great year for the Hot Seat, but Auburn has been such a disappointment that Malzahn has to be the top choice here. Auburn, led by Jarrett Stidham, has played down to competition consistently this year and you have to point to the head coach as the reason. Stidham has regressed, the offense looks awful and a solid defense can’t overcome the shortcomings.
The problem? Malzahn has a ridiculous buyout and won’t be going anywhere soon unless Auburn wants to choke on that big money. But if this season continues to be a nightmare and next year is as bad or worse, he will be gone sooner than later.
Louisville has become a joke under Petrino this season and UNC is an absolute disaster, so all three of them are on shaky ground right now. However, no one has put a target on their back more than Malzahn.
Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown is a great coach and has been a head coach while he was at Northeastern and UMass, but I hear his age works against him for a head coaching job. He should be a hot name out there, but at 63 years old, a lot of teams don’t want to take a chance at someone that age to run their program at the Power Five level and that’s where he would want to coach.
He’s accepted that he’s going to be a defensive coordinator for the rest of his career and Michigan is a great gig. One note on Brown that not many people know -- he was the head baseball coach at Yale in 1992 and went 26-10 overall. This guy is a sports genius.
We actually didn’t do too badly with Ian Book’s rating. We had him as a top 15 pro-style quarterback back in 2016 and a high three-star despite the lack of height. And it’s not like he was heavily recruited at all, having Notre Dame as his biggest offer by far. Book had only seven offers, didn’t have any interest from the big programs out west and wasn’t a kid with great physical skills. Notre Dame saw something others didn’t see and he’s turned out to be a great find for them. I’m not embarrassed by our ranking of Book at all. We got It right, especially based on his pro potential beyond college.
Michigan has a chance my friend. I wasn’t down on them too badly after the Notre Dame loss and still felt they were a solid team and they continue to improve each week. The problem? They have Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State left on the schedule and that’s not an easy road.
I currently have Michigan beating the Spartans and Nittany Lions but losing to Ohio State in a showdown and missing the playoff, but I would not be surprised at all if they ran the table and made it all the way to the final four. I think they are playing that well and the difference between Ohio State and Michigan is not that great.
The SEC leads the way and then there’s a drop off after that. I would put the Big Ten at No. 2 followed by the Big 12 and then the ACC and I have the Pac-12 pulling up the rear.
As for the AAC, they could make a case for being better than the ACC and placing fourth if it was a Power Six, but I hesitate a little bit because they have some really, really bad teams in conference. This year hasn’t been a strong one consistently in the Power Five conferences so a good argument could place the AAC in there somewhere, but I feel strongly that the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 would be ahead of them regardless.
If I had to predict, the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Notre Dame make up the playoff teams with Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and the Irish all in great shape, but anything can happen. Even with Clemson’s chances of making the playoff very good, the ACC is awful otherwise, so the AAC could slide in there at No. 4 with a strong discussion.
But it doesn’t matter. UCF or whoever comes out of the AAC won’t make the playoff so there’s no need discussing it at great length. That’s life in the big city.
