Scooch
Living Legend
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- Aug 27, 2011
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Over the weekend I read numerous exchanges where one poster would reference a need for more talent and/or depth in the program, while another poster would retort that they've been hearing about the need for more talent and/or depth forever.
I fell into a Pro Football Reference rabbit hole earlier today while looking at draft results, triggered by the news of the untimely passing of Terry Glenn. While using NFL draft results is certainly not the be-all, end-all of college talent conversations, it's a useful input and can provide directional guidance.
So here's what I found...
In the 14 years of the Paul Pasqualoni NFL draft era (1992 through 2005) SU had 32 players drafted. Notably, 17 of those 32 draftees (53%) were taken in the first 3 rounds. Generally speaking I feel that top 3 rounds is a useful distinction to make, as those picks tend to come with expectations that the player will become an NFL starter at some point in their career. Also of note, 5 of the 17 top 3 round picks were offensive skill position players (McNabb, Harrison, K. Johnson, Konrad, Ismail).
In the 12 years of drafts post-Paqualoni (2006 through 2017) SU had 20 players drafted, and just 4 of them were taken in the first 3 rounds (20%). None of those 4 included an offensive skill position player.
I realize that none of this is breaking news. But the starkness of this data should inform the conversation about talent. SU simply does not have the quantity of high-impact, game-changing players that it once did.
It is extraordinarily difficult to compete in the ACC Atlantic against programs that have much deeper pools of talent than us.
Look at NC State as an example. I don't think any of us would consider that school elite, and yet in the 2006-2017 time frame they have produced 31 NFL draft picks (+55% more than SU), 12 of which went in the top 3 rounds (+200% more than SU).
The past 6 quarters of SU football have been immensely frustrating, and there are legitimate questions to be raised in terms of scheme. But the reality is that the staff should also get praise for figuring out how to beat Clemson, and compete to the last possession with LSU, NC State, Miami and FSU when at such a large talent differential. The notion that the staff should simply "coach up" inferior talent to wins is not rooted in reality.
Hope this data adds to the discussion.
I fell into a Pro Football Reference rabbit hole earlier today while looking at draft results, triggered by the news of the untimely passing of Terry Glenn. While using NFL draft results is certainly not the be-all, end-all of college talent conversations, it's a useful input and can provide directional guidance.
So here's what I found...
In the 14 years of the Paul Pasqualoni NFL draft era (1992 through 2005) SU had 32 players drafted. Notably, 17 of those 32 draftees (53%) were taken in the first 3 rounds. Generally speaking I feel that top 3 rounds is a useful distinction to make, as those picks tend to come with expectations that the player will become an NFL starter at some point in their career. Also of note, 5 of the 17 top 3 round picks were offensive skill position players (McNabb, Harrison, K. Johnson, Konrad, Ismail).
In the 12 years of drafts post-Paqualoni (2006 through 2017) SU had 20 players drafted, and just 4 of them were taken in the first 3 rounds (20%). None of those 4 included an offensive skill position player.
I realize that none of this is breaking news. But the starkness of this data should inform the conversation about talent. SU simply does not have the quantity of high-impact, game-changing players that it once did.
It is extraordinarily difficult to compete in the ACC Atlantic against programs that have much deeper pools of talent than us.
Look at NC State as an example. I don't think any of us would consider that school elite, and yet in the 2006-2017 time frame they have produced 31 NFL draft picks (+55% more than SU), 12 of which went in the top 3 rounds (+200% more than SU).
The past 6 quarters of SU football have been immensely frustrating, and there are legitimate questions to be raised in terms of scheme. But the reality is that the staff should also get praise for figuring out how to beat Clemson, and compete to the last possession with LSU, NC State, Miami and FSU when at such a large talent differential. The notion that the staff should simply "coach up" inferior talent to wins is not rooted in reality.
Hope this data adds to the discussion.
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