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First, Oklahoma softball player Kendall Wells is up to 34 home runs, closing in on the single-season record of 37 — with likely well over a dozen games still to go. Oh, and she’s a freshman. OU’s Jocelyn Alo holds the career record of 122, and that might already be in danger. All hail Softball Thor.
Grad School: Coronation for a Hoosier … and Golden Bear
During last night’s NFL Draft first round, as long expected, the Las Vegas Raiders made Fernando Mendoza the Hoosiers’ first No. 1 pick since 1938 running back Corbett Davis, who soon left the Cleveland Rams for World War II.
Pause for what remains a weekly occurrence: remembering Indiana is the football national champion, then lacking the capacity to believe it. Anyway. Back to business.
Last year around this time, it felt good to refer to No. 1 pick Cam Ward as being from Miami, Washington State and Incarnate Word. After all, if the FCS Cardinals hadn’t spotted the zero-star recruit at a camp, who knows if the eventual Tennessee Titan ever would’ve played in Division I?
Similar story for Mendoza. Justin Wilcox’s Cal was the Miami native’s only Power 4 offer. Mendoza redshirted there, then took the job of sideline decoy-signaler extremely seriously. He ended up starting for most of two seasons, led a 98-yard drive to beat nemesis Stanford, developed his grandma-charming public speaking and earned his bachelor’s. Then Curt Cignetti’s crew called.
Mendoza’s time in Berkeley also meant NFL scouts got to review how he performed when he didn’t have the inherent advantages of playing for Cignetti. From Bruce Feldman’s draft intel roundup:
“Going back to his two years at Cal, where it’s a dirty pocket, he’s got guys in his face, he’s getting messed up at Cal, and still delivering throwing seam balls while he’s getting smoked.”
Am I praising Cal for making life hard on Mendoza? I think so, yes.
Every step matters, whether they all happened at one place or included portal traversals. Sure, if we always credited every pick’s complete list of institutions, NFL Draft infographics would look as cluttered as those 2000s jackets that had every NBA team logo. TV commentators would need mnemonic devices to remember alma mater combos.
But here in this newsletter, we have the space. So congrats to athletes who played multiple years in the Pac-12 at Cal, Stanford (No. 2 David Bailey), Colorado/Arizona State (No. 8 Jordyn Tyson) and Utah (No. 9 Spencer Fano) for going in the top nine picks. Why’d we decide that conference wasn’t good enough to stick together? Rhetorical.
By any normal metric, Ohio State won last night’s first round, with its four picks in the first 11 falling short of only 1967 Michigan State’s four in the first eight. But safety Caleb Downs, who fell to the Cowboys at No. 11, would’ve been worthy of going as high as No. 2, meaning the Buckeyes probably should’ve beaten (!) that record.
But as demonstrated by No. 1 picks like Ward and Mendoza (and Caleb Williams, Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield and Cam Newton), transfers are key to so many stories. So let’s give partial credit to the schools that originally signed players who became first-rounders, in addition to the Pac-12 group above:
Virginia Tech (No. 6 Mansoor Delane, LSU)
Alabama (Downs)
Louisville (No. 18 Caleb Banks, Florida)
East Los Angeles (No. 21 Max Iheanachor, Arizona State)
West Virginia (No. 22 Akheem Mesidor, Miami)
NC State (No. 24 KC Concepcion, Texas A&M)
Purdue (No. 25 Dillon Thieneman, Oregon)
Middle Tennessee (No. 26 Keylan Rutledge, Georgia Tech)
And for all the jokes about a school hiring away a coach and then taking credit for the players he “developed” previously, it’d be valid to brag a little about hosting some or most of a first-rounder’s college career.
Sure, I understand why the Boilermakers shouldn’t draw attention to a player who left for the Ducks, technically a conference rival. But it’s weird to me that Cal didn’t post anything on socials last night about the No. 1 pick having 19 starts as a Golden Bear. That’s more times than Alabama started Ty Simpson (who was last night’s biggest surprise, taken No. 13 by the Rams, because any pick that used to belong to my Falcons must end up being weird).
Then again, of course:
“More often than not, a player’s performance at his most recent school is what got him drafted. It’s probably the tape teams are watching the most. Mendoza might have been a mid-round pick without his year at Indiana. Bailey had flashes at Stanford, but nothing like his monstrous season at Texas Tech.”
That’s from an answer on this topic in Stewart Mandel’s latest mailbag, where Stew concludes, “All of which is a long way of my saying: It’s probably fine to keep doing it the way we’ve been doing it.” In the official record books, at least.
Other bragging-rights stuff, based on tabulating players only by where they ended up:
For the second time in 16 years, as counted by Bryan Fischer, the SEC didn’t have the most first-rounders. Ten for the Big Ten (0.55 per school), seven for the SEC (0.43) … and six each for the ACC (0.35) and Big 12 (0.37), both allegedly left in the dust long ago.
Miami followed Ohio State with three in the top 22 (but won where it mattered most, in the Cotton Bowl quarterfinal).
Among the schools with two picks so far, Notre Dame joined 1987 Texas A&M, 2005 Auburn and 2008 Arkansas in the Two Halfbacks In One First Round club.
Shout out to San Diego State. It’s become harder than ever for non-P4 teams to produce top prospects, but new Dolphins corner Chris Johnson stuck around, presumably with little to no regret.
One more fun fact: The top two picks played against each other for archrivals Cal and Stanford, but almost did that in the Ivy League instead. Mendoza was committed to Yale, and it took a lot to sway Bailey from Harvard.
Other NFL Draft stuff in general:
IMO, the best picks, other than Downs: the Giants lucking into Ohio State LB Arvell Reese at No. 5, Tampa Bay getting Miami edge Rueben Bain at No. 15 and Thieneman landing in Chicago at No. 25. Full grades here by Nick Baumgardner and Scott Dochterman.
Aura award: Clemson DT Peter Woods, the money-green star of an all-in-white party.
The big names likely to go tonight, per Nick, include quarterbacks Garrett Nussmeier of LSU, Drew Allar of Penn State and Cole Payton of North Dakota State. Miami’s Carson Beck also hanging around somewhere.
“Being scared to train guys and push them too much because they’ll get in the portal.” One theory on why this draft’s defensive tackles make for an unimpressive group.
Quick Snaps
🌲 A fundraiser, a key voice in the personnel department … and also kind of an unofficial assistant coach. Andrew Luck talked to our Sam Khan about what his GM role means at Stanford.
🤔 One of many examples of things that are normal in other sports, but would cause garment-rending hysteria in college football: NHL draftees going back to play in college.
💰 Kalen DeBoer’s new $12.5 million salary should be viewed in light of those rumors from months ago that other schools wanted to poach him from Alabama. Agreements take time to get finalized.
📰 News:
Paige Shiver, who was Sherrone Moore’s executive assistant, spoke out in a Good Morning America interview, saying she was previously pregnant with the since-fired Michigan coach’s child.
“Florida State, looking to end QB woes, names Auburn transfer Ashton Daniels starter.”
“The College Sports Commission has its first serious challenger. Football players from the University of Nebraska are challenging more than a million dollars of third-party NIL deals rejected by college sports’ new enforcement arm.”
“Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has publicly questioned the decision-making at the University of Kentucky, including the seven-figure gig retiring athletic director Mitch Barnhart was recently given.”
You’re not gonna believe this, but the College Football Playoff has resumed arguing among itself about itself.
🕵️♀️ What’s Jordon Hudson been up to lately? Still FOIAing her boyfriend’s workplace, for one thing.
Portal Stuff: Hire a coach, gain his experienced roster
Quick note from another Sam Khan post, one on the big-picture numbers from this year’s portal period. Which teams gained the most overall experience via the transfer give-and-take?
“Penn State led the way in net career starts gained in the portal with 206. Next on the list are Oklahoma State (201), Texas Tech (189), Kansas (181), Arkansas (179), Texas A&M (175), LSU (161), UCF (160), Kentucky (156) and Florida State (147).”
Still bizarre that the Nittany Lions almost entirely skipped adding recruits on signing day, then managed to stumble into hiring Matt Campbell — and probably ended up totally fine, thanks to what would’ve been a promising Iowa State roster.
As for rosters that are starting over:
“A dozen Power 4 teams lost more combined career starts than they gained: California (92), Mississippi State (43), BYU (42), Iowa State (42), Boston College (38), Virginia Tech (31), Clemson (30), Michigan (28), Utah (24), Auburn (10) and Oklahoma (4).”
Setting a reminder to award partial credit to the Cyclones for some of Penn State’s draftees over the next year or two. More numbers here.
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