Yeah, but the game was entirely different. The record over the last few years is more indicative. And are you really arguing with me over something that agrees with what you said? :lol:

Not NFL but tomorrow is the BCS National Championship game between Alabama and Notre Dame. Going for Bama purely to see Jesse Williams play it big on the biggest stage, he has a big one, lock him in for the 1st round of the draft.

The Nose Tackle depth chart in the draft is pretty strong, and demand won't be as high as it was last year for pass rushers. I'd say he'll be an early second round pick.

Like to see him do well, but as a long time Notre Dame fan, i really hope they win it.
Mmmm, just thinking, a National Championship for Notre Dame and a Superbowl for the Packers. Might end up being a great season for me!

Notre Dame have made a huge step up this season. Why do you follow Notre Dame?

Same reason I follow the Packers. When I was growing up there was little NFL on TV and no internet and stuff, so all I knew about American football came from books in the library. Some of them dated back to the 60's. And the best teams in the those books were Green Bay and Notre Dame. It was reinforced later on by seeing movies like 'Rudy' and 'Knute Rockne: All American' and reading more about the intertwined histories (Curly Lambeau was an Notre Dame alumni)
I've been to Notre Dame too, we dropped into the campus on our way back to Toronto from seeing the Packers play in Green Bay. Didn't see a game, but had a walk around the campus and the stadium. Got my picture taken with Touchdown Jesus :d and holding an Aussie flag outside the football stadium.

I wasn't really expecting them to beat Alabama today, but I didn't expect them to be blown out either. :cry: Here's hoping it doesn't affect their recruiting and they can build on this years success.

IF anyone's interested in the other NCAA titles...

Poor Wisconsin lost their third Rose Bowl in three years (:lol:) 20-14 against Stanford.
Florida State crushed Northern Illanois in the Orange Bowl 31-15
Louisville beat the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl 33-23
Oregon Ducks won their second straight bowl, beating Kansas State 35-17 in the Fiesta Bowl.

Congrats to Afro for finishing equal top in our tipping comp. I finished 3 points behind in 4th. In hinsight, I probablshouldn'thave tried to go for a couple of upsets in the final round.

Cheers bro. I was pretty stoked with my efforts this season. Disappointed I didn't get one more point though :lol:

Equal first in tipping, won both my fantasy leagues. :cool:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1482995-2013-nfl-mock-draft-latest-projections-after-divisional-playoffs/page/15

I wouldn't count on that. I reckon the Panthers will look to beef up their secondary with their first round pick. But they've got a lot of needs to cover with Smith getting old they're going to need a WR, an OT to better protect the read option, their entire secondary and most of the D-line need changes but they have very little cap room.

With Jags looking likely to take Lotulelei with the second pick, Jesse's the next best ranked DT in the draft on many boards.

He could go as high as pick 6 at Cleveland who look to beef up their defence. The Titans at pick 10 have a number of issues on their D-line and he could land there.

For my money though, he's going to end up at pick 18 with Dallas - there's a good chance that they're going to end up switching to 4-3 next season so they're going to need reinforcements on the D-line.

Sigh. Thought it would be a few weeks longer before we had to start thinking about the draft. So disappointing.
Mock drafts are just that. Mel Kiper is supposed to be the godfather of the NFL draft and he still gets it wrong most of the time. Williams could easily fall to the second round, and the Packers have a bucnh of young players in the secondary, I can;t see them taking a FS with their first pick. It's their run defence that'll be a priority.

The main reason we got taken apart by Kaepernick was because the safety couldn't get up fast enough to cover the open field when a blitz was called. KAepernick would just take off into open field. A new safety would fix this and help sure up our run defence (worth noting that we DID shut down Gore and Peterson the last two weeks).

What we REALLY need is to find some more consistency an offensive line which gave up 51 sacks last season. We're going to end up with compensatory picks, I'd like to see us try and trade up for Chance Warmack which would allow us to keep Dietrich Smith at Centre. Josh Sitton let us down a lot this season.

True about the OL, but I don't think we'll draft a DB cause we have young guys in Burnett, Hayward, Jennings and Shields, plus James Nixon. All these guys are 25 or less and will be expected to step up. Not saying the secondary isn't a concern, but there's enough potential there that they won't use a high draft pick on a DB.

For 28 teams, thats the focus right now. I know thats all im thinking about in terms of the Titans. I posted that because its nice to see him being rated so highly.

In terms of the titans, unless all the high ranked players are gone, we will be going O-Line. Our biggest need. Be interesting to see what happens at the top, the Chiefs and Jags desperately need a Franchise QB, but of the draft stocks, i dont see any of the QBs being legit Number 1s. At the moment i have Geno going first purely on KCs need. Lotulelei going second and the Jags drafting Matt Barkley in the 2nd.

I don't rate MD Jennings, and Macmillan is better as nickel corner than as a safety. We do need to find an intimidaing safety - Woodson doens't have long left in him - but I think we'll be looking to free agency and someone like Landry or Moore.

Essentially, I agree completely, our first round pick won't be used on the secondary, we'll look for a Guard like Warmack or Cooper. That said, if we're fortunate enough to have one of the big OLB/DE's like Mingo or Ansah fall to us, we'll take them in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't be surprised to see us trade up twice to get Warmack and then try to get Lacy.

The Jags are the key to the draft. They've got needs all over the park. They've got two very talented WR's in Shorts and Blackmon and Gabbert hasn't stood up, but that's partly due to his O-line being the pits. They also need a pass rush, D-line and DB's. They could draft a QB but so soon after drafting Gabbert is a big gamble in a week QB class. I'd say they'll take Lotulelei or Joeckel.

Obviously a lot can happen between now and April but I'm thinking it'll go something thus:
1. Kansas City - Geno Smith (QB). The Chiefs need a QB, there's no questioning that and little will change on that front in the next couple of months. Smith is the best QB in the draft.
2. Jacksonville - Star Lotulelei (DT). Jags have needs everywhere, got to start somewhere and Lotulelei is a star they can count on.
3. Oakland - Damontre Moore (DE). They're losing a lot of their edge on D and need a big man to make plays.
4. Philadelphia - Luke Joeckel (OT) The O-line was a huge thorn in their side this season, exposed for a complete lack of depth.
5. Detroit Lions - Dee Milliner (CB). The Lions defence has been struggling for years and they've finally got the chance to address that. At 6'2", Milliner is the kind of DB teams are looking for to take on the new breed of WR's.
6. Cleveland Browns - Jarvis Jones (OLB). Cleveland have some budding talents on the offensive side of the ball, now it's time to get some pressure from the other side. Someone to support D'Qwell Jackson.
7. Arizona Cardinals - Matt Barkley (QB). With Smith already landing in Kansas you've got to expect the Cardinals to take the next best QB. Even the second best QB in this draft is better than Kolb and Skelton.
8. Buffalo Bills - Alec Ogletree (ILB). They need to sure up their defence to close out games. Mario Williams can't do it all himself.
9. New York Jets - Barkevious Mingo (DE). They've got needs galore on offence, but Rex Ryan always goes for a defensive player with his first pick.
10. Tennessee Titans - Eric Fisher (OT). They (like a lot of teams this year) need to fix their offensive line to give a mediocre QB a better chance. I'd have them taking Wamack, but having stronger tackles will also get more production out of Johnson.
11. San Diego Chargers - Chance Wamack (OG). Another team with O-line issues. Just pick him, give him an under-sized jersey and forget about the position for the next decade.
12. Miami Dolphins - Keenan Allen (WR). The first WR to go up. Dolphins need support for Tannehill bad and they'll trade up to get him if they have to. He's Miami bound regardless.
13. Tampa Bay - Xavier Rhodes (CB). After losing Talib on deadline day they'll snap at the chance to get a big physical corner like Rhodes.
14. Carolina Panthers - Cordarelle Patterson (WR). Newton looked ordinary this year and that was largely down to a rift with his #1 Wide-out and a sense of having to carry the team himself. They'll bring in reinforcements this year.
15. New Orleans Saints - Ezekiel Ansah (DE). They need to bring back some venom to their pocket pressure and a DE/OLB who's mobile and athletic like Ansah is ideal.
16. St Louis Rams - Lane Johnson (OT). Another team with O-line needs. Best available player.
17. Pittsburgh Steelers - Matt Elam (SS). An ageing defence needs some serious changes if they're going to the 'bowl again in Big Ben's time.
18. Dallas Cowboys - Jesse Williams (DT). This is where Jesse gets off. The Cowboys have some strong DB's but the opposition often have all day to throw. Someone like Jesse who can push the pocket is ideal.
19. New York Giants - Eric Ried (S). A lack of depth and proficiency was demonstrated this season on a number of occasions. Time to rebuild that secondary around a new Safety.
20. Chicago Bears - DJ Fluker (OT). Their ageing offensive line needs to be fixed ASAP. their ground production fell off this year because of an inability to set the edge resulting in a penchant for the Marshall-Cutler combination.
21. Cincinnati Bengals - Manti Te'o (ILB). They need leadership on defence and Manti brings that to the table in bucketloads, not to mention added flexibility.
22. St Louis (From Washington) - Sam Montgomery (DE). Two first round picks lets them address their line issues on both sides of the ball.
23. Minnesota Vikings - Justin Hunter (WR). With no really tall strong prospect down the sideline and facing potentially losing Harvin in the off-season they're going to have to bring in reinforcements.
24. Indianapolis Colts - Sheldon Richardson (DT). Their playoff blow-out showed just how much work needs to be done around the snap on the defence for the Colts.
25. Seattle Seahawks - Johnathan Haskins (DT). Another team who needs more pressure around the ball. Their defence plays at a high intensity but consistency has been a big issue, especially on the road.
26. Green Bay Packers - Jonathan Cooper (OG). Offensive line issues plagued the team, giving up 51 sacks. They've got strong tackles but the Guard position is an issue.
27. Houston Texans - Kevin Minter (ILB) They face losing a number of their key pass rushers including Cushing. Minter would provide some much-needed relief.
28. Denver Broncos - Jonathan Banks (CB). With Champ Bailey turning 35 in the off-season a new #1 back is going to be needed.

Edited by afromanGT: 16/1/2013 06:08:48 PM

My mock first 10 picks:
1. Geno Smith (KC)
2. Star Lotulelei (Jags)
3. Jarvis Jones (Raiders)
4. Luke Joeckel (Eagles)
5. Damontre Moore (Lions)
6. Bjorne Werner (Browns)
7. Tyler Wilson (Cards)
8. Manti Te'o (Bills)
9. Berkevious Mingo (Jets)
10. Chance Warmack (Titans)

Bit iffy on that Bills pick, but with the Bills new Head Coach being from Syracuse, i expect them to take Nassib in the 2nd round, and despite his last game, i think Te'o doesnt slip past them.

Also, who is Matt Moore?

Matt Moore's a Dolphins QB, I meant Matt Barkley :lol:

I think Te'o is overrated personally. He's had a decent season but his previous years have been average.

Matt Barkley will struggle to stay in the first round, had a poor season this year.

He might have had a poor season this year, but he's the second best prospect out there. You've got to remember he was injured last year.

Tyler Bray was made to look good by some top-level WR's and he's still only 21. He's not ready to be a starter.

Tyler Wilson is a pocket passer, he's a good option (was ranked as #1 pick pre-season) but his footwork is bad and he drops his back shoulder too much.

Edited by afromanGT: 16/1/2013 11:16:52 PM

Being a USC fan, I knew all to well of his struggles and injuries. I think teams take into account the injuries and all that, hence why I dropped him to the 2nd round.

Anyone else reading all this Te'o stuff? Insane.

It would be nice if Gronkowski could stay fit for the playoffs for once.

That Te'o stuff is fucking crazy.

That's the price you pay for playing him on just about every down on specials and offence for majority of the season.

Oregon's Kelly has signed on as the Eagles new coach. Bears have signed up CFL's Trestman. And there's talk Arians could be Cardinals bound.

This is worth reading

http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax

Just wondering if anyone has see the show Blue Mountain State also known as BMS. It's an American show based around a college football team that includes football, partying and sex. One of the funniest shows I have ever seen. :lol:

:lol: got a good chuckle out of that one.

I think the lad's in freefall down the draft boards now.