Campus Confidential

By Adam Abramson

I'm always questioned as to why I love the college game more than the pros...well, I think it's because the element of ownership exists in college and you can't find it in the pros as much.

Virginia Tech is MY alma mater. The Yankees are a baseball team near the city I call home...

A reader, and long-time friend Jeremy, sent me a link this morning to a great video. This is why I love college. Click on the picture to watch it on YouTube. The music might be the best part.

Have a great weekend.

By Adam Abramson

America has become too sensitive.

There's no better sign of this than the extinction of Chief Illiniwek from University of Illinois sporting events.

Succumbing to pressures from the NCAA, the University has put an end to the spirited -- and traditional --dance that all Illini faithful used as common bond since 1926.

This isn't some sideshow comedy act that was put to rest on Wednesday night. Thousands of fans didn't stand every half time to laugh and mock the dance. They stood to honor it.

Call me ignorant, but how does the dance exploit the Native American? I would argue that Chief Osceola down in Tallahassee riding aboard Renegade with his spear hoisted in the air (above, right) paints a more racist picture than Illiniwek's dance (video of the final dance is below).

I am fully aware of America's wrongdoings to the Native American people. It's another reason to be ashamed of our forefathers' callous attitudes to people not like them generations ago. But times have changed, and while there is plenty of ignorance still alive in the world, we must embrace all of America's cultures and honor them, not shun them.

Video: The Chief's Last Dance

By Adam Abramson

I've made it back after about 20 or so mojitos, a handful of Cuban cigars, a poker tournament and a horrific sunburn.

The cruise was amazing. I'd recommend it to everyone, especially if you've never been. All you have to do is book it, pack your bags and show up. They take care of everything else for you (but bring some extra $$ for the bars, islands and casino).

While I was gone I heard Anna Nicole Smith died, Britney Spears shaved her hair off, there was a ton of snow, the Hokies beat UNC for the second time this year in hoops and USC is looking into whether it committed any violations in recruiting stud tailback Joe McKnight.

How many times is USC going to make headlines for "possible" violations, yet receive no sanctions? I'm not sitting here thinking that USC is guilty of something a huge number of schools abstain from doing (cheating), but there's a problem when making the papers is a once-a-month routine.

We'll see what happens with this, but I'm guessing nothing.

Alright, I'll stop here, but I'm recharged and ready to write. So drop me a line and tell me what we should be looking at, discussing, etc.

Also, with spring football getting underway, time to start looking at the fall projections maybe? Now, I don't have time to sit down and research 119 schools…I'd lose my job. So maybe we'll look at the major conferences? Have any ideas?

Finally, as March gets closer, I'll be gearing up more and more for college hoops. Stay tuned for some things Newsday has in the works (i.e. bracket challenge where you take me on for prizes - shouldn't be hard, I hate brackets). So maybe we'll talk a little college basketball on here now and again.

Glad to be back. Kinda…
(By the way, the title of the entry is a quote from 'Nip/Tuck' when it was a good show)

By Adam Abramson

I'll start with a new video. I littered them throughout. So scroll down and take a gander.

After 10 hours, it's time to wrap this recruiting marathon up so I can get some work done before North Carolina-Dook.

But, I'll be heading off to sea to recharge for spring football and the draft (although I'm telling my boss I'm recharging for spring training and NBA/NHL playoffs).

Today was no different than any other signing day: lots of surprises, lots of talent from Florida deciding, lots of rumors. It was a fun day that makes it seem Florida, Texas, USC and Tennessee are content with being power houses through at least 2010.

Again, I'm really impressed with the job Butch Davis did in Chapel Hill this winter. He came in with guys like Mike Paulus and Quan Sturdivant on board and added 15 guys in the last 5 weeks including Dwight Jones, Ryan Houston, Marvin Austin, Tydreke Powell and Kevin Bryant. He stole his first recruit from Notre Dame by bringing Greg Little back to the Triangle (Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh for those from abroad). Heck of a job. Top 10-15 class in my opinion. I'm actually convinced Davis used Paulie's Robot from Rocky IV to cater to the recruits on their visits. Who wouldn't want to go attend a college that had a robot that said "I love you, Marvin Austin."

We saw running backs go by the droves to Southern California. I understand that all of these kids have supreme confidence heading into college. Each of them comes from their respective corners of the globe where they were revered by classmates, teachers, barbers, police officers, doctors and everyone else as gridiron gods. But, it's a numbers game. Three freshman running backs just won't work. It's a shame because who knows if any of those guys will ever live up to their potential. Gotta be a featured back for that…

However, I did talk to Scout's Brandon Huffman who focuses on California recruiting and he brought up some good points. If there's any school that can pull [having multiple RBs] off, it's USC. Four years ago, they pulled in LenDale White and Reggie Bush. They really use the guys well together. It's almost a similar siutaiton with Green being the power back and McKnight has the Reggie Bush type.

"Marc Tyler suffered a pretty bad leg injury in the playoffs and could end up a linebacker. He definitely has the body and the size for the position and projects well."

One class I haven't heard anyone talk about was Boise State. Considering the school is in Idaho, it pulled a great class. A four-star QB and a handful of three stars, including two impressive receivers from California (Titus Young and Austin Pettis). Offensive linemen like Josh Nisby, Garrett Pendergast and Cory Yriarte (who blocked for Jimmy Clausen and Marc Tyler) will be vital in the Broncos winning more WAC titles. The exposure from their trip to the BCS really bolstered this class and I think the more chances the smaller schools get, the more of a stake they can claim in college football down the road.

"Of all the non-BCS, Boise State has the best class," Huffman said. "They have quite a few with Pac 10 offers and quite a few with Big 12 offers. They really capitalized on their success this year. They didn't get a huge rush after Fiesta, but went on a pretty impressive run including getting a pair of good receivers from California (Titus and Pettis)."

As far as sleeper classes go, you have to give credit to the job Jim Harbaugh did in about 6 weeks at Stanford. Coming off a 1-11 season, the Cardinal has a class that shows some promise. Huffman pointed out the top kids in the class including Matthew Masifilo, a four-star DT from Hawaii that hopped on board nearly two weeks ago.

"[Stanford] has a hard time recruiting because of the tough academic standards," Huffman said. "A school like USC recruits nationally because of their exposure and being in the living room of players all over the country. Stanford did a good job of expanding the globe with their academics. They made a late run for a guy with hardly any recruiting experience."

Huffman gave all the credit to UCLA with respect to sleeper classes, and he's right. The Bruins only took in 10 guys (the senior class had nine), but Huffman said they have an incredible talent pool to work with and did an excellent job of filling their needs.

Like we looked at last week, recruiting is such a gamble. Not only are you worried about who projects well, you have to worry about where they project. Schools like Tennessee chose to go bananas with skill position guys. I don't know if I'll ever understand why Florida took on four quarterbacks this year, but if USC had a few more blue chips in their class, they would have been No. 1 for smarter recruiting (can't do it though with 18 guys).

I also think it's clear the SEC is going to be college football's power conference for years to come. UF, LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia and the others pulled in impressive classes. The average commit to an SEC school was a 3-star (3.22 according to Scout.com). The conference took a third of the country's top 100 players according to most websites. It's a shame that all of these kids will probably beat the mess out of each other and keep one another from getting to a national title game, like what almost happened this year.

Here's a quick look at the winners of this year (Florida State being the loser):

1. Florida

Keys to the class: Everyone. Seriously.
I don't even know where to begin with this class. Six defensive linemen (five 4/5 stars), three linebackers (all top 15 guys), two corners, three safeties, three wide receivers, three stud offensive guards (I'd assume one will play tackle), three quarterbacks (I think they forgot Tim Tebow will be there at least two more years) and two running backs. Whatever Florida lost this year from the MNC team, they'll get back with this class and last year's class. Like I said about 2 months ago, Florida's not going anywhere. Soon, Major Wright (video below courtesy of the Sun Sentinel), Carlos Dunlap, Torrey Davis and Lorenzo Edwards will be featured on College Gameday or in some Sports Illustrated story.

2. Southern California

Keys to the class: Marc Tyler, Everson Griffen, Kristofer O'Dowd, Chris Galippo What do those four guys have in common? They're all No. 1 in their respective positions. Tyler, one of three running backs any school would gush over, can't be ecstatic that Joe McKnight and Broderick Green hopped on board today. USC has more 5-star prospects than 3- and 4-star guys, combined. It's a small class with only 18 players, but the quality of play Pete Carroll has brought in is pure insanity.

3. Tennessee

Keys to the class: Chris Donald, Kenny O'Neal, Eric Berry, Ben Martin Tennessee now has more skill position players than it knows what to do with. But with a class of 32, eventually the positions start overlapping. Will any of the eight defensive linemen the Vols recruited convert to OL? I think so, because they only recruited one player projected for the OL (after a class that had 4-5 last year). I also counted eight wide receivers and five running backs in this class. Depth is clearly critical for Phillip Fulmer, or he envisions a WR sliding over to tight end or switching to safety? With guys like Gerald Jones, these moves are very feasible.

4. Texas

Keys to the class: Curtis Brown, Tray Allen, John Chiles, Andre Jones The Longhorns have had six verbals since the end of June. Mack Brown and Co. have employed the "fill up the boat fast" strategy in the past and this year was no different. But I like this class because it has a lot of balance. It's a little weak in the linebacker department, but the guys recruited in all of the other positions project well. I think there's maybe four or five guys that aren't at least four-star talent.

5. LSU

Keys to the class: Terrance Toliver, Chad Jones, Joseph Barksdale LSU has a fine class, but they're missing some key parts: Linebackers and running backs. LSU needed Joe McKnight. I think he was the key to keeping the Tigers from having the No. 2 class. But as I said earlier today, Chad Jones could easily play RB (also, Keiland Williams and Charles Scott make the RB situation at LSU just fine). As far as linebackers, the Tigers didn't have any blue chips last year, but they recruited a handful of solid prospects, so if some pan out, they'll be fine. But these will be two positions of focus next year I think.

6. Auburn
7. South Carolina
8. Notre Dame
9. Michigan
10. Oregon

Honorable mentions: Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Miami, Ohio State, Illinois

Okay, enough soapbox. It's two hours until it's time to laugh at the Cameron Crazies. UNC -4.5…we need to make this happen.

I will see you all the third week of February. Get ready for spring practice. Leave me some comments/questions while I'm gone and we can do a spring practice mailbag. Stay warm!

By Adam Abramson

Let's get into it...

1:25am: Jeremy Finch, one of the midwest's biggest prospects, will be a Florida Gator. Projected as a safety, Finch started out by saying he'd go to Michigan. Then he seriously considered Indiana (and I think verballed there), but it appears he'll end up in Gainesville. The rich get richer, we'll talk about this more later.

Also, Rhett Ellison switched his commitment from Virginia Tech to Southern California. The California native had hopped on board last summer to play TE for the Hokies but changed his mind Tuesday night.

There are a ton of big-time names announcing tomorrow such as WR Ahmad Paige (Florida, Tennessee, USC), RB Broderick Green (Ohio State, Penn State, USC), S Chad Jones (LSU, UF, USC), WR Deonte Thompson (UF, FSU, Miami, USC -- I saw this kid play a game on ESPN, he can flat-out fly) and Joe McKnight (Alabama, Auburn, Southern California). That's just to name a few. Check in now and again and we can talk and I'll let you know when I figure out where these guys will go.

10:21am: Joe McKnight, a running back out of Louisiana, looks like he'll pick USC. Pretty big loss for the Tigers considering the class doesn't have an RB locked up. However, they are loaded at every other position, or so it seems. As far as McKnight, if he indeed ends up at USC, does that mean Broderick Green (a long-time soft verbal to USC via the state of Arkansas) will end up in the Big 10? I think he should, and will, end up at Penn State.

McKnight to USC doesn't make a lot of sense to me. With Marc Tyler (teammate of future Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen) on board, why head to LA to play football? Tyler is the No. 2 RB in the country. Just go to LSU where you're guaranteed to be the man.

I also read that Marvin Austin (huge man in the huge picture), a consensus top-5 player in the country, is getting a really strong last-second push from USC now that McKnight is on board. USC's class isn't huge, but its firepower is astounding.

11am: Robert Elliot will be a Rebel and not switch his commitment to Florida State as some had expected. It's been a big morning for Ole Miss with Elliot and four-star WR Roderick Davis. Ed Orgeron is doing a fine job down there.

11:15: Now I'm hearing Marvin Austin to Florida State. Who knows. Last night it was a lock to UNC. I really don't know about this kid. But what I do know is that Dwight Jones, who apparently was torn between Clemson, UNC and Tennessee up until his decision will be a Tar Heel. He has 4.6 speed but is a 4-star WR (also been ranked a 5-star)? Maybe he has Calvin Johnson hands. Either way, it's a big get for UNC who has a huge class. They need to reel in Austin and DE Kourtnei Brown.

11:24: Things are cooking in Chapel Hill. Greg Little, who few thought would falter on his pledge to Notre Dame, is seriously considering becoming a Tar Heel. The WR from Durham would be a much bigger get for Davis' staff than Dwight Jones, in my opinion. Take that for what it's worth. Also, Rutgers lost a key piece of its recruiting class this morning. Defensive back Joseph Nicolas will attend hometown Miami instead of heading up to Piscataway. That's a pretty big miss for RU, he projects well with great size (6'3, 200) and speed (4.5). Rutgers still has an impressive class, nonetheless.

11:32: Still Notre Dame, still a Little, this time a solid decommit. Chris Little, an offensive lineman, will be attending Georgia. The Irish are lucky to keep Ian Williams. The Gators turned up the heat on the DT, but he stayed true to South Bend. Still waiting on word about Greg Little...

11:51: So, let's stay on the North Carolina wagon. The Heels picked up a verbal from OT Kevin Bryant. The Boyd Anderson product (plays in an extremely tough confernece in South Florida against Dillard, Blanche Ely, Deerfield Beach and the Plantation schools) is, get this, 6'7, 375. THREE SEVENTY FIVE. Butch Davis has to love this kid. The folks in Chapel Hill must be going nuts. What a fun day for them. That makes Bryant, Devon Ramsay (talked about him last night), Dwight Jones and the UNC Scout website is reporting Greg Little's flip-flop from Notre Dame to Carolina. And they're still waiting on a few more. Bryant's teammate, LB Josh Bynes, will be heading to Auburn. This kid looks ready to strap on the pads and play SEC football at 18-years old. South Carolina made a late push for him, but to no avail. See the video below, courtesy of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

12:02: Athlete Ahmad Paige will be a Tennessee Volunteer. UT has a great class nobody is talking about (what else is new?). USC had him on campus last weekend, but I guess it wasn't enough. With official visits to Tennessee, USC, UF, FSU and Georgia, he must have loved the recruiting process.

12:12: Here's the plan. I'm going on a cruise tomorrow (pretty pumped about that), but I don't want to look ratty on the boat, so I need to get a hair cut. So the plan is to run up to the barber shop, trim the mullet, come back here and ready up for work tonight. I'll post an update when I'm back on what's happened. Once I get to work, I'll have recruiting tunnel vision. We'll talk about the late developments, how today impacts the big picture, my winners and losers of the day/year and maybe some rankings action. Send me questions if you have any...also, Greg Little to UNC is official per Rivals and I'm now hearing, per WTOP (a radio station in Washington DC), that Marvin Austin will be heading to THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. Okay, I'm hanging around for a few, I'll let you know when I leave for sure.

12:15: I just want to say, for the record, I think this is a rumor the radio station jumped all over. We'll see though. 12:30 is the expected announcement, I'm guessing North Carolina, it's the Heels' day.

12:23: Boyd Anderson had another player commit, this time Louisville snagged defensive end Patrick Grant. Many thought he'd play for USF, but that won't be the case. UL missed out on Bynes, but they do get Willie Willliams, who signed his LOI today (see my post about him last week). UL had a good day, also getting Dale Martin, a four-star RB and athlete Josh Miller who runs a 4.3 40-yard dash. Martin chose the Cards over a host of other big-name programs. If I'm not mistaken, Miller chose the 'Ville over Miami. Big.

12:28: Not really a shocker, but Noel Devine is having second thoughts about West Virginia (read more about it in yesterday's preview post). One paper says he'll sign later or is expected to, another website said he talked to Deion Sanders who said wait, prep and weigh out the options (think he wants him at FSU???) I have always thought he'd end up at FSU. Maybe there was a maroon Hummer in the driveway this morning? Can I say that? Either way, don't expect him to sign today, it wouldn't be his M.O. He'll prep.

12:34: Joe McKnight will be attending USC (dumb move in my opinion), Kourtnei Brown will be attending Clemson (tough loss for UNC), DeMarcus Van Dyke will be heading to Miami (huge get for Randy Shannon). This is what I'm reading. Still waiting on Austin so I can get the haircut.

12:43: Marvin Austin will be a North Carolin Tar Heel. That's all, folks. We can all go on with our lives. I'll be posting some videos from some signings down in Florida today so you can get a feel for what it's like. The first two are courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel. The others come from the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

4:24: Sorry I was gone for so long, but I'm back to wrap up the afternoon and then I'll get into some analysis (I have some calls I want to place so I can get more than one voice on here).

Broderick Green stayed true to USC even after Marc Tyler and Joe McKnight (the top two backs in the country) sent in LOIs today. This makes no sense. None.

Florida State picked up cornerback Brandon Paul. He's a talent that won't travel far for college, as he hails from Lincoln High School in Tallahassee. Lincoln is always good for several D-1 prospects, so FSU is getting a good one here. The Noles really loaded up on secondary help this year. I wanna say this year's Lincoln class has at least seven guys playing D-1 ball.

Another player Bobby Bowden missed out on was Rae Sykes. The DE opted for Tennessee making its class all the more impressive.

Although the Tigers missed out on Joe McKnight, they did get Chad Jones. Jones has been ranked the top safety in the country, but I think he can play running back if the Tigers need him to. Could you imagine if this kid had landed at Florida? Like I've been saying, we'll talk about UF in a bit.

Deonte Thompson signed with Florida...their 10th five-star prospect. 10th.

We're still waiting on a few more guys. But I'm gonna hit the horns so I can start cranking out some analysis and team rankings.

By Adam Abramson

The fax machines are warming up all around the country because Wednesday morning hundreds of letters of intent will be pouring in light of national signing day.

I'm going to stick with you guys throughout the evening and tomorrow as I hear news from notable names. Tomorrow evening I'll try to put together a rough list of the top classes by school.

On Thursday, I'll be out of the office for 10 days, but I'll be back the third week of February to talk about who I think will be the impact freshmen of the 2007 class and spring football (yup, we're going to be in the thick of it pretty soon).

Here's what I'm hearing:

• East Meadow offensive lineman John Elliot will be attending Boston College. I know Virginia and Rutgers made late pushes for New York's top player, but to no avail. I actually thought someone could sneak in late and get the 4-star, but Jeff Jagodzinski did a good job of keeping the BC offensive lineman pipeline alive and flowing. The Eagles have a fine offensive line class with Elliot, fellow four-star Mark Spinney, Kenny Plue and Nick Schepis. Overall, Tom O'Brien leaving to North Carolina State hurt the boys from Chestnut Hill, but it wasn't devastating. Guys like Elliot, Eason, New Jersey linebacker Will Thompson and defensive end Corey Eason from Mansfield, Mass. keep the group on par with the average BC class.
• One player the Eagles will likely miss is RB/FB/LB Devon Ramsay, also from New Jersey. Ramsay is an extremely intriguing prospect because of his measurables: 6'2, 242, 4.6. He got on board way back in July, but his commitment has taken a lot of turns and he's been looking strongly at North Carolina -- where I think he'll end up, unless there are some late developments. I know UNC had been teetering with an offer, but he visited there over the weekend, who knows what went down there.
• Speaking of North Carolina, what a job Butch Davis is doing there in the short amount of time. But are we really surprised? It looks as if Marvin Austin, the STUD defensive tackle from Washington DC will end up donning the powder blue jerseys in front of a half-filled Keenan Stadium (although I think it'll start getting packed by 2008). Davis, who's always been known as a monster on the recruiting trail, has picked up DT Tydreke Powell and WR Rashad Mason in the last 10 days. If he can wrap up Austin, he's put together a very impressive class. Linebackers Da'Norris Searcy from Georgia and Quan Sturdivant from NC will be key parts in a defense that's in need of some serious help (Ranked 92 this year in yards allowed). By the way, he's not exactly done tomorrow. There's a few big-time guys deciding tomorrow who have Chapel Hill on the mind.
• Remember North Babylon product Jason Gwaltney? If you're from Long Island, how could you forget? Well, I heard he's back in Morgantown to try and walk on to West Virginia's team. However, it seems as if the 5-star (ranked so in 2005) will be up against another risk-heavy running back. Noel Devine, whose highlight tapes surfaced on the Internet after his freshman year of high school, has pledged to play football for Rich Rodriguez. If either one of these guys can pan out, WVU will carry on its recent dominance in the run game. Both Gwaltney and Devine are extremely explosive, but we've seen the trouble Gwaltney has had getting his bearings straight on the college level and it's no secret that Devine is a high-risk, high-reward prospect because he comes from a troubled past (if you're forgetting, he was briefly taken in by Deion Sanders, only to leave shortly after). Rodriguez has a very impressive list of 25 guys who plan on playing at WVU. Check out a highlight tape of Devine. Hello Maurice Jones-Drew all over again (although his HS competition was very average).
• What's going on with Florida State? I've been waiting and waiting for Bobby Bowden's final-week push and he's only got two studs on board the last month or so. A trio of good corners will be sending in LOIs but it's not very impressive after that (besides MLB Kendall Smith...beast). I think they'll wrap it up with a few key guys (maybe Marvin Austin, the ultimate rabbit out of the hat). I'm interested to see if running back Robert Elliott will hold on to his Ole Miss verbal or if he'll make the switch to FSU. I have a feeling he could make the switch with Devine heading to Morgantown.

That's all for now. I'll post if I hear anything tonight (being Tuesday) and we'll chat tomorrow about how unfair classes like Florida's and USC's class are. Also, I'll touch on Boise State's class...

By Adam Abramson

Here's a short recruiting mailbag. I had hoped to get some more discussion going about 2002 and 2003, but I got enough to respond with a post, so here we go. The first topic I wanted to address was guys I left off my lists. Two of my readers mentioned Utah quarterback Alex Smith and Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny.

I actually wrote back to the reader saying Alex Smith was a great pull, but I shortly realized after that he was a 2001 guy. However, had he been 2002, what an oversight. After researching him for a bit it seemed he didn't accrue many accolades coming out of Helix High School in California (played with Reggie Bush). If he had been a 2002 guy, what an oversight he would have been. Remember, he finished 4th in the Heisman race.

Posluszny is tough because one recruiting service had him at a 4-star, ranked the #20 linebacker in the country. Another had him as a 3-star. However, he far exceeded both rankings. I think it's pretty fair to say he was an oversight, but it's not like he was unheard of coming out of high school. I'll address this more below. But another great mention. Another one for 2002 is Levi Brown. I think it's fair we give him AT LEAST an honorable mention. The dude is a beast (big-time 4-star coming out of Norfolk, VA).

Someone asked me if I felt NFL scouts should look at recruiting information for when a player is coming out of high school, and I actually think that's kind of a wise idea.

I get into the discussion over the validity of recruiting rankings a lot because of the school I went to. Virginia Tech is notorious for recruiting guys, getting them into the strength and conditioning program and turning them into studs. Many Tech followers don't believe in the rankings/stars system. But think about this...how many GREAT Virginia Tech NFL players are there?

Michael Vick: Underrated coming out of HS, but not unheard of by any means

Kevin Jones: No. 1 RB in the country coming out of HS

DeAngelo Hall: Rated the #2 player in the state of Virginia in 2001

There are other solid players in the NFL from Virginia Tech that are young. Guys like Seahawks DE Darryl Tapp and Falcons DB Jimmy Williams were three-star guys that earned All-American honors.

But I've always thought 99.9% of NFL players have "it"...call it what you will. Many times, this is recognizable on the prep level so it's no wonder these guys are blue chip prospects and succeed on the college level. Many times these guys fail because of academic, personal or legal troubles. It's not common for a blue chipper to arrive on a campus and fade into obscurity due to a lack of talent.

Also, just because a prospect is given three stars by most recruiting services doesn't mean he has "it." Williams and Tapp are key examples. Both played in the toughest divisions in the state of Virginia and dominated their level of competition back then. It's clear that it's a very objective system, but I think there's a ton of validity in it.

The point is that I'm comfortable saying there's a much higher chance of a five-star panning out over a three-star panning out.

Therefore, I think it's really wise to see how an NFL prospect measured up coming out of high school. If his track record was good 6 years prior to draft day, I would think his chances of being a legit contributor are increased...