Ellis Has Opportunity To Vault Dorsey At Combine

The 2007 college football season saw LSU's Glenn Dorsey capturing all the defensive tackle headlines. He was said to be the anchor for the nation's top defense, though the Trojans finished statistically better, and his season was capped with a national title. All the hype down in Baton Rouge made Sedrick Ellis the best kept secret out west. But the truth is, there isn't much of a gap in talent between the two men, and the offseason has allowed Ellis to show it.

Under the advice of his agent, Ellis skipped the Senior Bowl in Mobile Alabama. In his absence, Ellis was the shining star, propelling himself up draft boards and possibly among the top 5 prospects. Now we enter the NFL scout combine in Indianapolis, where NFL bigwigs will fill seats and NFL talent is on display. With the recent death of his grandmother, Glenn Dorsey announced that he will not be able to participate in the combine, meaning we still can't grade his performance or compare his skills to Ellis.

What this does is open the door a little wider for USC's All American defensive tackle. It's a second opportunity to make an impression, with USC's pro day still down the road. In all, he will give the NFL 3 good looks to Dorsey's one, and have the opportunity to vault a player originally projected to go No. 1 overall. Since that early projection, the speculation is that the Dolphins won't draft a DT, especially if they plan to run a 3-4 defense. But picks 2 through 5 can easily land a stud on the defensive line, and those teams have only seen Ellis.

Trojans were the majority at the Senior bowl, and with 12 invites to the NFL combine, USC has one player more than Virginia Tech, giving them another majority.

Hazelton Goes Under The Knife

Trojan receiver, Vidal Hazelton underwent surgery to repair torn abdominal muscles. He played with the nagging injury all season, believing it was a groin, but X-rays revealed that surgery was necessary for repair. At the request of his parents, the procedure was performed in Philadelphia by an expert from Drexel University in abdominal repair.

Despite the injury, Hazelton led the receiving corps with 50 receptions for 540 yards. He's expected to recover in time for spring practice, and with one season under his belt should be more of an impact in the Trojan offense for 2008.

Croyle Ranks Booty 79th On Top Prospects List

Nationally known NFL scout, Frank Croyle, has listed John David Booty as the 79th overall prospect in the 2008 draft class. I'm not exactly sure how Booty managed to fall without giving us anything to look at since the senior bowl. After the week in Mobile, Croyle ranked JD as the 5th best passer in the class, one above Deleware's Joe Flacco. But looking at his new figures today, he has Flacco as the 61st best prospect overall, which is 18 spots above Booty.

It's been a while since I've seen a Trojan signal caller so low on a talent chart. I guess you get spoiled by Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks, like Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. But maybe this will finally end all uncalled for comparisons that seemed to immediately greet Booty behind center. J.D. Booty was never in the same class as the 2 quarterbacks before him, regardless of the media hype that surrounded his every move. A better comparison would be Matt Cassell, and JD may be following that same path, since I don't see him ever being an NFL franchise QB, but more of a lifelong backup on an NFL roster.

Sedrick Ellis and Keith Rivers are two Trojans that appear in Croyle's top 10, with a total of 7 appearing in his top 100. Rivers and Ellis also represent the only Pac players in the top ten, with Oregon's Jonathan Stewart ranking 11th. 3 of the top 10 prospects, Chris Long, Matt Ryan, and Kenny Phillips, represent the ACC, which may appear as a shocker to SEC superiority snobs who only find McFadden and Dorsey representing their conference in the first ten. But when you realize the majority of current players on NFL rosters represent the ACC, it just proves the consistency of NFL talent in that conference.

DOH-mer Of The Week- The Rocket Misremembers

As much as I'd love to have someone from Notre Dame displayed here each week, there are 52 weeks in a year, and the Fighting Irish are only good for 12 weeks of humor. But there are others outside of South Bend that are ripping off brain farts, so why not give them their due and acknowledge them appropriately?

In this inaugural DOH-Mer spotlight, no one was more suitable than Roger Clemens. He was miles ahead of the competition, that easily included Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, the Fans of UAB, and the Bills' Roscoe Parrish. Roger soared to new heights, taking it all the way to Capitol Hill. We thought Clemens only took our money at the ballparks, until we got a glimpse of this publicized hearing at the expense of the tax payers. Besides for the State, Federal, SSI, and other categories that eat my paycheck, they should have also added the RCBF as a direction for my earnings. That would be the "Roger Clemens Bull$h!t Fund".

This is a hearing that Clemens wanted. This was the week to clear his name and remove "cheater" from any conversations about him. This was cleaning dust off the path to the hall of fame and designing the bronze bust which would read "Greatest pitcher of all time". I sat there, waiting for the Rocket to say it aint so. But the more the Rocket fired off at the lips, the more I believed it was so. It wasn't a good job of convincing anyone that he was never injected in the a$$ with anything but B-12, especially when you go on to say your best friend and best character witness "misremembered" a conversation.

Andy Pettitte came clean. After saying Pettitte is a great guy, honest, and believable, your answer to the contradiction of your statements with Andy's deposition was that he "misremembered"? Your answer was that he misheard, and that you were talking about your wife getting a$$ injections? What a waste! The Rocket let me down, because obviously his attorney let him down. He could have been more convincing if he had O.J Simpson speak for him. Even better, he shouldn't have spoken at all.

Clemens was buried by his own ego. But shouldn't it be expected, since HGH can cause the cranium to grow larger? Barry Bonds is also carrying around a large dome full of ego, but he wasn't stupid enough to call for a gathering "to be heard and clear his name". Well, I heard you Roger, and I choose you as my DOH-mer of the week. 7 Cy Young awards and 1 DOH-mer makes for a pretty good career.