Urban Meyer has an opinion that sort of cuts against the popular grain on the concussion issue. Dabo Swinney has opined on this before, and while I don't have his exact take I'm pretty sure it fairly closely resembles Meyer's.
In this article from Columbus we learn that Meyer's son, a ninth-grader, plays high school football.
"Obviously, it's a tough sport," the Ohio State coach said.
But Meyer said he believes it's safe "as long as you're being taught well, and he's been taught well from the seventh grade on."
Meyer said that his daughter Gigi, a volleyball player at Florida Gulf Coast, suffered a concussion in a match at Penn State.
"The awareness, and the amount of time and resources being spent to do the research, I'm proud to say at Ohio State that I can't imagine a school doing more," Meyer said. "And our track record is pretty good with that."
He said the way tackling has been taught has changed dramatically in recent years to emphasize hitting low to avoid hits to the head.
As for the sport's future in light of the concussion issue, Meyer pointed out that college football is as popular as ever. He likened the interest in the first College Football Playoff to that of a Super Bowl.
"The good thing is I don't see anyone just hoping it goes away," Meyer said. "It's not going to go away. The game is safer now. I can give you 28 years of experience. The game is safer now than it's ever been."
Michigan's Jack Miller might disagree with that sentiment. Not long after Chris Borland decided to call it quits on a promising NFL career, this Michigan offensive lineman said he hung up his cleats because of concerns about head trauma.
Former Michigan starting center Jack Miller announced earlier this month he would not play his senior season and on Wednesday he told ESPN concern about the long-term impact from past and possible future concussions was a factor in the decision.
"I know I've had a few and it's nice walking away before things could've gotten worse," Miller said. "And yes, multiple schools have reached out. But I'm ready to walk away from it. My health and happiness is more important than a game."
Miller is focused on finishing his degree and pursuing business opportunities. Miller said he had one concussion in high school and "probably" two or three at Michigan, though he said he reported only one.
"I wanted to keep playing," Miller said. "You're supposed to be tough in this game, everyone carries that attitude."
Miller played in 22 games at Michigan. He started 16 times, including all of the 2014 season, when he won the team's award for best lineman of the year.
"I know it's pretty unorthodox for a 21-year-old to see past his own nose," he said. "This game requires such a passion to excel, and my flame is burned out.
"However, I'd be lying if I said that the concussion thing doesn't scare me a little."
A few more Thursday links:
-- The Washington Post examines an NFL Draft prospect who goes by the name Vic Beasley.
Vic Beasley is set to be one of the top pass rushers in this draft. He was a sack machine in college, registering 33 in his career at Clemson. He's an explosive edge rusher with a great first step that makes it hard for tackles to keep up with him on the edge.
This is what Beasley is all about. He's primarily a speed rusher. He gets a great jump off the snap and gets up the field too quickly for the tackle. As he turns the corner, the tackle struggles to stay with him, getting turned around completely from the line of scrimmage. Beasley uses a rip move to keep the tackle's hands off him. Beasley quickly pressures the quarterback and eventually brings him down for a sack before the quarterback had a chance to get a throw away.
And this:
With his added weight, Beasley should be better suited to defend the run than he was in college. However, the Redskins would probably be reluctant to play him as an every-down defender early in his career. Murphy is a capable run defender on the edge, giving Washington flexibility. If they opted to take Beasley, they could use him as a situational pass rusher, similar to how the 49ers used Aldon Smith in his early career.
But while he would need to work on his run defense, Beasley would offer the Redskins something they don't have: an explosive edge rusher. Kerrigan has become a very good pass rusher and Murphy has potential, but neither are particularly explosive off the edge. Beasley would be someone Washington could line up against the likes of Tyron Smith and Jason Peters twice a year and feel good about his chances to cause problems.
-- At ESPN, Gerry Hamilton examines whether the state of Georgia is the top producer of talent nationally.
In the last three classes (2013-15), the state of Georgia has produced the most SEC signees of any state with 165 compared to 157 for Florida. That includes a class-best 61 SEC signees in the 2015 class, or roughly 20 percent of the high school prospects signed by the conference.
In other words, Georgia had more SEC signees than Florida with half the population. That alone is a telling and impressive statistic.
The points of emphasis don't stop with the SEC either though. In terms of the highest percentage of Power 5 signees by state, the Peach State betters California, Florida and Texas with 56.7 percent of FBS signees in the 2013 through 2015 classes having inked with Power 5 schools.
This is not just a one-year inflated number either, as all of the numbers are on the rise in the state. In the 2015 class, 123 prospects from the state signed with Power 5 schools, having gone up from 104 in 2013 to 112 in 2014 to 123 February. That is one sign of a trend.
Another sign of an ascending trend for the state is the fact that the number of combined SEC and ACC signees have risen each of the last three years going from 86 in 2013 to 91 in 2014 to 107 in 2015.
-- Interesting endeavor by Bobby and Tommy Bowden, who are teaming up for a new travel show called "Bobby Bowden Goes to War."
The television documentary - a production of Momentum Media - is currently in production and will feature stories of World War II.
The coaches and their wives were in Bastogne, Belgium, for a week in mid-December to mark the 70th anniversary of the famous battle that stopped the last massive push of the Nazi army.
Bastogne is where the 101th Airborne held out despite being cut off and surrounded - and was part of the larger Battle of the Bulge.
The forces were aided by General George Patton's Third Army.
Bowden said he was embraced by locals as a red-blooded American - and not dressed in garnet and gold as one of the all-time winningest coach in college football history.
"The people in Bastogne love Americans as you can imagine," said Bowden, who has traced his ancestry to parts of Germany and has visited the country several times.
"The Americans gave them their freedom from the Germans."
-- David Hale of ESPN was in Clemson yesterday, and he wrote about Nick Schuessler.
Schuessler, a Mississippi State transfer, entered the spring with 10 career attempts, and he spent nearly all of last season taking second- and third-team reps. This spring, he's gotten a ton of work with the starters, and given Watson's injury history -- three serious issues in the past year -- that's an important safety precaution for the Tigers' offense.
"It's been a big confidence boost getting out there with the great receivers with that first group," Schuessler said. "Getting to prove to everybody that I can play if my number is called, it's been great for me to get some experience with the 1s and some real-time reps."
For all the in-case-of-emergency preparation going on this spring, however, the hope is that it will be Watson taking the vast majority of the snaps in the fall, and on that front, Swinney sounds optimistic, too.
"His rehab has gone tremendous," Swinney said of the QB who underwent surgery on a torn ACL just three months ago. "He's probably about 80 percent right now. Most people would be 50 or 60, but he's not most people. He's a uniquely wired individual. He's great. He's healthier now than he was when he beat South Carolina."
LW
This post was edited on 3/26 9:16 AM by Larry_Williams
