Like It Is

Draft proves SEC still at top of its game

Commissioner Roger Goodell, left, poses with a fan after the Detroit Lions selected Frank Ragnow during the first round of the NFL football draft, Thursday, April 26, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Commissioner Roger Goodell, left, poses with a fan after the Detroit Lions selected Frank Ragnow during the first round of the NFL football draft, Thursday, April 26, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Looking at the 2018 NFL Draft and The League that for the 12th consecutive year had the most players drafted, The SEC. On paper it appears teams don't have to have all great players to compete.

South Carolina finished second in the SEC East and had just one player drafted. Kentucky tied Missouri for third place in the East and the Wildcats had zero drafted and the Tigers just one.

On the other hand, Florida finished fifth and had five players drafted and Tennessee finished last, winless in the SEC and it had three players drafted, but the Vols probably should be dropped out of the equation because the head coach was fired and it took weeks of zany action on Rocky Top before a guy could be hired.

To win the SEC, you better have the best players. Georgia had six drafted, and it is on the soft side of the SEC.

The SEC East had 17 players drafted, the West had 36. Yes, more than double.

Alabama, of course, had more talent than anyone in the country and had 12 players drafted, four in the first round. Does Nick Saban get more scholarships than everyone else or is he just that good of a recruiter? Chances are he'll win the West again and be in the hunt to repeat as national champions.

Auburn tied the Tide for the SEC West and had four players drafted.

As expected LSU got less from more, finishing third at 6-2 in league play and 9-4 overall. The Tigers had seven players drafted.

Mississippi State and Texas A&M tied for fourth and the Bulldogs had four taken in the draft and the Aggies three.

Ole Miss had a little of LSU going for it and finished next to last but had four players drafted.

And the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, was last, 1-7 and 4-8 and had two players taken, and perhaps South Carolina should get some credit for running back David Williams, who played for the Gamecocks until he graduated and played one year for the Hogs. He was taken in the final round by the Denver Broncos.

The Razorbacks did have one first-round draft pick, a good one in center Frank Ragnow.

He was the Hogs first first-round pick since Darren McFadden and Felix Jones in 2008. Houston Nutt had more first-round draft picks than any Arkansas head coach since 1940 when Kay Eakin became the first Hog drafted in the first round.

Of Nutt's six, four were from in-state, which these days meant they were not automatically Razorbacks, for example, Nutt and his staff had to beat out Oklahoma for Matt Jones, although the Sooners wanted to make a receiver out of Jones.

If new head Coach Chad Morris studies this draft and all of them in the last 10 years he will see why the Razorbacks haven't competed since Bobby Petrino left.

Actually, he probably already knows.

When you finish 10th in recruiting in the SEC you might compete, but you have a lot better chance of finishing ninth or 10th in the standings than first.

Of course coaching counts, and the SEC has that, maybe not at every school but enough to dominate the top 10 rankings every year.

The one thing that Morris brings to the table that the Razorbacks haven't had since Petrino left is that he is unconventional. Petrino's pro-style offense was unconventional in the play calling.

Morris' entire offense is unconventional and in the most competing, as long as they recruit better players than the Razorbacks have been getting.

Having only two players drafted and one was a transfer speaks loudly about past recruiting.

Sports on 05/01/2018

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