Watch List Watch: Moffitt on Butkus list

Another day, another watch list for our Watch List Watch List.

USF linebacker Ben Moffitt is on his second watch list this fall, being announced Tuesday of one of just 66 players on the watch list for the Butkus Award, given to the nation's top linebacker. He's also up for the Nagurski Trophy. It's the fourth watch list USF has made this year, with quarterback Matt Grothe on the Manning Award list and cornerback Trae Williams on the Thorpe Award list. And USF's Wally Burnham has coached two previous Butkus winners -- Paul McGowan (1987) and Marvin Jones (1992) at Florida State. It's safe to argue Moffitt would be in the top 20, but it'll take solid play and a big upset or two to get him to the Butkus semifinalist list of 10, which is announced Oct. 18.

I think 66 is the biggest watch list I've seen this year. Basically, if you took the best linebacker on half the teams in Division I football, then picked six more, you'd have a list of 66 players to watch. I don't even think the Butkus folks did that much research. Stick with me here ...

Not to pick a guy off the Butkus list, but just randomly, Arkansas State's Koby McKinnon. What are his numbers? He had 57 tackles last year. Three sacks. Five and a half tackles for loss. Two picks. So a guy who finished third in tackles on a 6-6 Sun Belt team made the watch list. How about the No. 3 tackler on a 5-7 Sun Belt team? Florida Atlantic's Frantz Joseph? (Who they called "Franz"?) He was third on FAU's defense in tackles with 61 last year.

That was so easy, I'll do it again. East Carolina's Quentin Cotton? He didn't play in ECU's loss to USF last year, but again, the guy didn't even lead his team in tackles last year. He had 68 total tackles, with a mildly impressive eight for losses. Tulsa's Chris Chamberlain? Had 51 tackles, 3.5 for losses. Did they accidentally put the entire 2006 third-team All-Conference USA defense on here?

I'm getting really tired of bloated, overloaded watch lists designed to get an award name-dropped in every college market in the country. Moffitt certainly deserves to be on the list, but cap these at like 30 names, make it an actual honor.

-- As expected, former USF defensive end Craig Kobel was waived by the Eagles on Tuesday. Still eight Bulls on NFL rosters, but each NFL team still has 22 guys to cut ...

-- From the Stuff I Really Can't Make Up Dept., former USF running back Chad Simpson, who had a nice season at I-AA Morgan State last year, is getting a little excited. He went for 795 yards last season, and told the Baltimore Sun he wants to go for 2,000 yards this fall. Chad's a good kid, but 2,000?

Comments

[Matthew Yoder]

"bloated" What a perfect word for that "watch list." I started out looking up and blasting those voters for everyone from Demetrius Woods top Kawika Mitchell.

Now I ignore the list and the award now as some biased self promoting media fluff. A real linebacker hates fluff . . . . . unless its along with peanut butter on a sandwich.

[cee]

It really is fluff, Matthew. However, there are many casual USF fans who are delusional and will use these lists as evidence that we are on track to a dynasty. What the casual USF fan doesnt realize is that our head coaching staff is headed down a path of self destruction. Bringing in kids with poor academics and legal problems only for them to be shipped to junior college makes us rely on JuCo transfers. If this is the case, we are turning into what Kansas State (ironically, where Jim Leavitt came from) is, which is a program that relies on transfers and stacks itself like a house of cards, only to eventually topple over.

We need a coach that builds the program through the correct infrastructure of bringing in talented kids who steer clear of legal problems and are not academically challenged. I know these kids exist and are within reach because we are located in the hotbed of high school football recruiting, gosh darn-it. This can be done, we just need to do it the right way. Fire Jim Leavitt.

[Terry Lucas]

Cee... I have to pleasantly disagree with you... we are not Harvard (and we don't project to be Harvard)... do you honestly think UF (supposedly the most sound academic machine ever created), doesn't take kids with piss poor grades and scores that barely meet the Mendoza line of academics. College football is a money generating machine for the institutions.

Here's what we can do Cee... We can go and recruit super students that are the best football players in the nation... and then we can compare ourselves academically to the Duke's, Vanderbilt's, and Stanford's of the world (what was their overall win-loss record last season). Hell... I know you have pride in the Green and Gold... but do you want a re-run of the RMC years (yet in football). If you want to see us self destruct, lets avoid the inner city kids. But let's consider this Cee... for every kid that has dropped the ball while playing at USF, 10 other guys on the team are making good on their education. I'll take a 10% failure rate so the other nine guys have an opportunity to be productive citizens in our society when they are finished.

I had a 2.19 GPA out of high school Cee... half way decent SAT's (1080)... I personally thank USF everyday for giving me that chance to play ball and receive a quality education as I excel in my current field of work.

Anyways... it sucks your not on the main board... I like reading your posts just as much as reading the super pro-USF posts... diversity is good!

[Brian]

Hey, give Cee credit, he didn't reference 1 star athletes. He is becoming more kind to our Bulls.

[Mark S]

I don't have a problem with cee's posts as long as there is actually some reference to reality. We signed 29 kids this year. only 6 did not make it academically. However, we only had 25 schollies to give. Then we added a couple of late transfers. We are on our 25 schollie limit. Funny how the numbers work out. Isn't it? The question to ask, as a program, is it better to sign more than the limit knowing that you can place them at a juco with some ties (which are not binding) and hope they come back or just let the kids waiver with no affiliation and let them take their chances at a juco. Either way, we can only take 25. If we sign more than the limit to LOIs, we can still only give 25 schollies so what harm is done?

One thing I would like to point out, if you truly follow this program, any kid that has really been a problem or ran into serious legal issues, has always been released from the program. While some like to make light of the fact and criticize the program (especially those at UCF), once they run into major problems, the always seem to quietly disappear. They may make it a few more weeks and the dismissals are usually done quietly and away from the public eye, but they don't hang around here very long.

It takes a special kind of guy to work with young kids. Many lose sight of the fact that they are young kids. I prefer the way Leavitt handles these things and that they are not done in the public eye, but make no mistake, they are handled.

[G.A.]

Mark, not to quibble over #s, but USF didn't sign 29. They signed 26. And the only scholarship transfer after signing day was Jamar Taylor. So they've used 21 of 25 available scholarships this fall, with the potential to add a few of the nonqualifiers in January without it counting toward next year's 25. Leavitt should be able to put a walk-on or two on scholarship this fall as a result of the nonqualifiers.

[Mark S]

Fair enough and I stand corrected.

[gdp]

cee = IDIOT!

Mark - I feel it is better to over sign knowing that some kids may not make it. It is a risk-reward proposition. Do you pass on a potential 3 star or 4 star because he might not make it? Then what if he does? Unfortunately at this point, I think USF is forced to take risks on academically marginal players in the hopes that they do pan out. Maybe one day we can sign the eligible kids straight away and not have to worry about grades.

The fact is, we are still dealing with an image perception and only winning consistently will cure that. Just watch Rutgers this year. They were the media darlings last year and now all eyes are on them to see if they were a one year wonder or if they can sustain their success. In a way the same goes for USF but we were still flew under the radar last year.

[cee]

gdp- you surely are showing your immaturity the way you have resorted to name-calling. very classless, if you ask me.

and the reason we "flew under the radar" last year was because we are still LOSING TO GARBAGE PROGRAMS LIKE KANSAS. it sure would help if our players were ACADEMICALLY ELIGIBLE or NOT GETTING ARRESTED. My question is, why are we even taking chances on these kids? Are you telling me, in the entire state of Florida (which is a top 4 state in terms of population), you [jim leavitt] cant find 25 kids who can play ball + stay out of jail + get decent grades (decent, not rhodes scholars)????? very pathetic if you can't, and as of now, all you [jim] have shown is that you continually can't.

[Dave]

How is Kansas a garbage program? They are a Big-12 team and beat some good teams last season. Also, that was Grothe's first road test (same goes for several key guys last year). Anyways, cee, if you are a good player with a 1250 SAT, the Ivy League comes calling. Not to get too personal, but I know from experience that the Ivies have to lower standards for football players, which creates a trickle-down. There simply are not many academically and athletically gifted players out there. Second, a significant percentage of these players come from crime-riddled areas, with broken homes and family members in prison...and USF isn't the only school recruiting them. And as you've pointed out, since Florida is the best HS football state, you should know better than anyone that many players go under the radar, and don't get their due "stars."

I think that we have a bit an image problem with our football teams behavior, but what team doesn't? We backed off of Easterling of Southern Miss, and didn't pursue Willie Williams, as far as I know. When a player deserves to be booted, Leavitt has shown him the door (Julmiste, Peyton, Chambers).

I do agree that name-calling is inapproriate, however, your constant agitation of real USF fans is going to rile people up (which I know is your goal). Basically, you've been asking for many of the unkind remarks you've received.

[gdp]

cee - you've got to be kidding me right? After your tireless and endless screeds bashing CJL, "thuggish" players, "no-star" players and pretty much anything USF etc and you have the audacity and nerve to cry about someone expressing their opinion that you are equivalent to an idiot!!

And you sir/madam are no USF fan - of that I am 100% certain. You are nothing more than a USF poser who is actually more than likely a UCF fan. You have NEVER said one POSITIVE thing about USF. I don't expect you to blindly and loyally follow USF but a "TRUE" fan would have something "POSITIVE" to say about their school at least once . . . but not you.

Your shtick has become tiresome and mundane and entirely predictable.