Writing the Pine

From time to time, we will compare two players or two teams or two anything and argue with each other over which is better.  We always argue with each other about everything and we all think we all know more than each other and we thought we’d share these arguments with you.  Our first argument comes between Peter (Hometown Hero) and YJ (Dave) over who is the better NFL prospect, Ryan Mallett or Jimmy Clausen.  Hometown Hero is taking Mallett’s side and YJ is taking Clausen’s side.

THE CASE FOR RYAN MALLETT by Hometown Hero

Standing head above everybody at six foot six inches, Ryan Mallett is a beast of a quarterback. He’s an imposing figure that towers over everybody on the football field. Recently transferring to Arkansas to master the Bobby Petrino pass happy offense, we see why this kid was a 5-star recruit out of Texarkana, Texas.

My argument as to why he will eventually be picked #1 in the 2011 NFL Draft, ahead of Jimmy Clausen (if Mallett leaves early and Clausen stays till his senior year), or just the argument that he is the best pro quarterback prospect in the land starts with his recruitment to the University of Michigan. With Chad Henne entering his final year, Michigan ace recruiter Scott Loeffler (now the QB coach at Florida) snagged a commitment from Ryan, at the time rated the #2 QB after the aforementioned Clausen. My interest peaked during the Elite 11 QB camp.  ESPN writer Bruce Feldman stated that nobody came close to having the type of arm strength Mallett had, and that only instructor JaMarcus Russell had a comparable arm. Russell wound up being the #1 pick (foreshadowing ironic prediction: Mallett goes #1 to Oakland in 2011). Rivals commentary went a step further and said that nobody in the history of the event, eight years running at the time, had an arm close to Mallett’s.

With Clausen getting all the recruiting hype (with his limousine entrance at Notre Dame and all), I felt that Mallett was being overshadowed a bit. I thought that in terms of physical abilities, no QB recruit had this much talent in the past 10 year period.

When I began to think of the future of Michigan football, I was excited. Rivals had picked Michigan as QB-U in one of their positional rankings, and with the long tradition of Harbaugh, Grbac, Collins, Dreisbach, Brady, Henson, Navarre, and Henne, you could see that if you play QB at Michigan, you’ll be taking snaps on Sundays. Chad Henne also possessed that vaunted 5-star rating, and you can call his career at Michigan a great one, but the 0-4 record versus Ohio State, 0-3 record in the Rose Bowl (and just one bowl victory overall), and his ridiculous on-the-field aloof and emotionless demeanor got to Michigan fans after four years. Then again he did follow John Navarre, who was the most shitted on QB in the history of college football. (And like Henne, that guy showed absolutely no emotion on the field.)

So when we heard that this Mallett character came in with a swagger and played with his emotions on his sleeves (as we witnessed on his first touchdown run against Penn State), the conservative Michigan fan base was a little shocked.  (Go to FORUM in NYC on Saturdays to watch Michigan football and you’ll see why I label Michigan fans as “a bunch of scientists.”) There was some backlash as to how arrogant and cocky Mallett was  but after watching him play his true freshmen year, I was convinced that this guy was exactly what Michigan needed to get itself back to that national championship picture. He was good – real good and thankfully he showed some damn emotion.  Chad Henne told reporters that he was legit, that he was physically better than himself at the same stage and that Mallett had the chance to be the best that Michigan ever had. Bold statement Henne. BOLD.  With that optimism, I envisioned Mallett to Manningham, Mallett to Arrington and Mallett to Mathews, all day, everyday. But that didn’t happen. Rich Rodriguez came and with him, the spread offense.  As a result, Mallett became a Razorback and Petrino’s next monster.

Even though he left Michigan, I’ve been following him ever since. Maybe because my whole life is defined by the ”what if ” game, regardless, I still thought to myself that Mallett would become a superstar. I told my buddy Dave (aka YJ) long beforehand that I thought by the time Mallett’s career was over at Michigan, he would stand amongst the greatest, and eventually be the #1 pick. Though the first part of that is impossible, I’m pretty confident that the latter will still occur.

So while I was watching the Arkansas-Georgia game the a few weeks back, I exchanged text messages with Dave, proclaiming that Mallett had finally emerged.  Three touchdown passes in the first quarter and five total against a premier SEC defense. It was all coming to truth, just in Razorback maroon, and not in the maize and blue.  But of course, Dave being the dick friend he is, just kept saying, ”what could’ve been.”

(A little background – Dave and I love playing this game of ”I told you so.”  We love picking kids when they go unnoticed or are still in college, then proclaiming to each other, I told you he would do that and that or as he would say, “I called that shit.”  It’s just another ego thing where we swear we know more sports than each other.)

Everybody knows the offensive genius of Bobby Petrino.  Everybody knows how he resurrected the Louisville football program and made stars out of Stefan LeFors and Brian Brohm. Anybody can second-guess the decisions he’s made and call him a snake for leaving the NFL and all, but you can’t deny that he’s one of the premier offensive minds in college football today. With Petrino guiding him, there is no ceiling high enough for Mallett to reach at Arkansas.  In this pass-happy offense, he will shatter all the passing marks at Arkansas and make a run for the SEC record books.

So to further inflate my ego, I’m going to reaffirm my call I made when Mallett was in high school.  Ryan Mallett is the truth. After this season is over, he will be the best quarterback in the country. Oh and the #1 overall pick in the 2011 draft ahead of Clausen. (Foreshadowing ironic prediction #2: Mallett pick #1, Clausen pick #2).

THE CASE FOR JIMMY CLAUSEN by YJ

I want to first start off by saying that my argument will not be nearly as long as Peter’s.  With that said, I believe Jimmy Clausen is the best NFL quarterback prospect out of all the other quarterbacks in college football today (yes including Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, Matt Barkley, and Ryan Mallett).  Clausen certainly had the hype that he’d be special.  Football runs in his family’s blood.  His two older brothers Casey and Rick were both quarterbacks for Tennessee.  While he was the quarterback at Oaks Christian High School, he broke several state records and never lost a game in his high school career (albeit with an absolutely loaded team).  He was the #1 recruit that year but truth be told, many scouts had graded him to be one of the best recruits in history.  They graded him comparably to John Elway.  Outside the Lines did a special on him while he was in high school.  They called him a prodigy and the LeBron James of football.  Since he was little, Clausen trained with some special quarterbacks guru that worked with several pros and even he said Clausen was the best he’d ever seen at that age.

But hype, of course, can only take you so far and Clausen and the legion of Notre Dame followers found that out the hard way.  In his true freshman year, Clausen quarterbacked arguably the worst team in Notre Dame history.  In ten games that year, he threw for only 1254 yards, seven touchdowns, and six interceptions.  He was sacked a ridiculous 35 times that year (in only 245 pass attempts) and everyone was wondering what the big deal was about.  He improved tremendously his sophomore year, however, breaking the 3000-yard mark and throwing 25 touchdowns along with 17 picks.  He was only sacked 21 times in 440 attempts, showing quicker decision-making skills with a year under his belt.  Notre Dame still went only 7-6 that year, but in their bowl victory over Hawai’i, Clausen showed how good he could be, torching the Warriors‘ secondary and setting school bowl-game records with 401 yards and five touchdown passes.  It was a sign for things to come in 2009.  In five games so far this season, including one in which he didn’t play the whole game because of injury, he’s thrown for 1544 yards, 12 touchdowns and two interceptions, completing 67.6% of his passes, and being sacked just eight times.  He led the nation in quarterback efficiency after his last start.

I’ve been able to watch many of Clausen’s games throughout his career (and how couldn’t I since they’re always on NBC) and the kid has an absolute cannon for an arm and more importantly, he knows how to use it.  (You listening JaMarcus Russell?)  He throws, by far, the best deep ball in college football.  With a golden arm like that, it’s no wonder he decided to become a Golden Domer.  It seems like every pass he throws downfield is catchable by his receiver.  In the loss to Michigan, people questioned Charlie Weis’s decision to throw a deep pass late in the game on third down, but with Clausen’s skills, it really wasn’t that bad a call.  He ripped apart the Michigan secondary with the long ball all game long so if you have the opportunity to seal the game with it, why not take it?  Along with his strong arm though, he also owns one of the quickest releases of any quarterback in the nation.  The ball leaves his hand faster than you can say “Rudy.”  On top of all that, the kid is 6-3 220 lbs, a prototypical build if you’re trying to make a quarterback and as an added bonus, I read somewhere that he ran the 40 in 4.78 seconds.  He’s got all the physical tools to be a dominant pro and with his improving play each year, he’s showing he has the mental capacity to succeed as well.

Don’t get me wrong here.  I think Ryan Mallett is one hell of a player.  Mark May already proclaimed him to be the best passer in the SEC and after seeing how crappy Jevon Snead is, I completely agree.  Mallett put on a clinic in that Georgia game and he has several impressive performances under his belt so far in his young career.  He’ll be special too, but for my money, Clausen will be the #1 pick in the NFL Draft over Mallett (assuming they’re in the same draft) and also the better pro.