The 2nd Annual: “Seems Like There Are a Lot of Great Canadian Players, Eh?” Award: WR Elic Ayomanor, Stanford
Style Comp: Dontayvion Wicks
Elic Ayomanor had his career game vs the Colorado Secondary. About halfway through him destroying them, they switched to Travis Hunter covering him. Didn’t help. 13 catches for 294 yards and 3 TDs. Oh, Canada, indeed!
No Position, No Problem Award
So what if no one knows what position Tommy Mellott is expected to play in his pro career? He’s already showed he can do a lot of things in the game of football, as a Wide Reciever, Running Back, Kick Returner, and then a last-minute replacement as Quarterback… for the FCS playoffs! Mellott ran 4.39 at his pro day, with a 1.50 10 yd split. Maybe they should just let him play everything.
The “If This Were 1975, I’d be a 1st Rd Pick” or “Borderline Too Violent For This Sport” Award: FB Stevo Klotz, Iowa State
Style Comp: Bobby Boucher
The first time I saw the first play of Klotz’s cut-up, I texted a friend and said: The Offensive Coordinator who designed this play is a mass-murderer in waiting and Klotz is his hitman. The poor LB who walked into Klotz running full speed from the other side of the field had to be wondering where that truck came from. (Side note: If Arthur Smith sees this play and runs it with 300-lb Darnell Washington in motion toward the outside LB, I suggest the Steelers training staff do the opponent the courtesy of dialing 9-1- and having their finger at the ready when he ball is snapped. They’ll need it.) Klotz might not be the best all-around FB (Pat Conroy), or the best story (Jared Casey), or the craziest biggest and awesomest (JJ Pegues), but he’s dedicated to the craft of not just blocking but sending a message to opponents that is loud enough that it might reach their grandchildren.
The B2B Honorary Karl Joseph People Had Me As A Third Rounder But I’m Going In The top 50 Award: OT Charles Grant, William & Mary
Style Comp: Ronnie Stanley
Charles Grant was a state champion wrestler in a state that, according to my SteelerFury Podcast cohort and former wrestler Korey Karbowsky is “a real wrestling state, not a mirage.” You can see his wrestling background in the way he gets leverage, even when on the move laterally or on the run. His 35″ arms and long frame are the tools Offensive Line Coaches dreams and he is as promising and drama-free a left tackle prospect as exists in this draft class. I suspect he will go closer to Round 1 than he will to the 68th spot where he is currently sitting on the composite board.
B2B Unwanted to 1st Overall Pick Award: QB Cam Ward, Miami (FL)
Style Comp: Mid-career Ben Roethlisberger with a dose of Patrick Mahomes
I was, like most sports fans, struggling to find something to watch on TV during the pandemic shutdown, and ESPN somehow had exclusive rights to the Southland Conference (some fun football that year, and weirdly an obscure FCS Conference with a host of really good QBs!(. The first week I got a load of the true freshman QB at a school I barely had heard of, Incarnate Word. I watched every game of the Southland that year, as Cam Ward became the FCS Freshman of the year, and my fascination with him and a sense that he was the top prospect in CFB lead me to keep watching. I managed to see every snap of his entire collegiate career. In the beginning, the stories were about how he hadn’t been recruited by any schools, because his high school coach barely let him throw the ball for a team that was built around running and then running and then running some more. Then it moved to, “Where did this guy come from?” to him transferring up to Washington State and me hearing announcers act like he had never played a college football game before. Eventually, after two seasons mostly spent running for his life behind a porous offensive line and having to play hero ball to make up for a defense that couldn’t stop anyone, Ward finally found his happy place in Miami. A marriage with The U’s OC Shannon Dawson proved to be the right touch, and Ward put the team on his shoulders from day 1, turning in a masterpiece vs the Florida Gators in week 1 that was one of the greatest showcases of college quarterbacking you’ll ever see. Prospects who start off as zero-star recruits, playing at unheralded schools… they rarely get their draft due. But Ward is about to go from completely unwanted and unrecrutied to being the first overall pick in the NFL draft. That is an incredible accomplishment and I feel vindicated for planting my flag on him as a prospect so very long ago.
Meatloaf “I Would Do Anything For Love (but I Can’t Do That)” Award: QB Greyson McCall, Coastal Carolina –> North Carolina State
Sometimes, it just isn’t meant to be. In 2021 Greyson McCall was cruising with a 73% completion percentage, 27 TD passes to 3 INT, leading the FBS in Y/A, Y/G, Passer rating (207.6)–– a second brilliant season in a row, going 20-2 over that span. But something wasn’t right with his throwing shoulder, and instead of transferring up to a Power 4 school, he had surgery on his throwing shoulder and returned to the blue turf of Conway. That season was a bit of a down year, as it was expected it would take almost a full year to regain his velocity. Even with the recovery, he had another outstanding year but for reasons only he knew, he did not enter the NFL draft then, returned to Coastal Carolina, had a down year after a lot of personnel turnover, a coaching change, and a season-ending concussion. Rather than come out after a down year, he finally took advantage of an opportunity to move up to the ACC, starting for the NC State Wolfpack. His season was a bit stop and start to begin, with a injury that kept him out a few games, but after returning he seemed to be showing signs of his old self… that is, until a game vs Wake Forest, where he took off on a QB scramble like he’d done so many times before, except that this time he was hit helmet to helmet with such force that it knocked his helmet off, and it also appeared that after his helmet came off but before he hit the ground, he absorbed another blow to his bare head from a second helmet. The net result was a traumatic brain injury that he said he, “couldn’t come back from”. Here’s to his future and hoping he has a full recovery and a healthy life ahead.
B2B For The Love Of The Game Award: OL Esa Pole, Washington State
Style Comp: Jordan Mailata
Big guys who can move are all the rage and it’s important to remember that they are rarities.
Pole has a ridiculous story. He didn’t play High School ball… his foster mother was so scared of it that she refused to give him permission to play… so he became a basketball kid, even though his brother was a D1 football player of note. He graduated HS and spent a year away from sports. Then there was a reuniting with his non-foster family, and suddenly he realized he could be allowed to play. His brother took him to see a local Juco football coach, who said he’d take him and teach him he game.
So, up to age 18, no weight training regimen, no reps in football.
They started him at DT, like his brother had played, but after seeing him get more comfortable with the game, he moved to OT. He played in a handful of games, and suddenly had a couple of low-division CFB offers. He decided to go back, and after the first few games starting in his year 2 of Juco, he began dominating and got offers from all over, including one from his Hometown Cal Bears he turned down in favor of going to the team where his brother had been a big contributor. They installed him the next year as a starting tackle, protecting a stud QB.
It was a disaster. Several games of barely hanging on vs the jump up in LOC were punctuated by future NFL 1st round pick Laiatu Latu absolutely destroying him. Like one of the all-time ass whippings ever to take place on a football field. PFF ranked him the worst OT in CFB. He easily could have given up or switched positions. But he did not.
He devoting himself to learning from his weaknesses and mistakes and this year he came out like a different player. He was so dominant that he finished 6th in the OT class in least pressures allowed per pass. In just his 3rd full year at the position and 4th year in football of any kind, he went from being one of the worst OTs in CFB last year to being one of the best; PFF ranked him the best pass-protecting OT in college football. I can’t say if that predicts he will make the same kind of jump and be on the Jordam Mailata track to NFL superstardom, but he’s on the right trajectory.
B2B For The Love Of The Game Award Part 2 (NCAA Edition): Deone Walker, Kentucky
Style Comp: Calais Campbell
After beginning his career as a 6’7″, 331lb 19-year old bully by absolutely destroying the SEC–to the tune of 13 TFLs and 7.5 sacks… his 2024 season seemed a bit lackluster– still making plays but not at the same level. Something seemed wrong… and that something turned out to be a pars defect fracture in the wing of one of his lumbar vertebrae. It’s an injury that is inconsistently painful but when it flared, Walker said he couldn’t even stand on the sideline because it was so painful. In addition to that, he contracted an infection from while undergoing injections to treat the injury––an infection so severe he had to be hospitalized… the only time he missed a game all season. Why did he play an entire season with a fractured back, lowering his draft status with an injury that no one knew about? Why did he lead all DTs in CFB in most snaps played while being unable to stand up straight on the sideline? Because he wanted to stand up for his teammates, some of who were out with injuries… his team needed him.
Now fully healed, it’s time for those naysayers criticizing his 2024 season to realize it was actually a badge of football honor that he continued to play.
“I didn’t want people to think I’m sitting out for the wrong reasons, just because I’m scared I’m gonna get injured,” he said. “I go 110% for this team.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Zq0MAoUbM
The 2nd Annual Austin Aune “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.” Award: TE Cam McCormick Miami (FL)
Style Comp: Jerame Tuman
Cam McCormick is the first known player to have been granted a 9th season of college football. NINE YEARS. He entered Oregon in the same recruiting class as Justin Herbert, who’s about to begin his 6th NFL season.
In 2016, McCormick injured his knee and redshirted while recovering.
In 2017, he was hospitalized for 4 days with severe problems caused by an overeager strength and conditioning coach running a BootCamp where hydration was considered weakness.
In the opening game of 2018, a teammate blocked a defender into his leg, tearing a ligment and breaking his fibula–knocking him out for the season.
In 2019, well… I’ll let Wikipedia tell you:
Complications with McCormick’s 2018 leg injuries and the resulting surgeries continued to plague him for years thereafter.During post-injury surgery, a screw was placed into McCormick’s ankle as an anchor for a surgical sutureto hold a ligament in place. Unfortunately, the screw failed and caused another fracture shortly before the third game of the season. A second left ankle surgery, to replace the anchor, was performed, and his season once again came to an early end.
In 2020, not only did the pandemic delay the season, when practices did resume, McCormick suffered a posterior tibial tendon rupture caused by the two screws that had been inserted during either the first or second ankle surgery. He underwent a third, 2.5 hour reconstruction surgery on his left ankle, where two ligament-rupturing screws were removed and a tendon transfer was performed.
In 2021, McCormick was cleared to begin practicing and started the season playing special teams. In the second game of the season, he suffered a torn Achilies tendon in his other foot and was out for the season.
In 2022, he managed to play the entire season and won 2022 Orange Bowl Football Writers Association Courage Award for his comeback from injuries.
In 2023, he transferred to Miami, he played injury-free for two seasons, catching the first Miami TD pass of future 1st overall pick Cam Ward.
You gotta love the game.