TOP 10 YOUTUBE STARS
For those of you, like me, who dig through hours of video to evaluate potential talent, know that there’s nothing like a clip that sticks in your mind. Every year, I have my favorite moments on tape; here are my 5 favorites from the 2017 draft season:
1. S/LB Shaquem Griffin INT vs Temple OLB Griffin lines up wide inthe slot to the top, facing Temple’s WR/KR speed receiver. He uses good leverage and position to redirect the route and stack the WR away from the throwing lane, turns, and adjusts to the football, making the INT 30 yards downfield.
2. Shaquem Griffin FG block to preserve undefeated season/AAC Championship Memphis lined up for what might have been a game-winning FG in the closing minute of the AAC CHampionship game. If the kicker had made it, UCF would also have lost for the only time in 2017 and they would have been out of a New Year’s Day Bowl game. So, of course, Shaquem Griffin made a play to stop it. (Unfortunately, the play clock ran out before the kick, so the kicker got a second chance… and he missed. The game eventually went to OT and UCF won)
3. Chris Warren III TD vs entire Texas Tech team It’s a cliché to say “beastmode” but the 250lb RB (and son of Seahawks great RB Chris Warren) basically runs around, by, and through the entire Texas Tech defense.
4. RB Ryan Nall shaolin YAC The 235lb RB from Oregon State has a nice pass-receiving component to his game, has very good speed for his size, and can really make defenders miss in the open field. On this play, he appears to have supernatural ninja skills, as he tosses a player to the side with his life force.
5. OL Desmond Harrison pancaking two different classifications of football Harrison was a Texas signee– the 34th ranked high school player in the country. Then he ran into problems… a failed drug test led to missing a game, then he failed a second test just after being reinstated from the first suspension. With a new, no-nonsense coach starting his tenure, Harrison got dismissed. He then floated around trying to get a new team, finally went through Juco, and onto Division II West Georgia. Suffice to say that the level of competition in the Juco world and the D2 world wasn’t really up to facing a 6’7″ 290lb top recruit with a lot to be pissed about. If he doesn’t make it in the NFL, it’s clear from this tape that he could get a job at IHOP.
6. Dallas Goedert one hand catch of the year
7. All 14 of Skai Moore’s career Interceptions. A thing of beauty.
9. Spin City, with EDGE Aaron Tiller, Southern Probably the best spin move compilation you’ll see this year, and then a nice counter to the bewildered OL who begin to overcommit to it.
10. Shaquem Griffin “Troy Polamalu” play vs Temple I’ve seen this play in the NFL and a guy with long locks and the number 43 in black and gold doing it. I’m sure when the offensive guru is drawing up this play, they thought there was a zero percent chance that double-teamed, undersized OLB would get anywhere near the ballcarrier.
