“How’s the air up there?” isn’t a question typically asked of a 5’ 7” college running back.  Then again, Bobby Rainey isn’t your typical 5’ 7” college running back.  And, if you check the NCAA record book, you’ll find that this Western Kentucky Hilltopper does in fact live in rarefied air.  As one of only a handful of rushers in FBS history with back to back 1500 yard seasons, Rainey was named both first team All Sun Belt Conference and two time offensive player of the year, while leading the Hilltoppers to a 7-1 conference record in 2011, only two years after WKU made the full-time move up to the FBS level.  As a self described  “blue collar guy, who loves to work hard,” Rainey emphasizes that he’s ready to do whatever NFL coaches ask of him.  At Western Kentucky, his coaches routinely asked him to, metaphorically, push a rock Keep Reading…

1. Indianapolis Colts:  Andrew Luck – QB – Stanford

2. Washington Redskins: Robert Griffin III – QB – Baylor

3. Minnesota Vikings: Matt Kalil – OT – USC

4. Cleveland Browns: Trent Richardson – RB – Alabama

5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Morris Claiborne – CB – LSU

6. St. Louis Rams: Fletcher Cox – DT – Mississippi State

7. Jacksonville Jaguars: Michael Floyd – WR – Notre Dame

8. Miami Dolphins: Ryan Tannehill – QB – Texas A&M

9. Carolina Panthers: Justin Blackmon – WR – Oklahoma State

10. Buffalo Bills: Luke Kuechly – LB – Boston College

11. Kansas City Chiefs: Dontari Poe – DT – Memphis

12. Seattle Seahawks: Quinton Coples – DE – North Carolina

13. Arizona Cardinals: Riley Reiff – OT – Iowa

14. Dallas Cowboys: David DeCastro – OG – Stanford

15. Philadelphia Eagles: Devon Still – DT – Penn State

16. New York Jets: Keep Reading…

“I want to be a starting quarterback in the NFL, and I want to play in and win a Super Bowl.”

Although this quote might be something that you’d expect to hear from a top quarterback prospect or likely first round draft pick, like Robert Griffin III or Andrew Luck, these words, from his scouting combine press session, are straight from the mouth of an FCS player from Tennessee Chattanooga. And, if you’d expect a small school signal caller with only nine touchdowns in his senior season to simply be hoping to get drafted and given the opportunity to play in the NFL, then you’ve never met B J Coleman. As one of the most positive, upbeat players in college football, there wasn’t a trace of cockiness in him, as he put everyone on notice that he isn’t just looking for the opportunity to make plays, he’s dead set Keep Reading…

Like Brian Westbrook, Terrell Owens, and the great Walter Payton before him, Asa Jackson strolled into Mobile, Alabama in late January determined to show that small school players could star on the big stage. But big accomplishments are nothing new for Jackson. As a four-time first team All Great West Conference cornerback and two-time defensive player of the year, Jackson ultimately garnered national recognition this year as an AP third team All American. And it’s impossible to overstate what Jackson has meant to his football team over the course of his career. For the last four seasons, the Cal Poly Mustangs have been no one trick ponies. When the cards were on the table, they still had one up their sleeve, the highest card in the deck, Asa Jackson, the Ace of Spades.

At 5’10″, 193 lbs., Jackson may not scare opponents with his physical size, but the same Keep Reading…

Everyone remembers exactly where they were on that fateful day. It made the front page of the NY Times. I know that Jake Long, Chad Henne, and Mario Manningham remember. They were there. And if your name is Brian Quick, an unheralded Appalachian State freshman WR, playing in your very first college game, you remember being on the field, leaping high in the air, and blocking the field goal that led to the fourth quarter go-ahead touchdown, as Appalachian State knocked off the fifth ranked Michigan Wolverines 34-32, in what the NY Times called the “most important game in small school college football history.” Not a bad first game for a kid only three months out of twelfth grade, where he was a South Carolina prep basketball star, who only played one year of high school football. And on that fateful afternoon in the Big House in Ann Arbor, he Keep Reading…