This time of year is pretty dead for the average college football fan.  Let’s face it–spring football just doesn’t do much to tide the football fanatics over.  Thankfully, college football never completely leaves the national media, thanks to some really, really dumb decisions that key players at major programs make.  The vast majority of these actions seem to take place in the off-season and often lead to suspensions five months before the college season begins in early September.

In case you missed it, College FootBlog came up with an All-Suspension Team for the offensive side of the ball in our last post (link).  This post, we will focus on the defensive players who have recently been suspended for various reasons, which, in turn, have cost the individual players the opportunity to win prestigious awards, and they have disrupted chemistry from their individual teams.

So, let’s meet our group of degenerates on this side of the ball, shall we?

Florida coach Urban Meyer drew as much criticism for his half-game suspension as Brandon Spikes for his eye gouging incident last season (google images)

Defensive End: Carlos Dunlap (Florida): Dunlap is one of the top pass rushers going into next month’s draft.  At 6’6″ and 277 lbs, he was unstoppable off the edge, and he was a standout on special teams because of his ability to block kicks.  In 2009, Dunlap was a Consensus All-SEC selection, but he was suspended for the SEC Championship Game because of his charges of drunken driving on December 1st, 2009.  The experts still have Dunlap going in the first round of the NFL Draft, but his absence from the SEC Championship may have played a part in the loss to eventual National Champion Alabama.

Defensive Tackle: DeMarcus Granger (Oklahoma): During the week of OU’s Fiesta Bowl against West Virginia in 2008, Granger allegedly stole a jacket from an Arizona shopping mall.  This begs two questions:  1)  Why did he need a coat in Arizona and 2)  why didn’t he just have a car dealer in Norman just lend him one?  Regardless, the incident likely forced him to stay in college football the next year instead of declaring for the NFL Draft.  He has battled injuries and has been overshadowed by fellow teammate Gerald McCoy ever since and is now projected to go in the fourth round by most experts, costing him millions of dollars.

Linebacker: Brandon Spikes (Florida): Spikes surprised many when he opted to return for his senior season in Gainesville.  His overall performance did not suffer (in 2009, Spikes was again selected a First-Team All-American), but his character came into question when a television camera clearly showed that Spikes was gauging the eyes of Georgia running back Washaun Ealey.  His head coaches character would come into question shortly thereafter, as Urban Meyer decided that a half-game suspension would be enough of a slap on the wrists to suffice.  After public scrutiny, it was Spikes who made the decision to sit for an entire game.  Despite the altercation, Spikes is projected as the top inside linebacker in next month’s draft.

Cornerback: Paul Oliver (Georgia): After his first two seasons in Athens, Oliver exploded onto the scene as a junior, when he was considered one of the top corners in the SEC.  In that season, Oliver held former Georgia Tech and current Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson to two catches for 13 yards.  Unfortunately, Oliver’s senior season never happened because he failed to meet academic eligibility requirements.  He was later drafted in the NFL’s supplemental draft in July of 2007.  He is now a back up safety for the San Diego Chargers, but another year in the SEC could have produced a lot more money in the following year’s draft.

Safety: Brandon Meriweather (Miami): Despite firing three shots from his gun at an assailant who had already shot his teammate Willie Cooper in the butt, Meriweather was not suspended because his firearm was legal.  The suspension was handed down by the ACC because of his involvement in the 2006 brawl against Florida International University, where Meriweather was seen repeatedly stomping several FIU players who were on the ground.  Despite the incident, Meriweather was selected as the 24th overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, but the shooting incident and brawl are thought to have cost him a much higher selection.

Tell us what you think.  It was pretty hard to limit the list to just these players, but we probably missed some obvious ones.  College FootBlog wants your feedback!

Evaluating the Recruiting Class of 2006–by Jeff Dunbar

Matthew Stafford was the first of many first-rounders from the 2006 recruiting class (google images)

In the world of college football recruiting, writers and analysts attempt to project a 17-year old kid’s talent to the next 4-5 years.  Many skeptics are quick to point out the over-hyped and underperforming players like 5-star phenom Willie Williams, who made headlines of his many altercations with the law, while in high school, but due to his sub-4.5 forty time and his amazing abilities, he still signed a letter of intent to play for the Miami Hurricanes. 

Williams never panned out at Miami or Louisville, where he transferred due to limited playing time with the ‘Canes.  Williams’ story is all too familiar, but you have to admit that the business of projecting how a high school football player will do in the spotlight of bigtime Division I football is somewhat of a crapshoot.

College FootBlog understands that, and in the case of Rivals.com’s breakdown of the class of 2006, we give credit where credit is due.

Rivals dubbed 28 players that year with the coveted 5-star status, and of those former blue chip recruits, four of them have already been selected as first round draft picks in the NFL, after leaving school early–Matthew Stafford, Andre Smith, Percy Harvin and Beanie Wells.

Five more, Gerald McCoy, Taylor Mays, CJ Spiller, Brandon Graham and Sergio Kindle are expected to go in the first round of this year’s draft, with Florida Linebacker Brandon Spikes  and Clemson DE Ricky Sapp likely to go early in round 2. 

When the dust settles, Rivals will have likely correctly tagged 15 out of their 28 selections as young men who will be playing on Sundays next fall.  That 54% hit rate is very impressive when you consider all the variables that must be considered. 

Some players cannot make the grades to get into a university, let alone stay eligible at one.  Injuries can and do happen.  Stafon Johnson was one of the 5-star players listed, and although he will likely get an opportunity to play in the NFL, his freak accident in the weight room will have an effect on his draft status.  Finally, some of these players either never reach their full potential, or they may have already reached that full potential in high school, and the rest of their college peers pass them by. 

No one knows how Tim Tebow, Stafon Johnson and the rest of these players will fare in the NFL, but rest assured–they will have a shot to make an impression.  The analysts and writers have no way of predicting the future, but with Rivals’ class of 2006, they did as good a job as possible, given the circumstances.

For the complete list of the top 100 players from 2006, check out rivals.com.

In our first two pieces, College FootBlog ranked the third through the sixth ranked BCS conferences from the 2009 season (see link). In this three-part breakdown, we analyze the results from each conference from the 2009 college football season, and we also give an outlook for the upcoming 2010 season.

Without further adieu, here are our top two BCS conferences from our Power Rankings.

2.  Big East

2009 Recap: There was a time when analysts argued if the Big East should even have the right to an automatic BCS bid for its champion.  That is no longer the case.  Most people left the Big East for dead when Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College left for what was believed to be the greener pastures of the ACC.  While the ACC has fallen from respectability, the Big East has consistently raised the bar over the last three years.

Cincinnati's Mardy Gilyard was one of the most explosive players in college football in '09 (google images)

The Big East went 4-2 in their bowl games, and this was despite Cincinnati’s loss to Florida in the Sugar Bowl (which, coincidentally, was a horrible match up by the selection committee).  We are all aware of what Tony Pike, Zach Collaros and Mardy Gilyard did for the Bearcat offense, but the Big East was much ‘Bigger’ this season, and it was the second-deepest conference in the nation.

Dave Wannstedt has Pitt back on the national scene and they gave Cincinnati all they could handle in a stunning 45-44 loss that was one of the best (if not the best) college football games all season.  Overall, the Panthers finished with ten wins on the year, West Virginia and Rutgers racked up nine wins and USF and UConn each pulled in eight victories on the year.

2010 Outlook: Coaching changes could have a significant effect on the Big East next season.  The Departure of Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly for Notre Dame and the firing of South Florida coach Jim Leavitt will put a lot of pressure on new head coaches Butch Jones and Skip Holtz.

The good news is that each of those two programs will have a proven quarterback.  Cincy did not lose a beat when Tony Pike was lost temporarily due to injury because of the great play of Zach Collaros.  And USF will have leader Matt Grothe back next fall, but they now have a proven back up in BJ Daniels.

The issue for the Bulls is going to be replacing future NFL defensive ends George Selvie and Jason Pierre-Paul.  Pitt will have to replace quarterback Bill Stull, but running back Dion Lewis will take a lot of pressure off the new starter at QB.

Overall, it will be difficult to keep the #2 Power Ranking in 2010, but the coaching and talent will continue to gain well-deserved respect from college football.

1.  SEC

2009 Recap: As much as some fans would like to see a changing of the guard, the SEC simply will not allow that to happen.  All the SEC did this season is send ten of their twelve teams to bowl games, and they won six, which included the Sugar Bowl and the BCS National Championship.

When the dust settled, the SEC combined for a whopping 97-59 record in ’09, making it by far the deepest conference in the country.  Led by Alabama’s national championship team and the Florida Gators, whose only loss came at the hands of the Crimson Tide, the SEC once again imposed its will on the rest of college football.

Mark Ingram's punishing running-style led the Tide to the BCS Title (google images)

With the one-two punch of Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and freshman Trent Richardson, Bama’s smashmouth running game and defense was in stark contrast to Florida’s spread attack and Arkansas’ pass-happy scheme, but each was effective all season.  Georgia was disappointing but still finished the year with eight wins, capped off with a 44-20 drubbing of Texas A&M.  LSU and Ole Miss finished with very respectable nine win seasons as well, and both are looking to have even better years next season.

2010 Outlook: Look for much of the same with the SEC dominating college football.  Flordia will have a bit of a rebuilding year after the loss of Tim Tebow and likely NFL first rounders, LB Brandon Spikes, TE Aaron Hernandez and CB Joe Haden.

The scary part is that the other top teams could be and should be even better this fall.  That includes ‘Bama, who returns the running back tandem of Ingram and Richardson, but they also return WR Julio Jones and QB Greg McElroy.

Head coach Gene Chizik will look to build on the momentum he created at Auburn, and with Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett and Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead, the SEC could possibly have a pair of first round quarterbacks in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Just to recap, College FootBlog’s 2009 BCS Conference Power Rankings are as follows:

1. SEC
2. Big East
3. Big Ten
4. Big 12
5. ACC
6. Pac 10

Please feel free to post your own power rankings and give your feedback.  Also, look for College FootBlog’s analysis of the recruiting season in a couple of weeks.