Small-school cornerbacks draw big-time attention

Sporting News, The, Feb 2, 2004 by Dan Pompei

Teams shopping for cornerbacks can fill up their carts at superstores from the Southeastern Conference or the Pac 10, but discriminating buyers might find better values at out-of-the-way roadside stands.

Tusculum, for instance.

Tusculum, a Division II school in Greeneville, Tenn., is where Ricardo Colclough played his college football. Colclough, who is expected to be a first-day pick in the April draft, is part of a larger trend: cornerbacks taking the small-school route to the NFL. Since 2000, 10 small-school corners have been drafted in the first four rounds, and several others have been taken from Division I-A schools that aren't exactly football factories.

Of small-school players taken in the first four rounds at all positions, 30 percent have been cornerbacks. No other position accounted for more than 12 percent of small-school players.

"You can find cornerbacks at any school," Bucs college scouting director Ruston Webster said. "It doesn't have to be a big school."

There are a lot of reasons cornerbacks end up at small schools. Colclough (pronounced coke-lee) was recruited by some big-time universities, but didn't have the grades to qualify. After two years at Kilgore Junior College, Kansas State, South Carolina and Texas A&M came calling. Academics prevented Colclough from accepting their offers, and Tusculum was his best alternative.

Keith Smith, another small-school cornerback prospect in the coming draft, provides a different example. In high school, he was an undersized safety playing in an unorthodox defense on a bad team. He developed after going to McNeese State, gaining 14 pounds just in the last year.

"A lot of these guys are from the South," said Bears general manager Jerry Angelo, who drafted Charles Tillman out of Louisiana-Lafayette, a lower-tier Division I-A program, in the second round last year and Roosevelt Williams out of Tuskegee in the third round the year before. "They sometimes come out of high school as quarterbacks, receivers or safeties. Nobody has a 40-yard dash time on them. They weren't in football camps. The quality of their game tape is poor, and even with good tape it's a very hard position to evaluate. They end up falling through the cracks, going to a small school and developing."

Other players wind up at small schools after transferring from bigger ones. Joey Thomas, another corner prospect in the April draft, transferred to Montana State from Washington after being run off by coach Rick Neuheisel. Similarly, Will Peterson, who was chosen by the Giants out of Western Illinois in the third round three years ago, was a transfer who had gotten into trouble at his first school, Michigan,

Most of the small-school corners who play their way into the draft have the ability to run faster than the players they compete against in college. That is what draws the scouts' binoculars. "At that position, the stopwatch is huge," Angelo said. "That's one position that the watch doesn't lie. If he has speed, he'll play in the league. If he develops his skills or has instincts, he can become an above-average corner."

The Senior Bowl, which was played last week in Mobile, Ala., meant more to Smith, Colclough and Thomas than anyone else. "This is where you want to see small-school corners to see if they can compete," said Jaguars vice president of player personnel James Harris, who drafted Rashean Mathis from Bethune-Cookman in the second round last April. "You think they have the abilities, but here you can see if they can transcend that into the NFL."

Smith looked a little less athletic going against top receivers than he did playing against a lower level of competition in college. Colclough showed improvement throughout the practice week, though he might not be as fast as some scouts thought he was.

"All three showed they have the raw skills, feet and speed to compete at this level," Falcons college scouting supervisor Mike Hagen said. "They did really well."

The Senior Bowl confirmed the suspicion that each of them, and Thomas in particular, needs technique work. That is not uncommon with small-school corners because the quality of coaching typically correlates to the size of the football program.

Ike Taylor came to the Steelers last year as green as a lime. He had been drafted in the fourth round from Louisiana-Lafayette, where he had been a running back until his senior season. By the end of the year, he was playing on the Steelers' dime defense. "It was a learning experience for him," Pittsburgh director of football operations Kevin Colbert said. "But he was big enough and fast enough that you knew he could do it."

The successes of Taylor, Tillman, Mathis and others will ensure that teams will not underestimate the potential of small-school corners as the draft approaches.

(S) The countdown to draft day is on. SportingNews.com's Draft Central is your ultimate resource, with mock drafts, player rankings and hundreds of scouting reports. Go to: http://ultimate. sportingnews.com/nfl/draft.

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