Watchin' Football Today?

by: Michael Steffes

I am making my first trip this season to the Coliseum tonight to watch the most dominant defense in the country, USC. As part of this, I plan to take a good hard look, in person, at SC safety Taylor Mays. The speculation is that he will enter the draft this year and is a player many of the Seahawk faithful are high on. Also, the Trojans have a pretty impressive group of linebackers, or so you might have heard.

Anyway, for those sitting in front of the tube today, I thought I would point out some of the players the Hawks could be looking at, assuming they pick high in next April's draft.

The big game of the day is Alabama at LSU (CBS 12:30 PST). The player to watch in this matchup is Alabama LT Andre Smith, who will likely be matched up against another top talent in LSU's DE Tyson Jackson. This is a matchup of future pros, so if you tune into this game, be sure to watch these two fight it out.

Another big matchup is Texas Tech versus Oklahoma State (ABC 5pm PST). This game contains two top WRs; Michael Crabtree is a monster and is expected to be taken high, but OSU has a talented WR as well in Dez Bryant. Niether of these players are a sure thing to enter the draft, in fact Bryant might not even be eligible (not sure), but with an underwhelming senior WR class we may see them available come April.

If you get ESPNU (12:30 PST), you can watch a rather uneventful game between Virgina and Wake Forsest. While ACC football hasn't been great this year, this game features two players the Hawks will certainly take a look at in Eugene Monroe and Aaron Curry. Monroe is a top tackle prospect--in fact, the Cavs moved Brandon Albert to guard last year to get him on the field. Curry is a linebacker who would probably be the best draft day solution to replace Leroy Hill, if that is necessary. Curry is known to be a complete player with a knack for making big plays. He has shot up draft boards and is now expected to go in the top 20 picks.

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