Thursday, December 07, 2006

Patrick Willis Wins The Butkus Award...


Coach Orgeron, how about a nap?

...and Ed Orgeron looks like he's been recruiting on no sleep for the past five days. Either that or he's been on a bender for the past two days in Orlando. Well, as long as he's recruiting and not headbutting people, I guess it's okay.

But in all seriousness, congratulations to Patrick Willis. He was one of about two bright spots (and unfortunately both of them will be leaving) on this year's Ole Miss team as he had a tremendous season, despite a below average defensive line playing in front of him. If he had a decent defensive line, he would have made 6,000 tackles this year. He's one of a handful of Ole Miss players in my lifetime that it was worth going to the game just to see him play. I don't know if I've ever seen a linebacker in college that covered more ground than he did. I say that because this season his ability to drop back into coverage and excel at it is something you rarely see in college.

Considering his story of being a foster kid, going through adoption, being a lightly recruited player out of high school, wasting away on the bench for two years thanks to an incompetent coaching staff, enduring three years of miserable football, and losing his brother before this season started, I'd say he's done pretty well for himself. Come draft day, he'll be doing really well for himself. So long Patrick Willis, we shall miss ye.

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