Tucked on the eastern shores of the St. Joseph River, South Bend, Indiana, rests as a magical place for football fans. It’s from that place that the majority of this week’s Scouting Notebook comes after a visit to scout USC and Notre Dame in their head-to-head matchup.
If you’ve never been to South Bend, put it on your bucket list. The trees are a perfect shade of oranges and reds. The air is crisp, clean and reminds you of every great Saturday of your youth playing tackle football in the backyard before heading inside to catch kickoff on TV. The people are stereotypically friendly—USC fans in the parking lot were greeted with “Welcome to Notre Dame”—and the sights are straight out of Rudy.
The football ain’t bad either. In a game featuring 26 players on my 2016 NFL draft watch list, it was an obvious visit for Week 7 of the college football season.
The Scout's Report
— 15 NFL teams were represented at the Notre Dame-USC game, including general manager Ryan Grigson of the Indianapolis Colts. The teams in attendance, with notable high-level attendees:
— A scouting friend passed along that 14 NFL teams were also represented at the Penn State-Ohio State game. It was a busy night for scouting.
— Cardale Jones was benched by Ohio State this week in favor of J.T. Barrett. I asked one scout where he'd rank Jones based on his body of work. His reply? A top two round pick.
— Looking for an underclassman flying under the radar? LSU tackle Jerald Hawkins. I'm told by sources close to the program that the poor tackle class could propel Hawkins to leaving school early. I haven't studied Hawkins yet, but he was a highly touted prep player before signing with LSU.
— North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz was my top FCS player and a top-five quarterback, but a broken wrist will put him on the sidelines for 6-8 weeks, according to a program source I spoke with this week. The source also said that Wentz will hope for a Senior Bowl invite and plans to be ready to throw in Mobile if invited.
— Area scouts love Oregon defensive lineman DeForest Buckner. During his throttling of the Washington offensive line Saturday, I received multiple texts reminding me he's the "best defensive lineman on the West Coast" and that he should be "a lock to go top 15".
— It's not juicy insider news, but Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports had a great piece on Eastern Kentucky edge-rusher Noah Spence this week. Spence has first-round talent on the field, but his off-field history will be judged heavily by NFL teams.
— There were online rumors that Senior Bowl invites would go out this week, but I was told by a source the invites will go out as planned on November 2nd.
— I asked one scout this week about Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook, and specifically the fact that he wasn't voted a team captain. His reply: "Did you like (AJ) McCarron? That's who he is."
Five Names to Know
5. No. 1 CB Ishmael Adams, UCLA
Adams has been on fire this season since returning from suspension, and he'll get a great test facing off against Cal's talented wide receiver corps. I'll be paying special attention to Adams if and when he's matched up against Kenny Lawler (No. 4) on the outside.
4. No. 78 T Clint Van Horn, Marshall
Van Horn came into the season with a lot of hype from area scouts I talked to. He'll face a North Texas team this weekend with good speed off the edge. If you haven't had a chance to see a Marshall game yet and you're interested in tackles, this will be a good one to watch.
3. No. 59 T Joe Haeg, North Dakota State
One of the best small-school players in the nation, Haeg is an excellent athlete at tackle for North Dakota State. Even without quarterback Carson Wentz on the field for the game against Indiana State, turn this game on to see Haeg's movement skills.
2. No. 73 G Jordan Rigsbee, California
Rigsbee vs. Kenny Clark (No. 97) will make the trenches as exciting as the play on the edges when Cal and UCLA face off Thursday night. The obvious battles between quarterback Goff and the UCLA defense will be fun, but this could be a fist fight in the middle of the line.
1. No. 4 WR Leonte Carroo, Rutgers
Carroo has been unstoppable since returning from suspension, catching 14 passes and six touchdowns in his two games back on the field. He'll get an amazing test against Ohio State this Saturday in a must-see game.
Scouting Report: Cody Kessler, USC
Throughout the 2016 draft season, I'll highlight one draft prospect each week with a first-look scouting report.
No. 6 Quarterback Cody Kessler, USC (6'1", 210 lbs)
Strengths: Cody Kessler is a highly productive three-year starter at USC. He's playing in a pro-style offense that asks him to play in the shotgun set and under center. He's shown a good ability to make accurate passes down the field and handles underneath coverage well when his receivers are running through the defense. Kessler is mobile enough to handle half-rollouts to his left or right and throws well on the move. He will tuck the ball and pick up yards as a runner if the pocket breaks down. Kessler's ball placement on crossing routes is good. He puts the ball up down the field to let his receivers make a play on it.
Weaknesses: Kessler struggles with consistency in all phases of the game. His footwork is often erratic, and he struggles with happy feet in a clean or muddy pocket. He lacks velocity to all areas of the field and has a dead arm at times. Kessler doesn't consistently transfer his weight on throws and relies on an arm that isn't impressive. He doesn't like to throw the deep middle or deep out routes. Against Notre Dame, Kessler struggled to push the ball down the field in a two-minute drill. His performance under pressure and on third downs is notably poor.
Pro Comparison: Chase Daniel, Kansas City Chiefs
Kessler currently sits outside my top 100 big board, and the more I see him, the more I think he's a fringe NFL talent with a substandard arm and not enough agility to make up for a lack of size and strength.
The Big Board
The college football season is at the midway point, and while I'm what feels like 1,000 hours away from having a good feel for the entire draft class, here's how my current Top 30 players look heading into Week 8 of the college season.
Parting Shots
7. A few weeks back I listed the top head coaching candidates at that point in the season, but now it's time to look at my short list for general manager jobs when those open up. A few of these guys have passed on opportunities in the past (Ballard, DeCosta and Caserio) and some may be a year or two away, but these are the guys getting the most attention around the league.
6. You'll notice on the Big Board above that Notre Dame wide receiver Will Fuller has made a big move up, and that's due to sitting down last week to watch a ton of Notre Dame and USC film before my trip to South Bend. This is what NFL scouts do, too. They get in town midweek, camp out watching film and then watch the players in live action Saturday. My process was the same, and Fuller is a bright spot in an otherwise average wideout class. He jumps off the line of scrimmage with elite deep speed and tracks the ball exceptionally well over his shoulder. Fuller is good for at least one drop per game, but as a deep threat he's nearly flawless catching the ball down the field.
5. One standout on the USC side of the ball was linebacker/safety Su'a Cravens, and it's worth noting here that I'll be listing him at linebacker for the rest of the draft process. Cravens plays weak-side linebacker in the Trojans scheme, and does it very well. Against Notre Dame he was all over the field, making an impact in coverage, against the run and even as an edge-rusher on passing downs. He looks like a top-32 player.
4. The biggest takeaway from the weekend in Notre Dame was the speed and toughness of Notre Dame in comparison with USC. The Trojans have so much speed at wide receiver, but Notre Dame was simply tougher in the trenches. The new head coach at USC will have skill players to work with, but he and his staff will need to invest in war daddies to toughen up the program.
3. I weighed 165 pounds when I graduated high school (those were the days), and as such never played more than a few snaps at tight end. My knowledge of pass blocking and run blocking at an NFL level is limited to what I've been able to learn over the years. One great resource for that is former NFL player LeCharles Bentley (follow him on Twitter, where his OL breakdowns are amazing), who owns and operates LeCharles Bentley OL Performance outside Phoenix, Arizona.
I asked Bentley this week what he sees as the main issue with offensive line play in college and the NFL right now, where play is really trending downward. Is it spread offenses, or a lack of training time or just too many athletes on defense?:
Every position on the football field has evolved due to the proliferation of spread offenses at the collegiate level. The thought processes on how to develop players have been lockstep with the evolution of the game. Every position is being asked to do more, while OLmen are being asked to do and know less. While each position outside of offensive line are honing their respective crafts at the collegiate level, OL are not developing transferable skill sets. What you end up with are a crop of bigger, faster, stronger and more technically refined defensive linemen that are matched up against many offensive linemen that don't even know how to get in to a proper three-point stance. The teaching at the pro level is highly limited, not completely due to a lack of teaching prowess, but more so a lack of time. Also, the pool of "thinking" on how to develop OLmen is stale. You can't address new problems with the same old methods. What's considered "old school" is just a sexy way of saying it doesn't work anymore.
2. Ole Miss left tackle Laremy Tunsil will make his 2015 debut this weekend...and he gets a welcome party from Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett. Garrett, a true sophomore, is arguably the best defensive player in college football. Tunsil, who fractured his fibula in the Peach Bowl and then missed the first seven weeks of the season due to an NCAA investigation, hasn't been tested in a game situation in almost 11 months. He is seen as one of the best offensive tackles in this draft class, though, so all eyes will be on how well he holds up against an elite edge-rusher in his first week back.
1. This is totally an opinion and not based on any inside information, but while writing this I'm watching Colin Kaepernick quarterback the San Francisco 49ers and Jared Goff leading Cal. If Goff is on the board when the 49ers' pick comes up in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft, I think they select him and move on from Kaepernick—who, remember, signed a deal that's essentially year-to-year with no guaranteed money after this season.
Matt Miller covers the NFL and NFL draft for Bleacher Report.