Packers invite Graham Harrell to minicamp

Recluse

Cheesehead
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But I cracked up at the part about Big 12 having good defenses!
That conference made:
Colt McCoy
Graham Harrell
Sam Bradford
Chase Daniel
Todd Reesing
Zac Robinson

All look like 1984 Dan Marino!
I've never seen QB's rack up passing yards, TDs, and high ratings like they did in this conference from at least 2007-on.

Heh heh heh.

Thanks for the welcome--much appreciated.

I can give you two words that changed the entire tone of the Big 12--

Mike Leach.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of his, especially his personal conduct, ego and arrogance, but when Leach came to Texas Tech and began assembling what would become Air Raid, it didn't take long for other schools to start recruiting quarterbacks that could throw the ball, and receivers who could catch the ball.

Previously, in the days of the Big 8 and the old Southwest Conference, it was run, run, run. The option was a favorite of Oklahoma and Nebraska, along with the wishbone at OU. The Huskers and Sooners were the dominant teams in the Big 8.

Further south, in the Southwest Conference, with the exception of Rice and TCU, things were generally a little more even-matched--but it was still defensive battles. The triad of Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech formed a three-way rival in which one team seemingly always played spoiler, and it was usually which defense was the stoutest that ended up spoiling the other two's chances for a Cotton Bowl berth.

We had quarterbacks who could throw the ball, but more often than not, we had running backs who could run with the ball. Jim Crow from A&M, Donny Anderson from Tech, Earl Campbell from Texas, the Pony Express from SMU, etc.

Enter Leach and an offense that just flat aired it out. Decades of defensive tradition were suddenly turned on its ear. Texas high schools began throwing the ball and sending their best quarterbacks to the Big 12 schools.

Old traditions and habits die hard, and many of the legendary coaches in the Big 12 (Big 8 & SWC) were defensive coordinators prior to becoming head coaches. Royal, Sherrill, *****, Switzer, Osborne, etc.

As we all know, getting a head coach who came up through the ranks as a defensive specialist to change his game plans and approach to the game is like trying to get two tortoises to make love at the same speed chipmunks chatter.

Nonetheless, in the past three years or so, we've seen OU and Texas' defenses become dominant; Tech's is greatly improved, Nebraska is on the return and OSU can get really stiff. Nobody compares with the SEC, however, but the Big 12 has good defenses, it's just that they have better offenses.

I've watched a lot of Tech quarterbacks over the past forty years, and Harrell is in reality, the first that I ever had optimistically high hopes of not just succeeding in the NFL, but becoming a star.

I guess we'll have to see--the NFL is a whole nother and tougher beast than college.

But Harrell is smart, has composure, and earns the respect of his teammates. In that regard, he reminds me of Bart Starr and Roger Staubach and John Elway--the quarterbacks that could be down by two scores midway/late in the fourth quarter, yet whose teams KNEW they were still going to win because their quarterbacks refused to lose.

Again, the kid needs to beef up for sure; but given a fair chance and a few years to develop, it wouldn't surprise me to see him earn the starting role in GB and take them great places. . . and be some kind of fun to watch.
 

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