Higdon, who sat out bowl to prep for draft, goes undrafted
This grated on me at the time, but I thought, “I guess he has to do what’s best for him.” But now to see him go undrafted, this bothers me even more. He is now an UDFA signee of the Texans.
As I see it, he had another chance at the bowl game to lead his team and improve his draft stock. Instead, he abandoned them. And for what?
I don’t know how anyone can be behind his decision any longer. I don’t find the “Well, if he got hurt than he might never have even been an UDFA signing” reason very persuasive.
While perhaps the bowl game might not have gone well anyway, I feel that part of the reason they lost was because the overall team effort was low due to poor morale. Morale and leadership is just the kind of thing a captain is supposed to provide. He could have provided that. NFL scouts would appreciate that. And a great performance on the field would certainly have helped his draft stock.
But when your captain jumps ship, a poor performance is to be expected. I wonder how many NFL teams thought worse of him for on personal level for being a captain who left his team, than they were impressed by any additional preparation he had for the Senior Bowl and NFL combine.
While I hope some players would learn a lesson from this, I think it will only get worse.
In other disappointing news, Zach Gentry, who had a poor bowl performance, but still left early, goes in the 5th round to the Steelers. Good for him I guess, but I wonder if he couldn’t have been a 1st or 2nd round pick in a year or two in this new offense. This one is more about players needing compensation in college, so they don’t have to jump earlier than necessary.
I rarely post here but read often, so I guess this just shows my frustration with these choices.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:43 PM ^
No one's draft stock changes based on their performance in a single game, especially when it's the most meaningless game of the year. The fact that so many people think the opposite is the dumbest thing about this endless argument.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:15 AM ^
You could argue that Jake Rudock’s stock was greatly improved after his performance in the Citrus Bowl. What other game would you point to? I absolutely believe that if Higdon goes out and plays well against Fla in the Peach Bowl he gets drafted. The only time it makes sense to sit out is when you’re a guaranteed top 10 pick.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:42 PM ^
a) There is no way to know that for sure. IMO I agree that Rudock helped his stock. Tom Brady likely helped his with his Orange Bowl. Vince Young with his Rose Bowl. etc. Jake Plummer with his Bowl.
b) The most meaningless game of the year- really? I'd say it was the 3rd or 4th most meaningful game. That's the last on field impression a team leaves its recruits and fans for 8 months.
Am I the only one that thinks that the guy with two seasons of tape to show scouts isn’t going to improve his stock in a single post season game? So people really think that a hundred yard effort against Florida would have magically improved his draft status?
I think a lot of people agree with you on that point. While yours is a very logical and reasonable point, I actually do believe there is a substantial recency bias with drafts. There is also a huge emphasis on final games of import.
<Anecdote alert> Clelin Ferrell was projected between 15 and 30 by a unanimous panel of experts. Literally no one had him in the top five, and I’m not sure if there was a single top 10. However, he starred in his final game, which happened to be the national championship game, and he was subsequently drafted #4 overall. He was arguably the third best lineman on his own team, and it is hard to make an honest argument that he was in a conversation for the top 10 with any team prior to that single game performance. Scouting and drafting is unnecessarily emotional. Some teams are more scientific and rational. Anecdotally, I would argue the patriots exemplify that type of approach. The approach the raiders took with Ferrell has proven to be... less successful.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:18 PM ^
Actually, Ferrell was considered to be the best Clemson DL of the bunch. He was always projected to go before both Lawrence and Wilkins. The only surprise was he got drafted at #4 overall. The National Championship didn't vault him there. It's the body of his work that got him drafted high
April 28th, 2019 at 10:43 PM ^
M4L - I have no problem agreeing to disagree on this one. We are both in theory land, and I respect your opinion on the matter.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:58 AM ^
M4L nailed it.
The Raiders wanted a pash rusher with their first pick, bit of an upset that it was Clelin and not Allen, but it was not because of who had a bowl game. Allen had a hell of a game v penn state. It was the body of work, the interview etc that led to the pick not a single game out of 40 some odd games.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:17 PM ^
Your adamant defense of a guy who elected to leave his team before the season was over contradicts your username. Maybe you should consider getting a different username or changing your take.
April 28th, 2019 at 11:04 PM ^
Nah, I’m good but if you want to try to tell me how Bo would feel about the state of college athletics in 2019 feel free. I’m always looking for a good laugh.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:53 AM ^
It's actually pretty sad that you idolize a man who would despise you if he knew you.
Oh sick burn...feel better after typing that out to him?!
Please, tell me more about how a dead guy would feel about an NCAA that is completely different than one he coached in. I’m pretty sure he’d probably hate it but we have no idea what he would do or say. You know who else probably hates it, Jim Harbaugh and look at what is happening in Ann Arbor right now. So tell me more about how and why the guy that coached when I was a kid 35 years ago would hate me.
Do you really think that man would change his core principles and beliefs because of what other people thought? He once turned down a million dollar contract(unheard of in those days) to remain a Michigan Man.
Dabo Swinney signed a 93 million dollar contract. Anyone who looks at that and thinks players shouldn't be doing everything they can to get the most from their football abilities is wrong. Especially a running back. I don't know what Higdon's thoughts were, but he probably wasn't ever envisioning himself making 10 million a year for 10 years or anything like that. He's probably hoping to just be in the NFL for a couple years to help pay for the rest of his young daughter's life and his own.
Also, I'm pretty sure the Giants said they fell in love with Daniel Jones because of his 3 drives in the Senior Bowl. So maybe Higdon made the right call.
“No man is more important than The Team”
He’s gone and was replaced as a captain. Let’s move on.
If what happened with players sitting out last year's bowl game was a one and done, I'd agree with you, but I believe what we saw last year is the new normal.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:02 PM ^
I’m with WD. The ‘new normal’ puts self over team. That is a sad reality, and I am not certain this new normal will last very long. Character matters, and if I am a GM, I would prefer the player who puts his college teammates over his own personal goals. This will be an interesting few years as this new approach will get a high enough (n) number to analyze draft position for bowl game players vs sitters in the draft.
Leveon Bell is more talented than Frank Gore, but I would take Gore all day because he is the consummate teammate while Bell is the quintessential selfish player. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to insinuate that Higdon is nearly a Bell, but I think a player like Winovich should and ultimately will be rewarded for a team first decision compared to the alternative.
sometimes the player's agent can find them a better landing spot as free agent, than what they would have had in the later rounds. Higdon might be a good fit with the Texans as they needed a running back. I can only wish him well and wonder if the hamstring injuries have been present longer than any of us knew and may have contributed to his not playing in the bowl game.
It's damn competitive when only 53 make the roster, there's going to be attrition among the [edit: late round picked] players and the free agents too.
To this point, he landed in about the best place he could have as an UDFA. I expect that he can make the roster in Houston and may see a lucrative, albeit brief, career in the league.
Higdon didn’t come off the board because of his injury/surgery, per himself. Gentry was never going to be a 1st or 2nd rounder and would have seen less meaningful snaps this season as McKeon grows into a better complete prospect.
Still don’t care if guys choose to sit out. Bowl season is fun for fans and all, but these bowls don’t really mean anything. Yeah, we’d love to win them as fans and a program etc, but they are meaningless. Higdon was also being regarded as a mid round guy, day 2 or 3. Not going to fault him because hindsight is 20/20 and his foresight wasn’t
April 28th, 2019 at 10:07 PM ^
I disagree with your use of the word “meaningless” but I understand this argument. My question is, where do you draw the line? Maybe he should have shut it down after averaging 12yrds/carry against Western then just quit and prepared for the draft. After all, it would be hard to top that. Or maybe he should have come out in street clothes in the 3rd quarter of the OSU game, wouldn’t want to get hurt in that “meaningless” second half. My point is, you can argue any point in their career as “meaningless” when you are comparing it with millions of dollars. I promise you that eventually the opportunity to play in a national championship game will also be “meaningless”. It’s only a matter of time til more of these kids do the math.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:33 PM ^
I'm sure this has been argued ad nauseum in other threads I didn't read, but I disagree. First off, there's no guarantee McKeon will become a better prospect. I don't even see what that could be based on. If McKeon could improve, so could Gentry.
But Gentry had a very good reason for showing an improvement in one year and having a team draft him high: he's only been a TE for a couple of years. He played QB his whole life, never blocked, never had to put on weight, never had to catch. If he came back to Michigan and killed it in this offense, I could absolutely see a team saying "yeah his first couple of years he only showed 5th round skills, but look what happened when he finally got comfortable at the position." I could easily see him getting picked up in the 2nd round, and yes maybe the first.
Now if he came back and played the same as he did this year? Yes, 5th rounder of course.
He clearly had some folks telling him he'd be drafted and he believed in himself. Can't fault a guy for having that confidence. As for sitting out...can you imagine the regret he'd feel if he'd gotten injured in the bowl game and went undrafted? I believe he's got a kid to provide for.
Gentry would never have been a first round guy. He’s too slow. However, he might have gotten himself to “guaranteed contract” level in the draft had he stayed a year.
Even so, I assume he left for reasons besides “sure fire nfl guy”. Being somewhere you don’t want to be sucks.
Stayed? Where?
*Draft war room*
"I'm not sure about this kid, coach."
"Are you mad? Look at this Peach Bowl performance!"
"56 yards on 14 carries?"
"Yeah but look how BADLY he wanted to be out there with his team"
Their bodies are their whole profession. Who's to say he would have even gotten picked up as an UDFA if he got hurt in the bowl. Be happy that attending the University of Michigan at least gave this kid a chance at a professional football career instead of lambasting him for not playing in a blowout meaningless bowl game that he wouldn't have any difference in
April 28th, 2019 at 10:10 PM ^
1. It was an embarrassing blowout partly because so many guys sat out.
2. He was 100% signing as a UFA even if he got hurt.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:02 AM ^
Blame the people who have rendered non-playoff bowl games meaningless and thus created the conditions that encourage so many players to sit out.
So, I've seen now numerous people post some version of this argument. I guess I'd ask what's truly changed? Players back in the 80's and 90's weren't playing for championships in the lower-level bowls but they still cared and certainly didn't sit those games out.
What's truly changed? I think it's more that the mentality of the players and our culture as a whole that has really changed. I don't have a huge beef with Higdon, Gentry or whoever else sitting out the game but to say that the importance of the game has changed, that frankly feels like a copout to me.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:31 PM ^
If you think it’s such a meaningless game, I would recommend that you take a look at the comments from the Peach Bowl thread.
i'm torn between: he's a michigan guy, i absolutely wish him the best
and
he's a michigan guy, and the captain of the michigan football team plays even if its not the best 'business' decision.
Great job bashing a player all because he put his daughter first for 1 game *insert eye roll*
What if he played “for his daughter”, was a beast, and improved his stock enough to be drafted?
Wouldn’t that be doing what’s best for her too?
April 28th, 2019 at 10:11 PM ^
Are we going to extrapolate out to include all “what if”s? What if he played and got hit so hard he had a brain bleed? What if he took a hit and ended up like Ryan Shazier? Cmon with this shit
April 28th, 2019 at 10:20 PM ^
And what if he tore his acl during the game he was likely to see 20 plus carries in, during a meh bowl game? GM’s were quoted post draft that many of their decisions were made either from the regular season or during the post bowl/senior bowl games. That one game wasn’t going to make his draft stock skyrocket.
He made a business decision for his family and I can’t fault him for it.
April 28th, 2019 at 11:15 PM ^
What if he tore his ACL in the Senior Bowl? He didn’t obviously but he could’ve
April 29th, 2019 at 12:28 AM ^
The senior bowl is more so a defacto job interview than anything else. Players there are evaluated as much during prep week as they are during their limited in game reps.....lower risk with a higher reward than a meh bowl game for a guy like Higdon
Tell that to Jake Butt and Jake Ryan, both of whom suffered their first ACL injuries during workouts, not during games.
The NFL cares if you can play for them. Not if you sat out a bowl game.
April 28th, 2019 at 11:17 PM ^
Are you seriously attempting to conflate the fast food/dime a dozen industry with a limited member/highly skilled entertainment one......?
April 29th, 2019 at 12:34 AM ^
if I were a GM I would want to ask the player their rationale behind it before I go making assumptions on the personal character. I’d take a kid sitting out a game that has a good track record vs one that has motor concerns and durability issues.
So they shouldn't be surprised when a player, who previously declined to play meaningless games, doesn't give his best effort should his professional team be mathematically eliminated from the post season.
He did right by sitting out. He had nothing to gain playing. The staff let down the team more than the players skipping the bowl game.
Can’t argue with anything you said. All of this “sitting out to prevent injuries” will eventually ruin the game. Unfortunately this is just the beginning. Zion Williamson did it this year in basketball, soon they will repeal the one and done rule in b-ball and we’ll see a lot of young men ruin their careers (and maybe lives) by going directly into the draft out of high school.
I don’t know what the answer is, but it will erode away at college athletics.
My guess is, he feels shittier about it than all of you do.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:03 PM ^
I thought it was a poor decision at the time and I still do. He took a gamble and lost and let down his team as well.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:10 PM ^
What did he lose?
April 28th, 2019 at 10:18 PM ^
Discussing bowl participation is like discussing politics, it’s a polarizing subject and no matter what you say you aren’t changing the other persons mind, so what’s the point?
April 28th, 2019 at 10:20 PM ^
How do you really feel?