NFL Draft: This Decade’s Top Collegiate Talent Pools
With the 2008 NFL draft is coming up later this month, here is a look back at the first eight drafts of this decade, and what collegiate teams were perceived by the NFL to have the deepest talent pools to draw from.
The breakdown first looks at the Top Ten schools in producing 1st round draft choices. The team at the top of the list laps the rest of the college programs.
The Miami Hurricanes smoke the rest of college football when it comes to producing top draft choices this decade.
2000-2007 NFL Draft First Round Selections.
To put these numbers into a better perspective, take a look at how these ten programs compare when you look at both the perceived quality and and quantity of talent available to the NFL. Here is a look at the number of 1st round draft choices, first day draft choices and total numbers taken.
1st Round Selections 1st Day Selections (rounds 1-3) Total Selected
So far this Decade 42% of Miami’s players taken in the draft were taken in the 1st round, with 64% going on the first day. No wonder Larry Coker got fired.
Texas has the most top 10 picks in the NFL draft this decade with 7.
The Longhorns are the only other team that can claim 40% of their players drafted were taken in the first round. So far this decade, 67% of the Longhorns drafted have gone in the first three rounds. However of the ten programs listed, Texas has had the least amount of players drafted this decade.
There are a couple of interesting trends that might shed some light on how things have played out on the collegiate football fields over the past few years. For intance, Tennessee Coach Phil Fulmer’s critics will note his downward cycle in producing NFL talent. In the first half of this decade, (2000-03) Tennessee had 32 players drafted, with 5 first round selections. The last four years, the Vols have had only 18 players taken in the draft, with 3 going in the first round.
Penn State has seen the overall draft numbers break out evenly, but the first half of the decade was top heavy with the talent, as 6 of their 8 first round draft choices going between 2000-03, as well as 12 of their 18 first day draft choices.
Ohio State has seen the opposite trend. Tressel has had 34 players taken in the drafts from 2004-07, including 10 players going in the first round.
USC obviously is another school that has seen a dramatic rise in draftable talent over the past four years. The Trojans have had 25 players selected in the 2004-07 drafts, with 5 first rounders, and 17 players going in the first three rounds.
It should come as no surprise that Texas and Oklahoma have escalated their battles over talent this decade as well. From 2000-03 Texas had only 10 players drafted, 4 going in the first round. Over the past four drafts, the Horns doubled both those numbers to 20 and 8.
Meanwhile OU had 10 players drafted from 2000-03 as well with 3 first round selections. The Sooners have seen 23 players selected in the 2004-07 drafts, with 5 going in the first round.
Of course, these numbers just show how the talent was perceived by the pros before the draft. There were more than enough busts or disappointments for all teams involved. Just like high school recruiting, the NFL lives by the stock brokers anthem:
“Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results”
April 16, 2008 at 6:29 am
Doesn’t Miami have a current streak of having at least one player taken in the 1st Round?
Looks like it’s going to end this year.
April 16, 2008 at 6:57 am
Warren Sapp was taken in the first round in1995, and Miami has had at least one player go in the first round every year since. In 2002 they had 5 players in the first round, 2003, 4 Hurricanes went, and in 2004, 6 Miami players were selected in the first round.
April 16, 2008 at 1:49 pm
@HJ: Don’t count out the U just yet or we’re gonna have to go Florida International on your ass.
April 16, 2008 at 3:57 pm
We’ve obviously started playing OU a lot better the last three years. However, when contrasting the number of conference titles and Stoops’ overall W-L vs Mack, I sometimes hear the excuse “yeah, but Stoops simply had more talent. You can’t dispute that.”
I didn’t necessarily agree that more NFL draft picks equated to superior talent, since the NFL is prone to subjectivity as well–[Stoops beats Brown, therefore his players must be better. UT and OU player are about equal in talent, but the OU player is more likely to be drafted due to perception].
Anyway, the reality shows if basing it on NFL draft analyses, the talent between the teams has been about dead even, which is generally my own thought.
April 16, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Slick, don’t you think the OU second tier players are more likely to get drafted due to the superior player development by the OU staff compared to our own? There’s a reason why the perception among NFL scouts exists, isn’t there?
April 17, 2008 at 5:44 am
I’m betting against both Calais Campbell going in the 1st. Sub par senior season and 5.0 40 during workouts have dropped his stock. I forgot about Phillips so it looks like Miami will have a first rounder this year.
April 17, 2008 at 5:46 am
Objectively, I’ve always felt the talent levels were roughly the same in the last four years between UT and OU, it’s just that there is a perception that OU second tier players bring more fundamentals to the game.
But I also subjectively feel that second tier UT players tend to have a better success rate than OU players once in the NFL.