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Posted 05/17/2007 at 05:30 PM
Now that we've hit mid-May, we're pretty much into the long, hot summer…especially down here in South Florida. Of course, the good news with that is we're only one season away from the fall and more importantly, football season. (I know, no leaves change color and really "fall" down here in Florida but stay with me)
With that in mind, its time to pull out my returning starters chart and begin to update it for the 2007 college season, which will include a mid-summer Top 25.
While I'm working on that, here is a quick rundown on five players I'm anxious to see play this year:
1) Rutgers TB Ray Rice - How will the Scarlet Knights react to the role of the favorite as opposed to the underdog, which they have been for years? More specifically, how will the ultra-talented Rice play without the help of FB Brian Leonard (2nd round pick of the St. Louis Rams) and with the national spotlight focused squarely on his back?
2) Illinois QB Juice Williams - Juice is giving fans of the Illini a reason to be excited about this year. He threw for over 300 yards in the spring game, hooking up often with stud freshman WR Arrelious Benn. Ron Zook's crew won't challenge for the Big Ten title, but this offense could be exciting.
3) Oklahoma RB DeMarco Murray - Word out of Norman is that Murray could very quickly make Sooner fans forget all about the loss of Adrian Peterson to the NFL (1st round pick of the Minnesota Vikings).
4) Southern Cal WR's Patrick Turner and Vidal Hazelton - You know the old saying, "Great programs don't rebuild, they just reload". You would think the loss of WR's Dwayne Jarrett (2nd round pick of the Carolina Panthers) and Steve Smith (2nd round pick of the N.Y. Giants) would slow down the Trojans aerial attack. However, Turner and Hazelton appear likely to be just a couple more elite receiving talents to come out of Los Angeles. QB John David Booty should find them early and often.
5) Miami DB Kenny Phillips - You've heard of Ed Reed? Sean Taylor? Brandon Meriweather? They all led nasty Hurricane defenses from the secondary and Phillips is ready to assume this role in '07.
Check back weekly as I should have more tid-bits from the world of college and pro football all the way through the summer and into the season.
In the meantime, feel free to drop me a line with anything that's on your mind:
christian@vegasinsider.com
And since I have to gamble on something - here is my free baseball play of the day:
Detroit (Durbin) +182 at Boston (Schilling) (source: Sports.com)
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