College football Week 7 draft prospects
#3 Georgia at #2 Alabama, fetuccine alfredo, and Sadio Mane
Thanks to everyone for supporting our Patreon to launch and maintain the site. And whether you contribute or not, thanks to everyone in our orbit for helping out and considering us to make BTH the best, most inclusive Rams brand around.
And make sure to check out our podcast, Los Angeles Rams Podcast: A Los Angeles Rams Podcast, out now on pretty much everywhere you get your podcasts.
FOOTBALL
Every week, I’m giving you a couple of 2021 (or future) NFL Draft prospects to check out. Here’s who we’ve gone through so far and my own evaluation of their draft stock as it stands right now
Week 2 prospects:
Iowa St. QB Brock Purdy: 3rd-4th
Florida St. DEF: DT Marvin Wilson, 1st-2nd; S Hamsah Nasirildeen, 1st-3rd, CB Asante Samuel, Jr. (Jr.), 2nd-3rd; ATH Amari Gainer, 2nd-4th (RS Soph.)
Clemson LT Jackson Carman/Wake Forest EDGE Carlos Basham, Jr.: Carman, 1st-2nd; Basham, Jr., 1st-2nd
Week 3 prospects:
Oklahoma St. QB Spencer Sanders: TBD. RS sophomore who got injured early in season debut.
Notre Dame ? Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah: 2nd-3rd
Miami EDGE Quincy Roche: 1st-2nd
Week 4 prospects:
Florida QB Kyle Trask: TBD. Not sure there’s another prospect who has helped his stock more this season. Faces #3 Georgia, who IMO has the best defense in the country, on Nov. 7. Check back then.
Texas LT Samuel Cosmi: 1st-2nd.
Miami QB D’Eriq King: 3rd-6th
Week 5 prospects:
TCU S Trevon Moehrig & S Ar'Darius Washington: Moehrig, 2nd-3rd; Washington, 2nd-3rd
Texas A&M S Leon O'Neal Jr.: 3rd-5th
Georgia S Richard LeCounte III (see below): 2nd-3rd
Week 6 prospects:
North Carolina ILB Chazz Surratt: 2nd-4th
Tennessee RT Cade Mays/Georgia RG Ben Cleveland: Mays (Jr.), 4th-6th; Cleveland, 3rd-5th
Clemson WR Amari Rodgers: 4th-6th
For this week’s prospects, I’m focusing on tonight’s headliner: the #3 Georgia Bulldogs at the #2 Alabama Crimson at Jackson-Denny in Tuscaloosa. It’s an absolute top tier draw that pits Georgia’s drowning defense against Alabama’s explosive offense all against the backdrop of Bama HC Nick Saban testing positive for COVID-19.
Here’s some NFL options to keep an eye on though not meant to be exhaustive (if I were, I might as well just list every single damn player since they’re that good…):
Alabama
ILB Dylan Moses
Only returned to school because of an ACL injury before the season stated. The drop off at inside linebacker this year is steep. Moses is likely the ILB2 behind Penn St. ILB Micah Parsons, and we might not see another Mike until the 3rd round.
CB Patrick Surtain II
NFL fans will recognize the name as Surtain II’s father played 11 years in the league with three Pro Bowl appearances. The son is the better prospect at this point which is saying quite a bit as Patrick Surtain was the 44th overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft.
WR Jaylen Waddle
Speed. Demon.
His two former wideout peers at Bama, Henry Ruggs III and Jerry Jeudy, were each first-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft. Waddle should maintain the pedigree.
Less technique than Jeudy and less control than Ruggs, but more explosiveness.
WR Devonta Smith
Yeah, we’re still talking wide receivers. Could Smith be the best of the foursome? Perhaps! We’ll have to see where he lands in the NFL, but he’s also likely a first-round pick. The right environment could amazingly catapult Smith to the top of the group.
LT Alex Leatherwood
An absolute mountain. Played right guard in 2018 with Jonah Williams, now with the Cincinnati Bengals, at left tackle. When Williams left to go 11th in the 2019 NFL Draft, Leatherwood kicked over to left tackle with aplomb. There’s an issue of athletic application at the NFL level, but there’s no doubting his sheer power or ferocity.
Rams-specific prospect: OL Landon Dickerson
Dickerson spent three injury-filled seasons at Florida State before transferring to Alabama and immediately getting involved. He began last year at right guard before taking over at center where he excelled.
With Rams C Austin Blythe scheduled to be a free agent this offseason and backup C Brian Allen headed into his contract year next season, I wonder if the Rams would look for an option to begin to groom on Day 3 this year.
Georgia
CB Tyson Campbell
Has it all for a modern outside corner. Size, speed, adjustment.
Was the #2 cornerback recruit in the country 2018. Was also the #2 cornerback recruit out of his high school in 2018. The other? Surtain.
EDGE Azeez Ojulari
This kid’s turning into a monster. Only a redshirt sophomore, he’s getting home…a lot. Very eager to see his matchups tonight.
CB Eric Stokes
Really nice prospect that will remind many of Trumaine Johnson. Not the quickest, but big and smart. Lack of burst means he can’t tighten up off the snap on shorter work, but is wise enough to make adjustments to that and time his ability to close down well.
S Richard LeCounte III
Has turned into perhaps the best center fielder in college football. Undersized and can’t play directly downhill in the run, but plenty of athleticism to support linebackers therein. And his pass coverage skills are so high, he’s going to get a job in the NFL and perhaps for quite some time.
WR Kearis Jackson
Jackson didn’t see much last year as a redshirt freshman, but he’s had an absolute monster start to 2020. Not sure it’s the best environment for him to sustain this output as Georgia looks suited to play better offense next year though whoever the QB is won’t have as good a story as current QB Stetson Bennett. Huge opportunity for him tonight.
Rams-specific prospect: ILB Monty Rice
Monty!
A bit to small to handle full ILB responsibilities at the NFL level, but a really good rangy Mike. And a bit of a talisman for the Kirby Smart era.
Smart arrived in 2016 as the homegrown candidate having played in Georgia’s secondary in the late 1990s. After eight years as the defensive coordinator under Saban at Alabama, Smart was primed to take over his alma mater. And while the first year wasn’t terribly successful, his second year absolutely was with Georgia leading them to the National Championship past Baker Mayfield-led #2 Oklahoma though coming up short as the legend of Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa began.
But it was that 2017 recruiting class that propelled the program into the current level of excellence they’re enjoying. That class included OT Isaiah Wilson (the 29th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft now with the Tennessee Titans), WR DeAngelo Gibbs (transferred to Tennessee and is sitting out this season), LeCounte, OT Andrew Thomas (2020 4th overall pick to the New York Giants), RB De’Andre Swift (2020 35th overall pick to the Detroit Lions), and QB Jake Fromm (2020 167th overall pick to the Buffalo Bills). And Rice.
So it’s a bit of the early stages of closure to the first full cycling through of a recruiting class for Smart and Georgia. Since 2017, Georgia has recruited as well as anyone. They just haven’t broken through the SEC wall. In 2018, that meant a mid-season loss to LSU and a SEC Championship loss to Bama. Last year, LSU burned through everyone in the country including Georgia in the SEC Championship though a very disappointing mid-season loss to South Carolina left lingering concerns that Georgia was still just not ready to make the jump.
So here we are. Georgia, Alabama. 2020. Buckle up.
FOOD
With temps dropping across the country, it’s getting more amenable to have pasta for dinner especially with heavier thicker sauces that cling to noodles that warm up the insides.
Which means it’s time for alfredo. Now it’s relatively impossible not to make a delicious butter and cheese sauce. And as old as it is, there are 100 ways to make it. But I’ve found this one to be extremely simple and extremely enjoyable.
It starts off easy enough sauteeing garlic in butter over low heat. I find here that the thinnest you can slice the garlic, the better. Hell, just do like Paulie in Goodfellas and use a razor blade. Then you crack some pepper into the garlic butter and let that release so that your alfredo has that bright, spicy sweetness. Cream thickens the sauce and heat everything through so that as you begin to add the cheese in groups, it melts it thoroughly. Adding some of the pasta water from whichever noodle you cook thins it out a bit while adding texture, but you want to be a little careful here. It’s really a balancing out to ensure it’s not too thick if you’ve reduced the cream some.
It’s not “authentic”, but good lord who cares. It’s fantastic.
FUCKERY
The Liverpool-Everton Merseyside derby just ended. Just a fantastic game of soccer that had a bit of everything. Goals. Drama. VAR being stupid (twice). And two very, very, very, very, very naughty tackles.
As somebody who has enjoyed watching soccer for more than two decades, I’m happy to see how popular it has become in the U.S. I’m also not annoyed at its detractors hanging on to stupid weird tropes that used to defend its lack of popularity in years past. It’s not worth the time to get annoyed at because good lord does it speak to the goofiness of anyone trying to roll those tropes out in 2020.
That being said, it’s obviously fine not to enjoy watching a sport. Nothing wrong if you don’t particularly care about soccer or have any interest. I don’t watch much auto racing! It’s still a fine pursuit! (I guess)
But my goodness does the sport have drama. And narrative. And characters.
And Troy Deeney.
Look at that face. Any sport that somehow produces that countenance on a regular basis (and it absolutely does) deserves support.
Thanks for reading.
Be safe.