Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate announced today that they're entering the NFL Draft. It's a good decision by both of them; there's no reason to risk your professional future. When you have a chance to go make NFL millions, you do it. You don't want to be like Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham, two Oklahoma stars who could have potentially been first round picks a year ago but came back for another year. Both suffered through injuries, and now both come with serious question marks to NFL teams. You've got to strike while the iron is hot.
I think Clausen is a first round pick, and personally I like him better than any other QB who could be in this draft. I think he does everything Sam Bradford does, except better. And he's a better, more polished passer than Jake Locker. Maybe Locker can throw a football further (although Clausen has plenty of arm strength), and Locker is definitely a better athlete, but Locker isn't nearly as accurate as Clausen. My only criticism of Clausen is his lack of mobility, but I don't think it's a huge problem. Otherwise he's a great passer, and I would love to have him at the pro level.
I'm not sure what to make of Tate. He was obviously a great college player, and his run-after-catch ability reminds me of Greg Jennings. I don't think his straight-line speed is tremendous, and he's not very tall at 5'11", but he's got strong hands and he runs with the physicality of a RB in the open field. I think he's probably a 2nd or 3rd round pick, and we'll see how he runs at the Combine and his pro day.
In coaching news, the names now are Cincinnati's Brian Kelly and Stanford's Jim Harbaugh. Between those two, I would definitely choose Kelly. What he's done at Cincinnati is remarkable (seriously, an undefeated season at Cincy?), and he's been a success everywhere he's gone. My only concern is his Cincy teams aren't that good defensively, and I was hoping Notre Dame would go with a defensive coach. But with TCU's Gary Patterson now off the table, the best available coach probably is Kelly, and I could not argue with that hire at all. Harbaugh's done a pretty good job at Stanford as well, but his personality is abrasive and I wonder how he would fit in with the Notre Dame culture. I know he's made comments critical of Michigan before, and he ran up the score against USC a couple weeks ago. I feel like his personality is not a good fit for this school. Kelly is an Irish-Catholic, which makes him a natural fit.
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