Notre Dame appeared to be in control of this game with a forced fumble by Manti Te’o that was recovered for a touchdown by the Irish, and a defensive battle until the third quarter, when Notre Dame was able to make one of the coolest circus plays you will see all year into a touchdown.

Quarterbacks Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix split a third quarter drive that resulted in Rees throwing a fade route to–who else–Michael Floyd which was bobbled, tipped, and tipped some more before Floyd finally came down with the ball.

Aside from a nice punt return early in the game, Floyd was held in check by Xavier Rhodes, who absolutely shut him (or Tommy Rees) down the whole time he was in the game, but Rhodes was injured and Floyd had a huge size advantage over Greg Reid, and then Reid himself went up so high, he was actually injured on the way down.

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Champs Sports Bowl Recap: Florida State Comes Back to Shock Notre Dame - NFL Mocks - NFL Mocks - Covering the 2012 NFL draft, Mock Draft Database, Scouting Reports, and Fantasy Football

Michael Floyd Has Character Concerns, but is often dominant on the field and has shown up big in big games

Today the Florida State Seminoles will take on Norte Dame in the teams of Yesteryear Champs Sports Bowl. I kid, I kid. These two teams are loaded with N.F.L talent including a few first round picks in the mix. Let’s break it down.

Here are most of the  players to watch in this game from a draft perspective. Let’s start with Florida State

OT Zebrie Sanders

The former “C’mon Man”

Has really had a good season playing LT for the injured Andrew Datkio and has seen his draft stock really rise as a potential LT in the N.F.L.

Xavier Rhodes, Cornerback

I’m not sure who Rhodes will be matced up on, but he’s the best Seminoles cornerback. Rhodes looks like a safety, hits like a safety, but has the athletic ability of a cornerback. He’s really a good player. Now he hasn’t had quite the breakout season he was hoping for and could really use a huge game. Rhodes was a player some draftniks thought could have put himself into the top 15 as a redshirt sophomore this year, which hasn’t happened. Maybe a huge game though will get his stock up again and he’ll enter the draft.

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Florida State vs Notre Dame Champs Sports Bowl Preview - NFL Mocks - NFL Mocks - Covering the 2012 NFL draft, Mock Draft Database, Scouting Reports, and Fantasy Football

Xavier Rhodes CB for Florida State University

Xavier Rhodes is an absolutely excellent cornerback prospect. The Redshirt sophmore could and perhaps should consider returning for his junior season where he can work his way into the conversation of being a lock for the top 10.  In 2010 Rhodes made a lot of plays in 2011 teams avoided him like the plague. For all of our other scouting reports go to our scouting report page

Measurables

6’2 215 pounds

(combine numbers to be posted when they become available)

40 yard dash has been said to be 4.56, but I’ve also seen sub 4.5 so who knows.

Stats (through 11/18/2011)

2011:

2010:

Pros

Great size…long arms and really effective at press coverage…Does a really good job of playing the ball in the air either breaking up the pass or picking it off…A good tackler who takes on and wraps up ball carriers…can flips his hips and run with the receivers…can shed the blocks of Wide receivers to make plays on the cornerback…does a good job of getting his head around to make plays on the football…pretty good instincts, but still developing…better when he is up on the line pressing…has good footwork off the snap

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Xavier Rhodes Scouting Report CB Florida State University - NFL Mocks - NFL Mocks - Covering the 2012 NFL draft, Mock Draft Database, Scouting Reports, and Fantasy Football

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Zebrie Sanders Scouting report OT FSU - NFL Mocks - NFL Mocks - Covering the 2012 NFL draft, Mock Draft Database, Scouting Reports, and Fantasy Football

A non-stop motor is one of the biggest strengths for Florida State's DE Brandon Jenkins

Brandon Jenkins had an excellent 2010 season, but was considered undersized in 2010 added 15 pounds of muscle, but now is having a less productive 2011 season (statistically). But don’t tell that to Jimbo Fisher, “”If he’ll quit listening to ya’ll he’ll be fine,” Fisher said. “If he’ll quit listening to the media and Mel Kiper and all those guys. … Because the NFL doesn’t care about numbers. They care about how you play.”Just because you don’t have a sack doesn’t mean you’re not doing things right.”

For all of our other scouting reports go to our scouting report page

Measurables

6’3 260 pounds

(combine numbers posted when they are available)

Stats (CFB stats.com)

 2010:

2011:

Jenkins had a good performance vs Virginia with 2.5 sacks to bring his season total up to 7 (11/20/2011)

Brandon Jenkins, OLB, FSU

Pros–Quick off the ball… great natural pass rush ability.. long arms…solid size… versatile (can play in 3-4 or 4-3 so not necessarily an OLB), could be a great fit as a rush linebacker… finishes plays…good motor…gets his hands up when he doesn’t get home with the pass rush…Played a lot more of the hybrid position in 2011 which should ease his transition to rush linebacker in 2011, especially in coverage…taking on a lot of double teams in 2011 (ask Bjoern Werner how much it’s helping)…hard worker (added a lot of muscle between 2010 and 2011)

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Brandon Jenkins Scouting Report DL/OLB Florida State Seminoles - NFL Mocks - NFL Mocks - Covering the 2012 NFL draft, Mock Draft Database, Scouting Reports, and Fantasy Football

14 Arkansas Razorbacks vs. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide

I love the Arkansas receiver corps in this game, featuring Cobi Hamilton, Greg Childs, Jarius Wright, and Joe Adams. This is a unit with a ton of speed and a ton of playmaking ability, and they have a tall task going up against one of the toughest defenses college football has probably ever seen.

The Alabama defense features a plethora of future NFL players, including a stellar secondary led by cornerback Dre’ Kirkpatrick. This will be a great test for Kirkpatrick and the Crimson Tide going up against one of the better offensive attacks in the SEC, and the nation overall.

STAR WATCH: Ronnie Wingo Jr., RB, Arkansas

Wingo Jr. had 129 total yards last week against Troy and three touchdowns, and I think he is poised to really break out. It’s certainly going to be tough to do against Nick Saban’s defense, but keep an eye on this kid, the 6’3″ 231 pound junior out of St. Louis.

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Saturday NFL Draft Star Watch - NFL Mocks - NFL Mocks - Covering the 2012 NFL draft, Mock Draft Database, Scouting Reports, and Fantasy Football

E.J. Manuel entered the game as a third day prospect with a chance to become much more, but ended the day where he started

The Florida  State Seminoles played a tight game vs the #1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners, but failed to win the game as quarterback E.J. Manuel failed to impress. But players on both defenses had tremendous games.

I was high on Manuel heading into last night’s game and was waiting to see if he could sky rocket his stock into the 1st-2nd round range with a big game. Manuel has a lot of qualities N.F.L. scouts are looking for. He has a big arm, excellent size and mobility and serious untapped potential. But Manuel didn’t have a great game. He was 13 for 19 with 85 yards (and average of 4.5 yards per attempt) and threw two interceptions. One of the interceptions was an absolute terrible pass where Manuel just threw it right over the middle because he was hurried. The other interception was because he didn’t loft the ball high enough on the screen pass, but on that player the Sooners linebacker Tom Wort made an excellent play to tip the ball to himself and come away with the interception. It’s not that Manuel didn’t flash his potential, but on a night when he had a serious chance to put himself into the conversation with Nick Foles and Kirk Cousins as the first quarterback in the second tier, he came up short.  More troubling is that Manuel left with a shoulder injury, he came running back onto the sidelines hoping to play, but remained on the sidelines.

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Florida State Narrowly Loses to Oklahoma as the Noles E.J. Manual Fails to Impress; Leaves Early with Injury - NFL Mocks - NFL Mocks - Covering the 2012 NFL draft, Mock Draft Database, Scouting Reports, and Fantasy Football

Whether Standing up or laying on the ground: Jenkins makes plays (picture source footballsfuture.com)

Earlier today, when discussing defensive prospects who the Giants could have their eyes on for the 2012 N.F.L. draft at strongside linebacker and defensive end, I mentioned Brandon Jenkins from FSU.  Jenkins will generally be considered a 34 Outside linebacker, tweener pass rusher by most teams, but the New York Giants view their starting Strongside linebacker differently than most teams. They want long athletes who can rush the passer. The Giants have tried to (and failed most of the time) to convert 34 OLB or 43 Defensive ends in college into their starting strongside linebacker, and even though that hasn’t been successfully, they continue to pursue that route. The Giants have moved Clint Sintim, Adrian Tracy, and Mathias Kiwanuka to the outside linebacker position in the past few seasons. None of these players is a natural 43 outside linebacker. Could they try to do the same with Florida States’ Brandon Jenkins.

That’s not to say that the Giants would prefer Jenkins at 43 outside linebacker. He is roughly the same size as Kiwanuka and Osi Umeniyora. The Giants could view Jenkins as a pass rushing right defensive end while Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre Paul had the primary responibility at left defensive end. I’m just saying it wouldn’t surprise me if they took a long look at Jenkins as either a possible SAM linebacker or a replacement for Osi Umeinyora who is clearly disgruntled. This much is sure: when Jenkins is on the field he hits the quarterback.

Take a look at some highlights/film and let me know what you think.

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Prospect of the day: Florida State Seminoles Defensive End Brandon Jenkins - NFL Mocks - NFL Mocks - Covering the 2012 NFL draft, Mock Draft Database, Scouting Reports, and Fantasy Football