2012 NFL Draft Prospect Watch: Wisconsin Badgers vs. UNLV Rebels

The college football season is finally here.

Thursday night is officially opening night for the NCAA Football season, at least as it pertains to major universities around the country. One game on the lineup is Wisconsin vs. UNLV, which features a really one-sided NFL prospect matchup.

You can view all of my scouting reports for Wisconsin football players by following this link, but I want to share one with you in particular–running back Montee Ball of the Badgers:

One of the things you really hope about Ball is that his weight doesn’t balloon all the way up to 240 pounds, or something crazy like that. Wisconsin had John Clay come out this past year prematurely, and it was mainly because their running back group is so good, they basically had no need for him anymore, and his weight had severely fluctuated. Ball reminds me a lot of Shonn Greene coming out, because he plays with such a low center of gravity and the name of his game is power. Ball has tons of skill, and isn’t just a one-trick pony. He led the team with 18 rushing touchdowns in 2010 to go along with 996 yards and a 6.1 yards per carry average. The crazy part is, he was THIRD on the team in rushing in 2010, and is one of four guys at this point in time who could eventually end up in the NFL. Not a speedy running back, but between the tackles he knows how to make plays. One-cut runner with good vision and burst, and has a nose for the end zone. Consensus Honorable Mention All Big Ten in 2010 season, and returns for his junior season atop the running back depth chart after a season where he played in 12 games and started the final four. Missed the Ohio State game, and really caught fire against Purdue with five games left to play. In the previous eight games, he had 219 yards running the ball, and starting with Purdue, he had 127, 167, 173, 178, and 132 yards to finish the season. Not only that, but he had 14 of his 18 touchdowns in those five games, and is well deserving of the starting position this fall, regardless of who is behind him on the depth chart.

Ball no longer has John Clay standing in the way of him getting carries, even though he was a huge part of Clay hitting the bench last year. I think he is somewhat of a sleeper running back right now. If you check out the full scouting report there, you can see that his LOWEST rushing total in the final few games last year was 127 yards. Not only that, but he showed that he can be a very valuable scoring threat, hitting paydirt 14 times in those five games I mentioned, which is a pretty incredible number.

A large reason for Ball’s success will be his offensive line, which features at least four legitimate NFL prospects eligible for the 2012 class. This team knows how to run the football, and Bret Bielema knows how to coach offensive linemen, obviously. Bielema just signed an extension with Wisconsin, and he has this team as one of my favorites to win the Big Ten this year, but they shouldn’t overlook their opponent in UNLV.

While UNLV’s NFL prospects are extremely limited, they have a guy offensively who can make things happen.

Wide receiver Phillip Payne is an unheralded player nationally, but his head coach sees the value he brings to the team.

UNLV head coach Bobby Hauck had this to say about Payne:

“Phil (Payne) is probably our best player,” said UNLV Hauck. “He’s obviously our top NFL prospect on the team. For him to have a big year for us would be a big deal for our team.”

Here is my scouting report on Payne, and if you follow this link, you can read my scouting reports on the other top UNLV prospects:

When the head coach of your football team flat out comes out and says you are the best prospect on the team, we should probably take notice. He’s got good size for an NFL receiver prospect at 6’3″, and I’m not sure what kind of deep speed he has, but he has done nothing but put up big numbers ever since he stepped on the field for the Rebels. He is essentially a unanimous first-team All Conference receiver after catching 19 touchdowns in 32 games for UNLV. Very good hands and has the ability to make the big play, averaging more than 17 yards per reception last season and more than 15 in his freshman year. I am excited to see if they can involve him even more in the offense so he can really get on the radar of NFL scouts.