East-West Shrine Game: The return of the cattle calls
by David Fucillo on Jan 18, 2010 7:01 AM PST
in San Francisco 49ers News
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January marks not only the NFL playoffs, but also the beginning of the season we'll call "Draft Season." Before any of these college juniors and seniors can be drafted, they have to be poked, prodded and tested in a whole manner of ways to determine if they're "NFL-ready." Given the failure rate of some high profile players, maybe some folks should be fired.
Although bowl season is arguably the beginning of this analysis period, this week is when things really kick off. This coming Saturday is the annual East-West Shrine game. I believe it used to be in San Francisco fairly frequently, but recently the game moved to the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando. The game will be on ESPN2 this Saturday at Noon pacific. It's followed next week by the Senior Bowl.
Given that these games are "all-star" games, it's hard to get a particularly good read on the players performing. After all, they're dealing mostly with players they've worked with for no more than a few days. They've got a coaching staff they don't know. Really the most you're going to get out of this is some sense of the athleticism of given players. Not as much on their particular skills.
However, the true value of the Shrine game this week, and the Senior Bowl next week, is the week of practice leading up to the game. A couple years ago, Hawaii QB Colt Brennan saw his draft stock absolutely tank because of his inability to take snaps from under the center during practice that week. I don't know if we'll get something quite that dramatic, but the week of practice is important to consider anyways. The players reported to the facilities over the weekend and will begin practice later this afternoon. The teams mix in a variety of charitable visits to local hospitals and have a fairly busy schedule for the next five days.
2010 Shrine Game - East Roster
2010 Shrine Game - West Roster
I'm working on getting some info from Scout's Inc, and we'll have plenty of it as the week goes along. Also, Drew K will be putting together a game thread with players to watch on Saturday. For now, I came across some info over at CBSSports.com including some of the top prospects participating, and a variety of mid-level prospects in the game.
In semi-related news, I'm going to get working later this week on the mock draft database we've rolled out in the past. More than likely something will be up by the weekend.
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A couple DE/OLB
While it seems as if the Niners are happy with their three OLB rotation of Haralson, Lawson, Brooks and project guy in Briggs, two guys to watch will be Greg Hardy from Ole Miss and O’Brien Schofield from Wisconsin. Hardy was a projected first-rounder a year or two ago, but has been troubled with injuries. Hopefully they test him out at OLB to see if he can drop into coverage. Same goes for Schofield who is a vastly undersized DE and who they’ve even listed at OLB. Schofield was super-productive this year with 24.5 TFL’s and 12 Sacks.
It used to ALWAYS be in San Francisco
First at Kezar, then at Stanford (obviously not SF, but the intention is there), then at AT&T Park. The Shriners organizing committee did a pretty poor job in the last decade in SF of recruiting the top talent, then got mad because attendance fell off because all the good prospects were going to the Senior Bowl.
They moved it to San Antonio in a fit of pique, then nobody went there, so they moved it to Houston. Then nobody went there and in a humiliating instance they had to play the game one year at Robertson Stadium, which is a former high school stadium that has about 30,000 seats. A far cry from the days at Stanford when 75,000+ came to the Shrine Game.
Compare the roster to the Senior Bowl. It’s pretty bad. Obviously it’s so much easier to scout players now but the Senior Bowl still gets ‘em in thanks to a partnership with the NFL office. Nonetheless the Shriners could easily compete by getting in former and current pro coaches and using the attraction of a nice week out in the Bay area over going to frigging Mobile, Alabama, something I’m sure nobody enjoys. Moving the game back to Stanford would be ideal. And it’s all for a great cause!
Sorry for the rant, but my grandfather is a big-time Shriner and right as rain would be two tickets from him for the Shrine Game every year.
Do we know who will coach this year?
Joe and Steve were under the same system for years... don't expect Smith to be super so soon.
Coaches
Romeo Crennel and Marty Schottenheimer.
by David Fucillo on Jan 18, 2010 11:18 AM PST up reply actions
LOL... why?
I thought it was suppose to be a coaching staff already in the NFL
Joe and Steve were under the same system for years... don't expect Smith to be super so soon.
nope
Last year it was Bobby Ross and Gene Stallings. The Senior Bowl uses NFL coaches.
by David Fucillo on Jan 18, 2010 1:01 PM PST up reply actions
updates
I’ll be back this week with some of the updates while Drew is prepping the weekend game thread. The 100 in 100 keeps him pretty busy, so I’m gonna keep up with things during the week.
by David Fucillo on Jan 19, 2010 9:51 AM PST up reply actions
1st Shrine East/West Game
The first game was played at Ewing field at the foot of Lone Mountain gathered the largest crowd to see a sporting event in San Francisco’s historic baseball park, Dec.26, 1925 West won 6-0. The second EWSG was played at Kezar Stadium Jan 1,1927 the West won 7-3. The west won Dec.26,1927 16-6. The East won their first game Dec. 29, 1928 20-0.
Be sure to watch the game Jan. 23, 2010 it’s always a great game! for the Shriners Hospital’s for Children.
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