MMLB: Tuesday Edition

In keeping with ripping off Peter King's format, this is the Tuesday edition of the Monday Morning Linebacker, where I include a couple letters from my mailbag that I have recieved from readers, along with a couple of thoughts on other matters as well. Peter probly gets a two or three thousand emails a week, whereas I get two or three comments on my facebook wall. But hey, it's a start, right? Onto the comments!

"Good writeup......but if Colt McCoy was a husker you'd be all over him with manlove.....same with Jimmy Clausen and Ryan Mallett."-----TL, Detroit Michigan

I responded by saying that he may be right about McCoy (hes such a frickin gunslinger), but that I didnt care if Jimmy Clausen was a Husker, I'd still hate him. Being a good QB only makes up for so much faggocity. And that was my response verbatim. He responded with:

"ok....point taken about Clausen, I just read about how he showed up to school in a Hummer limo. You should have tried that at Bethel lol."

My thing about Jimmy Clausen is that is he makes himself such an easy target for ridicule and hatred. Number one, he's from the Clausen clan, the same group of guys who led the Vols (a team I really hate for some reason, and I'm not even sure why at this point) to absolutely nothing of consequence. So right off the bat, he loses points. Now, obviously you shouldn't dislike a guy just because of his lineage. But when a guy shows up at his college announcement looking like this, well, lets just say it's hard not to have certain opinions about a guy.

I have never seen such a polarizing recruit. For every fan of a school other than Notre Dame, the kid is a complete tool, and seemingly, an arrogant douche. One thing that has incurred this wrath is his appearance, another being the aforementioned limo stunt, where he showed up at the college football hall of fame dressed up like a pimp to announce his decision to attend ND. He was wearing his high school championship rings, and stated his intent to win four national titles while playing in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus. Now, from what I've read, the limo thing wasn't his fault. The family all wanted to go together, and they couldn't find a 12 passenger van, so mom rented the hummer. But that doesnt excuse his overly gelled hair or his outfit.

For what it's worth, it appears the kid busts his ass when it comes to training. He is motivated, and does the things you like to see from a headlining recruit (calling other kids who are on the fence, trying to get them to ND). I watched him in the All-American game, and he can make all the throws. And maybe if he was attending another school, he wouldn't be half as hated. Going to Notre Dame, loser of nine straight bowls and endless publicity from the media (who apparently think the four horsemen still go there) doesn't help his popularity. But still, if I have to deal with four years of douchebag behavior from this guy, it's only gonna make it even easier to hate Notre Dame. The good thing is that their secondary is worse than ours, and luckly by the end of the season they usually have three losses anyways and we can forget about them (even though three losses is still good enough to get into BCS games when your ND).

In a little thing over on Husker Extra, MMLB's personal favorite Corey McKeon assesses Joey Ganz and Sam Keller, saying that Ganz is "a product of the system" whereas Keller "knows how to attack people....He's got that experience.....If you look over and see Cortney Grixby guarding Mo Purify, Sam knows where to put the ball to make a big play.....he knows how to attack people." First off, what McKeon means when he says Ganz is a product of the system isn't what one would mean when saying Graham Harrell is a product of the system down at TT. He's saying that being in Bill Callahan's over-complicated system for three years has allowed Joe to know where to go to with the ball most of the time. Keller on the other hand, obviously has more game experience from his days at ASU. What I found funny was the comment about Grixby covering Purify.......of course he knows where to go with it, I hope that any QB (or person with an IQ over 40) would know to attack Grixby, even if it was with a horrible receiver instead of Mo Purify).

Meanwhile, over on the Husker's official site, the progression of the Husker receiving corps is looked at. A little blurb from Coach Watson:
“The thing that jumps out as far as our receiving corps is that we’ve got a really good bunch of receivers,” Watson said. “They’ve got speed and size and they are just explosive players, like (Maurice) Purify. And you see young guys coming along like Menelik Holt and Will Henry. There have been several guys in that unit that just strengthen it.”

I'll be honest, I'm genuinely excited to see how these young guys turn out, especially Henry. According to several articles I've read, he's been busting his ass this offseason and after practice so far to improve, and with that size (6'5") and speed (sub-4.5), I'm really looking forward to seeing him crack the lineup. I'm also hoping Purify can make The Leap to bona-fide stud status, meaning he's contending for the Biletnikoff award and other post-season honors.