South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier said on the Dan Patrick Show that he thought Alabama could compete in the NFL with some of the weaker teams.
“Alabama, gosh, they look like they could beat a couple of those NFL teams that I’ve watched on Sundays,” Spurrier said. “I think a lot of the oddsmakers out there, that usually know what’s going on, I’d guess Alabama would be favored by a little bit.”
While I understand where he is going with that type of compliment and statement, this type of thing is always tough for me to go along with. I get Spurrier’s point because Alabama is an elite college team that just continues to reload their talent each year, but as bad as the Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars or Cleveland Browns are, they’re still professional sports franchises.
These are still guys that get paid to do what they do and have nothing to do but prepare for football games. And, some of the best players on Alabama didn’t even get drafted in the first round last year. And while they my work well together as a unit, there is no way a professional team would allow this to happen.
The pro team they were playing would come out and work their hardest to destroy the college team. Not to mention the fact that one of Alabama’s running backs, TJ Yeldon, is 18 years old. There’s a reason that you have to be three years out of high school to enter the NFL draft. Yeldon may play well in college and get a lot of carries, but a 27 year-old linebacker who has been a pro for the past 6 years would destroy him. Some of the players aren’t physically mature enough to play in the NFL and go up against the players that are.
Think of it this way, a loaded college team could have maybe 20-30 guys on it that could play in the NFL. They have 80 guys on scholarship (give or take a few) and the NFL teams have 53 guys that are capable of playing in the NFL.
Spurrier had no success in the NFL and while I respect him as college coach, and love his “Fun N’ Gun” offense, this is something he is completely wrong on. To think that Alabama would be favored over an NFL team by oddsmakers is utterly ludicrous.
H/T: Pro Football Talk