SB Nation - Brandon Long

Taylor Calero is Commit #5

Pete Rossman — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:00:09 -0000

(HT: Seer)

The dominoes keep falling. Current LB/TE (bound to end up a DE, but more on that later) Taylor Calero went to camp at MSU this week, got an offer, and committed in the past couple days. This was first reported on Spartan Tailgate, and went through the typical stages of verification when these commitments are first posted on message boards: The announcement of the commitment by one poster, the rebuttal by others, the original poster claiming he has a source on the inside, and more rebuttal. This repeats until one of two things happens - the commitment doesn't occur and the poster gets shamed into lurking, or Scout/Rivals confirms the commitment. This time, the latter won out. Anyways, here's what the recruiting services have on Taylor after the jump.

Scout - 1 star, not ranked nationally or at his position

Rivals - No stars, not ranked positionally or nationally

ESPN - Grade of 40, not ranked positionally or nationally

All these rankings seem to indicate one thing on Calero - that they haven't gotten around to looking at his video or ranking him yet. Expect that to change within the next month or so now that he's committed. When you get a look at his measurables though, you're going to wonder why he flew under the radar.

6'3", 230 lbs.
4.66 in the 40
Bench max of 315
34" vertical
3.2 GPA

That's a whole lot of WOW right there. With that frame, he'll put on 20-30 lbs. in no time at MSU and his linebacking days will be over. Calero's from Southfield Christian, a class C school in Michigan with an enrollment of 332. Thus, the reason he probably didn't get a whole lot of attention this season is due to the league in which he plays. Matt Dorsey reported that Taylor first started to gain attention at a combine in March:

Calero measured in at 6-foot-3, 230 pounds at the combine. He ran 40 yards in 4.6 seconds, had a 34-inch vertical jumped and bench pressed 225 pounds 11 repetitions. Those numbers are very similar to those by Spartans defensive end Brandon Long at the same stage of development. Long wowed NFL scouts last week with his speed and strength at the Michigan State Pro Day.

4.6 sounds accurate as well if you look at his highlight video at the top of the page. He's got the lateral quickness to take down running back to the side as well as the ability to blow past the offensive line (disclaimer - he's probably playing against class C schools, but it's still nice to see) After the combine, he spoke briefly to the Fire Up Chips! blog at MLive about the recruiting process in April:

Hopefully I will have made a decision on where I am going by the time our football season starts. I want to be able to be focused on my team during the season...Out of the schools that I have been in contact with, the ones at the top of my list as of now are Michigan State, Central Michigan, and Bowling Green.

MSU's the only major conference school on that list, so it's no surprise that once he got that offer, he was in the bag. I'd look for him to be a mid-three star prospect once he gets ranked due to the video and his under-the-radar status; it's rare that Rivals will give four stars to someone they haven't seen since February. As for his spot on the team right now? There's only one senior, Trevor Anderson, and one junior, Colin Neely, at defensive end for the Spartans in 2009. The rest either have freshman or sophomore eligiblity: Tyler Hoover, David Rolf( moved from LB), Johnathan Strayhorn, Todd Anderson, Drew Stevens, and Cameron Jude. Plus, Will Gholston committed, so you can add him to the list as well.

It's definitely looking like a redshirt will be in the cards for Calero, but the good news is that if my memory serves me, the only person on that list who was hyped as a DE was Hoover. Calero has the advantage of knowing where he'll play in college opposed to some of the others I mentioned, so he'll put in time on the line from the beginning. My best guess - he redshirts the 2010 season, and competes for the two-deep in 2011.

49ers reportedly sign four more undrafted free agents

Fooch — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:49:41 -0000

We've had a lot going on the last few days with the draft and now undrafted free agent signings. At some point I'll put together a post including all the links from both days of the draft since they're all onto the second page and beyond now.

In the meantime, it's being reported by various media (local to the specific players) that the 49ers have signed four additional undrafted free agents. Maiocco linked to the stories on these, but has not gotten final confirmation. These players include DE Brandon Long (Michigan St), G Matt Huners (South Florida), WR Dobson Collins (Gardner-Webb), and CB Terrail Lambert (Notre Dame).

As we get later and later in the UDFA signings the scouting reports decrease significantly. A search of Brandon Long came up with some video tape against Ohio State and Georgia. Also, I found a short feature article at NCAA.com from last September about Long.

From what I can tell, the early part of Matt Huners college career was hurt by injury as he tore his ACL in the spring of 2007, but returned for a few games late in the season. He earned the team's Coaches Award for his recovery. According to Huners, he spoke with Chris Foerster (49ers O-Line coach) and was assured he'd have a "fair chance to make the roster." I'm curious if that covers practice squad as well. Either way, that's one of the main reasons he chose the 49ers over the Chiefs in free agency.

Collins apparently received calls from nine teams and the article about his signing is under the impression that there is plenty of opportunity for Collins to earn playing time. As I look at it, he's competing with Arnaz Battle, Dominique Zeigler, Mark Bradford and Micheal Spurlock for that sixth wide receiver spot. I'm glad he's excited to come out, but he's gonna have to do something amazing to make the team.

As for Lambert, you'd think a Notre Dame player, any Notre Dame player, would have a fair amount of news clippings. Not so much. Most of the stuff I came across were some reports from when he was coming out of high school and they didn't even have scouting reports. From what I have gathered though, Lambert was the best corner on a mediocre Notre Dame team this past year. According to the 2008 secondary preview at our Notre Dame blog, "Lambert has good speed and a lot of experience and [wa]s likely playing [last] year to audition for a future role in the NFL." I'm looking for more info on him though.

FOOCH'S UPDATE 9:33PM: Turns out Brandon Long failed his physical so is not joining the 49ers at this point.

Looking seven rounds deep into the Rams draft

VanRam — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:04:09 -0000

More photos » by Jay LaPrete - AP

FILE - Ohio State's James Laurinaitis (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)

Browse more photos »

The draft is so close you can smell it. Of course, it's hard to sense anything with all the talk and speculation in the air. At this point, predictions are difficult to impossible, but let's take one last look at a very informed mock draft for some insight into a legit scenario for the Rams this weekend.

Scouts, Inc. has a full seven-round mock draft posted over at ESPN. It's behind the subscription wall, but you can download an Excel file with the full results, courtesy of Mike Sando, self-certified Excel maniac. You really have to be hard core to predict the full seven rounds, since there are likely to be more trades and surprise picks, lots of both, this weekend. Here's their prediction for the Rams:

R1 - Jason Smith, OT

R2 - James Laurinaitis, LB, Ohio State

R3 - Brian Robiskie, WR. Ohio State

R4 - Mike Goodson, RB, Texas A&M

R5 - Louis Vasquez, G, Texas Tech

R6 - Troy Nolan, S, Arizona State

R7 - Brandon Long, DE, Michigan State

Nabbing Laurintaitis in the second round would be ideal for the Rams, and it seems like there's more and more chatter that he may be available there, though it's pure speculation. Robiskie might be exactly what the Rams need in a WR to pair with Donnie Avery - big, physical, plays in well in the middle. He might not make it the third round. As for the first three rounds, those picks address the Rams biggest needs, but leave the debate about how to address those needs with what player wide open.

If you have some insight on any of the guys from rounds 4-7, let's hear it. I think another OT might be a better pick for OL depth than another guard...depending on what they've got in mind for John Greco's future. What kind of RB is Goodson? Would he be a nice change of pace guy for the Rams? Adding a RB isn't a bad move at all. Depth at DB is a need, and, knowing nothing about Nolan, I suspect he could be a special teams contributor. Long seems like the kind of guy Spagnuolo could make into a rotation specialist.

The biggest need not included here, that I'd like to see is a run stuffing NT, a specialist for the DT rotation and depth at the position. Of course, this really isn't the year for DTs. Another LB would make me happy too, but the Spagnuolo regime might well be able to make solid contributors out of last year's LB picks Chris Chamberlain and David Vobora. Both of these position might be more easily address through street free agents and roster victims prior to the start of the season.

Michigan State Defeats Notre Dame, Looks Ahead to Indiana

grahamfiller10 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:33:42 -0000

Michigan State Spartans 23, Notre Dame Fighting Irish 7

In the midst of another rushing explosion, one Notre Dame blogger mentioned that if the ABC analysts continued praising Javon Ringer so effusively, the commentator might be engaged to the Spartan running back by the time the game was over. It has been that kind of season for Ringer and the Spartan offensive line, but there was an overlooked factor in this 23-7 MSU victory: the Spartans defense played a flawless game. The Irish were held to 16 yards rushing and QB Jimmy Clausen endured three sacks and two interceptions. Individual performances don't measure the Sparties dominance, although safety Otis Wiley (2 INT'S) and DE Brandon Long (2 sacks) padded their stats. The Spartan front 4 spent the entire game in Notre Dame's backfield, disrupting any ideas the Irish had about an upset. This performance, after shutting out Florida Atlantic, gives rise to the notion that maybe there is more to this Michigan State team than a Heisman candidate at tailback.

(Fun Fact: Wiley is tied for the NCAA lead in interceptions with 4)

No Heisman for these fellows, but they deserve some attention.

Saturday's Challenge: @ Bloomington to face the Indiana Hoosiers

The Spartans scored 52 points last year against Indiana on a perfect fall night in East Lansing. Can this be repeated? Javon Ringer is the key to this years Spartan attack and Indiana will surely pack the box with defenders, daring Brian Hoyer to throw to Mark Dell and company. Advantages abound for the Spartans on offense; in the Hoosier's only challenging game, its defensive unit was hammered repeatedly by Ball State's running backs.

On defense, the Spartan's D-line will be under the spotlight because of talented QB Kellen Lewis. Lewis has proved that he can run the ball (5th in the Big 10 in rushing yards), so the Spartans will have to keep him in the pocket. If the Spartans can keep the Indiana QB contained, possibly by spying him with an extra linebacker, than Lewis will be forced to beat MSU with his erratic arm.