I'm all for drafting a running back this year, especially in the first. Having two picks late round 1 gives us a great opportunity to get a top RB while not ignoring another position of need. David Wilson, out of VT, is NOT the answer though. I have seen mocks on here with the bengals using 17 or 21 on either Trent Richardson or Lamar Miller, either of which would be just fine with me. But I have also seen a couple with Wilson. While he is a good running back with great speed and good size for sure, there is one huge reason that he should not be on another mock, and hopefully he will not be selected by the Bengals in the first couple rounds:

More important as Virginia Tech gets ready for its pivotal matchup with Virginia is Wilson’s penchant for putting the ball on the ground this season. After fumbling in the Hokies’ past two games, the speedy tailback now has seven this year.

The last thing we need is another Ced Benson to come in and fumble away our chances of getting W's. Just as (if not more) disturbing as his habit of losing the ball is his cavalier attitude about it. He seems to think "fumbles happen" (actual quote from article). No David, fumbles don't just happen. Look at Trent Richardson, he has 1 fumble in his career of over 600 touches. Is he just lucky? No, he carries the ball high and tight with 5 points of pressure (http://www.ehow.com/how_2210326_hold-football-through-offensive-line.html). By using correct fundamentals, fumbles are no longer an issue.

Not for Mr. Wilson, or even his coaches:

Shane Beamer thinks Wilson’s fumbles as more of a reflection on how much and how hard he has carried the ball this year, and that when Wilson is fighting to break tackles, it’s inevitable a defender will come in and try to strip the ball. He used the fumbling issues Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson had in the past as an example.

“When you carry it as many times as David has — you hate to say it — but it’s gonna happen,” Beamer said.

I would hardly say Wilson carries the ball "harder" than Trent, who gained 48% of his total yards after contact. Maybe he can learn the correct way to carry a football in the future, but I think I'd rather spend a first round pick on someone who already knows how.

(quotes from this article from the November 23 Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/hokies-journal/post/virginia-tech-not-worried-about-david-wilsons-fumbles/2011/11/23/gIQAnnp8oN_blog.html)

Two things came to mind as I was reading the Q and A on the Arkansas blog, Arkansas Expats, this morning that I thought I should share:

It seems like everyone is criticizing recent Bama defenses, including this year's, because of lack of pass rush. I see it come up in stories and articles daily. While the lack of sacks is obviously staring us in the face as we peruse the stats after each game, I always had a sneaky suspicion that this was the product of something else at work. I mean, we all know how fond of the nickel defenses Coach Saban is, and the blitz packages have been vanilla at best to date this year. So if you really take all factors into account, I think if Saban and Smart really sold out to get sacks, I honestly believe they would be there. 

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As much as I hated to go here (stumbled upon this while following another link), Someone at Conquest Chronicles put up an interesting write up regarding the draft and how each conference did that is a little more in depth than other ones you may have seen. And its always nice to see a page where USC fans acknowledge SEC superiority:

http://www.conquestchronicles.com/2009/4/27/855805/which-conference-had-the-best

And shame on the Big East for thinking they were the best at anything....

A report from the Birmingham News contends that Andre Smith fired his agent, Alvin Keels, this past weekend:

http://blog.al.com/rapsheet/2009/04/former_alabama_lt_andre_smith.html

It seems like he is hiring Ian Greengross, the agent of Darren McFadden, this week. McFadden signed a 6 year, $60 million dollar contract last season without missing any training camp.

Not knowing if any new mistake by Keels led to the firing, this move can only help Smith. Many people close to Smith have been advising him to fire Keels since the series of mistakes that hurt Smith's draft stock earlier this year. I think many NFL teams will realize now that Smith is serious about his NFL career, and his buzz leading up to the draft should get louder.

It may even convince all of you nay sayers that he is worthy of a no. 6 pick in the draft.