The charge for universities is to prepare students for whatever comes after they graduate. At least that is the mission statement. At places such as Northwestern and Stanford Myles Garrett Jersey , it certainly rings true.
When those students are football players, the challenges are exacerbated. Balancing classroom obligations with the demands of big-time sports is difficult.
Doing so, though, provides substantial benefits, as those players have learned as part of the NFL's draft crop.
"That I could get into Stanford helps with football," says Harrison Phillips, a defensive tackle projected to go in the second round next week. "Anything worth doing in life is worth overdoing. The intellectual side of football has always been interesting to me."
Teammate and linebacker Peter Kalambayi, like Phillips, is among the 39 players on the draft boards who recently made the 2018 National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society for having carried a grade-point average of 3.2 or better throughout college.
"It is definitely a lot, especially midterm and finals week. It's about understanding when you get home from practice and you are really tired and you don't want to do anything, having that discipline to do what you need. It's learning how to say no to going to social events. People hit you up and you have to tell them, 'It's not right, right now.'"
Right now, Phillips, Kalambayi and the other recognized scholar-athletes 鈥?including Cardinal teammates tackle David Bright Courtland Sutton Color Rush Jersey , and Dalton Schultz 鈥?all are listed as potentially going in the three-day draft. Among the traits they would bring to the pros are exceptional study habits, discipline, strong retention skills and organization.
Of course, they need to have the athletic ability, and no health or off-field issues. And just because they excel in the classroom isn't an overriding reason to draft them.
"With some players there definitely was a carry-over, with others definitely not," notes former NFL general manager Phil Savage, who now procures talent for the Senior Bowl and is a SiriusXM Radio football analyst.
"We've seen prospects come out of academically inclined schools where the classwork is especially challenging and they had no edge over prospects who came out of other type schools that were not so highly rated academically.
"You have to be careful to tie it completely together. But guys who check off the boxes in the classroom who you know have worked hard and gotten good marks, it makes you feel good about their prospects. I do think it can be a positive as a prospect. Remember what is the core philosophy for the Patriots: Be in condition, know what to do and play hard."
College Football Hall of Fame member Pat Fitzgerald was an All-America linebacker at Northwestern and has been head coach there since 2006. He fit the category of star player and student, and he now gets to work with similar youngsters, the vast majority of whom won't be heading to the pros.
Fitzgerald believes the habits these players create in high school construct a foundation for their college careers as athletes and students. And then the environment they experience at Northwestern solidifies that foundation for their futures 鈥?whether they become NFL participants or doctors, lawyers, businessmen, whatever.
"It begins with the expectations and standards of our program and university Zack Martin Jersey Womens ," Fitzgerald says. "That is our identification, who we are, and we take great pride in that. We are recruiting a young man who is an institutional fit. We place high value in a 40- to 50-year decision. It's not just playing football, it's using the university to help you be successful in life. He wants to be successful in all he does.
"Typically, the goals are very high of the young man we get to coach, and we are able to drive them and push them to newer heights. It makes for a great group collectively."
Kalambayi and Phillips stress exactly that. Performing in the classroom is as essential as doing the job on a football field 鈥?and it forms a bond with fellow athletes.
"We're fundamentally the same 鈥?we were the smartest football player at our high school," says Kalambayi, who majored in communications and minored in French; his family is from Congo.
"Coming in from different socio-economic backgrounds and from different races, we have a general understanding of each other. We're one of the closer teams because of that.
"Our humor is different than other teams; Our conversations range from politics to football to policy. The locker room is a phenomenal place 鈥?to be around those guys and learn so much from your teammates."
Phillips had two majors: sociology, and the science of technology and society. He minored in education and graduated in December.
He reasons that his acumen for dissecting game plans and individual plays comes not only from his love for football but from his classroom skills. Phillips keeps a notebook with him and constantly writes down things he picks up at film sessions or meetings.
"I don't know how much carry-over there is, but from the football meeting rooms there's a lot of carry-over to the field," he says. "There definitely are similarities of study habits that might be the same."
When these players do move on to the NFL, they tend to remain in contact with the coaches who helped them get there. That feeds back into the college programs, Fitzgerald believes.
"The No. 1 thing guys (from Northwestern who make the NFL) tell me 鈥?midway through their first year I will text and ask them did we prepare you? 鈥?and to a man the answer is the same: 'I was over-prepared.'" He said. "The active learning environment and expectations academically, our guys take the path less traveled. We hope they achieve the goal of playing on Sunday for a long time Ender Inciarte Jersey , but that is Plan B. Plan A is life.
"Hopefully, we Kemba Walker knows his future with the Charlotte Hornets is up in the air.
But the two-time All-Star said he’s not going to spend the offseason dwelling on where he’ll be playing next season.
Walker has one year remaining on a four-year, $48 million contract and while he’d like to remain with the Hornets – where he’s the franchise’s all-time leading scorer – he knows nothing is for certain after a second straight non-playoff season prompted team owner Michael Jordan to hire Mitch Kupchak as the new general manager.
That means that if Kupchak decides a massive rebuilding project is in order, Walker could be the first one out the door given he’s the team’s biggest bargaining chip and has a favorable contract.
”I have no idea,” Walker said Wednesday regarding his future after Charlotte’s regular season finale. ”That is out of my control. I am just going to focus on getting better as a player. That is really all you can do. I don’t know what they are going to do.”
The 6-foot-1 Walker is coming off three tremendous seasons in Charlotte where he has averaged more than 20 points and five assists per game.
Walker, who led Connecticut to a national championship, has never won a playoff series since his arrival in Charlotte six seasons ago.
Kupchak offered no hints over the team’s plans with Walker during an introductory press conference on Tuesday.
”My understanding is he is great in the locker room and great in the community,’ Kupchak said. ”I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to have a player like that going forward.”
Other things to know about the Hornets heading into the offseason:
NOT GOING THERE: While some other star players have been outspoken about what their team needs personnel-wise to get better, Walker refused to go down that path. ”I don’t want to answer that question because it could get real ugly,” Walker said. ”I will leave it up to the guys upstairs.”
CLIFFORD’S FUTURE: Coach Steve Clifford said he felt this was the most talented team he’s had with the Hornets, which made finishing 10 games under .500 all the more disappointing. His future with the team remains uncertain after his teams have failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs the last five seasons.
”The NBA is about winning in the playoffs, so if you want to look back at our five years I do feel very good about where we are and how we are perceived versus where it was five years ago,” Clifford said. ”We made great gains. To be relevant and respected in this league is a long way from where we started.”
HOWARD’S BIG SEASON: Hornets center Dwight Howard enjoyed an impressive bounce back season with Charlotte individually, averaging 16.6 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocked shots in 81 games after struggling to find his way in Houston and Atlanta the previous two years resulting in him being traded twice. ”This year really showed a lot of people this guy really takes this game seriously http://www.jaguarsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-ronnie-harrison-jersey ,” said Howard, who finished with a franchise-record 53 double-doubles.
PLAYING WITH HOWARD: While Howard excelled, several players had to learn to adjust their games to play with him, including Nic Batum. He excelled with Cody Zeller in the pick-and-roll the previous seasons, but Batum spent more time dumping the ball to Howard in the low post and said he had to adjust his own game to play with Howard.
”I thought I feed him the ball a lot inside and play through him because he’s so big and has so much potential inside,” Batum said. ”If you have a guy like that you have to use him. … Did I give up a lot of my game? Yes, maybe. But I don’t care as long as it is good for the team.”
HORNETS LACKED SPIRIT: One overriding theme of Clifford’s post-season press conference was that he felt his team lacked ”spirit” this season. ”We’ve always had spirit,” Clifford said, ”but we didn’t have that this year. Some games (we did). But not nearly the togetherness, the spirit that we’ve had for years. And they know that. I’ve let them know. So you do have to look at that and I don’t know what the answer is. But it has to start with me.”
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16.08.2018 10:57
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