What to make of Matt Corral's draft experience
A look at a pair of Ole Miss Draft picks, a bad baseball team and an incredible golf story.
We’ve got a new a pair of new podcasts out. One with Collin Brister in what feels like Groundhog Day for this Ole Miss Baseball team as the Rebels squandered another opportunity in Fayetteville over the weekend. You can check that out here or anywhere you get podcasts.
Weldon Rotenberg joined the show last Friday for a spring football wrap-up in which we discussed, the quarterback battle, quarterback recruiting, depth, receivers and much more. You can check that out here or anywhere you get your podcasts.
We’ve got some NFL Draft, baseball and more to get to today.
Corral selected by Carolina Panthers
Matt Corral waited longer than most thought he would, and probably a lot longer than he preferred, but he finally found his NFL home when the Carolina Panthers selected him with the 93rd overall pick in the third round of the NFL Draft.
Why teams passed on Corral for as long as they did isn’t completely clear, but it is likely due to a combination of many factors. This was viewed as a weak quarterback class across the board. Only Pitt’s Kenny Pickett went in the first round. In this current era of the NFL, that’s pretty rare — overall strength of the quarterback class aside. In today’s NFL, if you don’t have a dynamic quarterback, you don’t stand much of a chance. In previous years that have featured ‘weak’ quarterback classes, teams usually became desperate and eventually talked themselves into available candidates. E.J. Manuel was picked 16th overall in the 2013 draft. Blake Bortles was the 3rd overall pick in a 2014 draft that saw Johnny Manziel and Teddy Bridgewater go in the first round (Bridgwater is still a serviceable NFL QB and a catastrophic injury derailed his career early on).
You get the point.
But that didn’t happen this year. It’s in part due to the influx of elite, young talent at the position over the last three draft classes. Most teams have their quarterback of the present and future. The ones that don’t — like the Lions (Jared Goff), Texans (Davis Mills), Seahawks (Drew Lock), Saints (Jameis Winston) and Panthers (Sam Darnold), have decent enough options for the immediate present that they don’t have to reach on a prospect they don’t absolutely love. It’s a weird year to enter the NFL as a quarterback hoping to be the face of a franchise. Opportunity to do that is more scare than it usually is.
Then there were the ‘off the field concerns’ with Corral, whatever that actually means. I don’t think the fact that he beat up Wayne Gretsky’s son when he was 16 years old is a valid reason to be hesitant in the belief Corral can be a successful franchise quarterback, but these teams leave no stone unturned in doing their homework before investing life-changing wealth in a player, particularly at the quarterback position. I once had a scout for a team call me (I am not going to pretend like this happens often, but I have fielded a few calls through the years) to ask about a traffic violation a player had in the summer before his freshman year — as if me, a then 24-year-old beat writer, could add any real insight on a matter like that. But it gives you an idea of how deep these franchises dig.
There were other concerns teams had with Corral, as NFL Network’s Ian Rappaport clumsily and, in my opinion, inappropriately, tried to softly allude to on national television without actually getting into specifics. I don’t know for certain what those concerns actually were.
Last week, I spoke with someone who works in the scouting department for a team. That person was under the impression Corral didn’t interview well with some clubs and also believed past alcohol use (as Rappoport alluded to) was indeed somewhat of a factor. I obviously don’t know enough of the details to understand the scope of the situation, but I will go out on a limb and say Corral wasn’t the first young college kid to drink more than he should. And, by all accounts, he put it behind him over the last two years.
But whether you believe that is fair or unfair, true or untrue, doesn’t really matter. Corral now has his opportunity to make a career for himself in the NFL, and anything in his past that might have haunted him is now irrelevant. Corral is no stranger to being doubted and he enters a situation in which he will have every opportunity to win the starting job. Panthers head coach Matt Rhule’s seat is hot. He needs to win now. Darnold struggled last year and Corral succeeding immediately would be in the best interest for all involved. Corral is far from a can’t-miss prospect, but he’s more than talented enough to be a successful quarterback in the NFL. All that’s left now for him is to prove it.
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Cowboys take Sam Williams
I am not sure how many of you had Sam Williams being picked before Matt Corral. I sure didn’t, but that is exactly what happened. The Cowboys selected Williams in the 2nd round with the 56th overall pick. Williams brings athleticism and a pass rushing presence to an edge group that already consists of the likes of Dante Fowler and Micah Parsons. By all accounts, Dallas loved Williams throughout the entire process. It seems like a great fit. There are other parts of Williams game that still need to develop, but he has the potential to be an elite pass rusher in the NFL and that is exactly what the Cowboys need him to do.
Williams is a tremendous story. He’s a guy that has overcome a lot. He is a freak athlete who was originally a basketball player. Williams only played high school football for one year, went the junior college route and ultimately blossomed into a star in his final year at Ole Miss. He’s also matured a lot over the 18 months and has been pretty open about how becoming a father motivated him to realize his potential. I am happy for him.
Conner selected by Jaguars
Snoop Conner was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 5th round. Conner is another great story. He was one of the last kids taken in Ole Miss’ 2019 class and made an impact from the time he arrived on campus. No matter who was in front of Conner on the depth chart, he always seemed to find a way to his way on the field and was arguably Ole Miss’ best running back last year. Fifth round draft picks are far from a guarantee to make the roster out of training camp, but I have a feeling Conner will stick around in the league for a while. He joins a running backs room that includes former Clemson standout Travis Etienne, who the Jags selected in the first round in the 2021 draft. Etienne missed his entire rookie season with an injury.
Current Deal: For being a loyal subscriber, show him proof of subscription and you’ll get a 16 oz. prime strip for $20 and a pack of sausage for $5. That’s a hell of a dinner on the grill for 25 bucks. Go check LB’s out. It’s the best place in Mississippi to get meat and Oxford is lucky to have it.
Other players drafted:
The Tennessee Titans took Chance Campbell in the 6th round.
The Pittsburgh Steelers took Mark Robinson in in the 7th round
The Los Angeles Chargers took Deane Leonard in the 7th round.
Here is a look at some guys who signed undrafted free agent deals.
Rebels squander another opportunity in Fayetteville
I like to think that most of you who read this segment every week do so for somewhat insightful analysis that makes you think. I might be totally delusional about that, but I at least always try to give the reader a couple of things to think about or look for in the team’s next game or series. While I don’t necessarily feel like I am failing in that regard this year, I feel as if I am unable to provide you with those insights simply because those things don’t exist. I am not sure I have ever ‘covered’ (I use that term loosely now because I am not at the ballpark every day anymore) a team that feels more irrelevantly predictable than this 2022 Ole Miss team.
Every weekend is Groundhog Day. The Rebels are a bad baseball team who give the illusion of a competitive team when Dylan DeLucia takes the baseball in game one.
It’s a shame DeLucia’s dominance is consistently wasted
Ole Miss has seven SEC wins and DeLucia is almost solely responsible for four of them thanks to a stretch of dominance that will get lost in an otherwise disaster of a season. I spent about 45 minutes digging through DeLucia stats on Saturday morning, but my good pal Nick Suss encapsulated it better than I could below.
I won’t turn this into an ESPN First Take segment and insult your collective intelligence by asking you if DeLucia is actually more dominant than Doug Nikhazy was, but I do think it is important to note that this stretch of dominance, albeit a much smaller sample size, is absolutely in the conversation of Nikhazy’s brilliance and really anyone in the last decade or more of Ole Miss Baseball. DeLucia has provided stability to what was a putrid starting rotation for the first month-and-a-half of the season and it is a shame it his efforts will be drowned in the sea of incompetency around him.
Remember in early March when we talked about how Bianco almost always figures out how to have a competitive rotation and pitching staff? And if he can do that again, in what may be his toughest challenge yet, then the team will be fine because this offense will carry them? Yeah, me too. And to Bianco’s credit (I know no one wants to hear that right how), he’s kind of done that. The pitching this past weekend, and for most of the last three or four weekends, has been fine.
Therein lies the real issue with this lifeless team.
DeLucia’s been great, and if there is a coaching change at Ole Miss, which I would be shocked if there wasn’t, the new man in charge will possibly have a built-in ace to construct his roster around, barring DeLucia transferring. He is not a coveted draft prospect. I am interested to see what DeLucia’s impact is on the 2023 Ole Miss Rebels.
Speaking of incompetence, this offense is awful
This weekend represented everything that is wrong about this Ole Miss offense. The Rebels had a chance to change the trajectory of their season in Fayetteville. This series, against a top-five club, on the road, was ripe for the taking, and this offense squandered it. I don’t have to go through the play-by-play. You watched it.
I actually thought Ole Miss had a decent approach on Friday night. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but the Rebels moved the baseball against Connor Noland — a good SEC ace — and scrapped together four runs, without a home run, to win a hard-fought Friday night contest. That game looked like how good SEC teams set the tone in the opener of an important series.
Then came the abomination that was Saturday and Sunday. Hunter Elliott and Jack Dougherty gave Ole Miss a great chance to win game two. Trailing 3-2 entering the 7th inning, Ole Miss put a combined seven runners on base in the 7th-9th innings with no outs. The Rebels scored one run. I wish I had a nerd on staff to crunch the numbers on the odds of plating only one run with seven runners aboard with no outs, but I imagine that hypothetical nerd would tell me it is pretty low. Think about how bad this three-inning sequence is.
7th inning: Chatagnier HBP, Van Cleve pinch-hit double. Second and third with no outs. Bench strikeout, Gonzalez weak ground out to third to extinguish the lead runner, Elko intentional walk, Graham pop-up. Zero runs.
8th inning: Alderman walk, McCants walk, Dunhurst walk. Bases juiced, no outs. Chatagnier 6-4-3 double play. Leatherwood strikeout. One run scored.
9th inning: Bench walk, Gonzalez walk. Two on, no outs. Elko strikeout followed by a Kevin Graham 4-3 double play in which Gonzalez made the rudimentary mistake of running into an easy tag for the second baseman, instead of stopping in his tracks, making the second baseman make a choice for one out and extending the inning.
Think about that for a moment. With its season on life support, and a chance to revive its postseason chances back toward realism and away from a pipe dream, that is how Ole Miss finished the game. It goes beyond situational hitting. It’s situational awareness. Look at the Gonzalez play on the double play tag in the ninth inning. This team lacks a fundamental awareness needed to succeed in the moments that decide SEC baseball games, moments that have the slimmest margin for error.
This team also doesn’t move the baseball. It doesn’t drive in runs unless the defense is disqualified from participating because the baseball left the ballpark. I know this sounds dumb, but can you remember the last time Ole Miss hit a sacrifice fly? I can’t either. As mundane of a play as that is, don’t you feel like there should be some sort of sacrifice or productive out you could point to in recent memory if asked to? It’s sort of insane to think about.
Sunday wasn’t much better. Derek Diamond, for what the current version of him is, gave Ole Miss a chance to win. He was once again undermined by his head coach, who ignored a large sample size of Diamond’s success, or lack thereof, the second time through the batting order, and allowed him to relinquish the lead not once but twice. All of Arkansas’ four runs came on two swings off Diamond in the second and third time through the batting order. Ole Miss lost the game 4-3.
It wasn’t for a lack of opportunity though. Ole Miss loaded the bases in the ninth inning. Tim Elko — and the rest of the lineup for that matter — couldn’t hit Brady Tygart’s breaking ball and struck out to end the series. Tygart went to Lewisburg High School in Mississippi, by the way. That’s less than an hour from the Ole Miss campus. He did not receive an Ole Miss offer. He dominated the Rebels’ lineup two days in a row.
Things that’ll make ya go hmm.
For one final, brutal encapsulation of just how excruciatingly bad the offense was. Here’s a look: Ole Miss was 10-52 with runners on base on the weekend. It was 7-48 with runners in scoring position. Arkansas issued 18 walks in the final two games and won both of them. Suboptimal.
Anyway, if you have made it this far, you likely watched this series and don’t want need or want anymore evidence of what this team is: a bad baseball team that regularly squanders opportunity.
Ole Miss is now 7-14 and is in a three-way tie for last place in the SEC with Kentucky and Missouri. Only 12 of the 14 teams in the conference make the SEC Tournament in Hoover, which means the path to Hoover is basically decided this weekend with Missouri coming to Oxford. Imagine reading that sentence two months ago.
In the end, does it really matter if Ole Miss makes the SEC Tournament? This season is a failure of catastrophic portions. A team that was once ranked No. 1 in the country is now fighting for the right to play in its conference tournament. This type of free fall is what Bianco has largely avoided in his 22-year stint in Oxford. Love or hate the guy, his teams almost never suck and rarely nosedive. But this year has been a historic nosedive that will ultimately end his time as the head coach of Ole Miss Baseball.
A mini Magnolia State golf update
I have been slacking on the golf updates lately, but there was enough news over the weekend to warrant a quick one in this newsletter.
Hattiesburg native and Alabama alum Davis Riley finished T-5 at the Mexico Open last week. Jon Rahm won the tournament. Riley earned about $300,000 for his efforts and is now 33rd in the FedEx Cup Standings. Riley ranks 3rd in the PGA Tour’s rookie rankings, and has more than a good chance to win Rookie of the Year. Who is second you ask? Fulton, Mississippi native and PGA Tour winner Chad Ramey. It is safe to say the state of Mississippi is representing well on the PGA Tour this year.
Remember the name Blake Maum
If that isn’t enough, I have an even better story for you. Last week a guy named Blake Maum Monday qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour’s Huntsville Open. The previous Friday, Maum Successfully made it through PGA Tour Canada Qualifying School and will compete in Canada this summer for the chance to earn full status on the Korn Ferry Tour. On Monday, Maum shot 63, including back-nine 30, to Monday Qualify into the Korn Ferry Tour’s Simmons Bank Championship in Nashville — his second consecutive successful Monday qualifier in seven days. It is hard to accurately describe how difficult it is to Monday qualify for one Korn Ferry Tour event. Some of the most talented players on earth play in those things. He’s done it twice in seven days.
Why does this matter, you ask? Well, Blake Maum didn’t play college golf. Like at all. I know this because he was a fraternity brother of mine at Ole Miss in the pledge class below me.
Seriously.
An obviously terrific golfer while being a fratlete a in college, Maum decided to try his hand at professional golf while studying for his Series-6 finance exam after graduation. He decided to stick with it, and has now earned status on one of the five major tours on earth (Canadian Tour), has qualified into back-to-back events in the second most competitive tour on the planet (Korn Ferry Tour) and is now a very legitimate professional golfer. How can you not love the opportunity the cruel sport of professional golf provides?
I am happy for the guy and hope this incredible story continues all the way up to the PGA Tour. The fact that he has made it this far already defies basically all realistic odds as he’s beaten some of the best young players on the planet to get where he is.
On the Horizon
A weeks’ worth of newsletters on football, baseball, golf and whatever else interests me
**hopefully** a podcast breaking down how Corral and Williams fit in with their prospective teams.
Mailbag Friday + a Kentucky Derby Preview and Grill Corner with LBs Greg.
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