After Further Review: Rooting for the underdog

[AceRimRat]

After Further Review: Rooting for the underdog
Sometimes, you can’t help but hope for a player

April 27, 2008
By Eric “Ace” Strauss, Raiderfans.net Staff Columnist

NEW YORK — While waiting out the stretch between the Raiders’ fourth overall pick and fourth-round pick, I find myself hoping to hear a name called at some point today.

Not by the Raiders, really.

By anybody.

We all have a vested interest in players from our local college, or favorite team, or even, for those who went to Division I football schools, alma mater.

As a New Jersey resident, I’ve been tracking where running back Ray Rice (second round, to Baltimore) and offensive lineman Jeremy Zuttah (third round, to Tampa Bay) would be taken, and if lesser prospects Pedro Sosa, Mike Fladell, Ron Girault, Eric Foster, Jeremy Ito and others will be chosen.

As a Notre Dame fan, I was waiting for safety Tom Zbikowski’s name to be called (it was, to Baltimore, in the third round).

As a Raiders fan, I was watching a pair of sons rise: defensive end Chris Long of Virginia, son of Howie, was taken second overall by the St. Louis Rams; and defensive end Bruce Davis of UCLA, son of Bruce, was chosen in the third round by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But, really, the player I’d like to see drafted is a far lesser light than the Ravens’ new pair of players.

It’s running back Jamar Brittingham of Division II Bloomsburg (Pa.) University.

If the school sounds vaguely familiar, it’s the home of New Orleans Saints right guard Jahri Evans, a fourth-round pick in 2006.

If the school doesn’t sound familiar at all, it’s because Bloomsburg is in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania.

It’s also where I grew up.

My father was a professor at Bloomsburg, and I went to many Huskies games as a kid, before leaving town (for good) for Carnegie Mellon University in the fall of 1992.

In fact, in my first journalism job, I used to occasionally speak with former Bloomsburg lineman Eric Jonassen, who spent a couple of years with the San Diego Chargers in the early 1990s and was the last Husky to make any inroads in the NFL before Evans.

Division II stars don’t always get the chance to even spend a couple of years as a deep reserve, much less a starter. The star quarterback on Bloomsburg’s NCAA playoff 1985 squad — the gridiron heroes of my boyhood — wound up teaching English in my school district.

The defensive star from those days is a Division III head coach at Wilkes University — I had to Google him to find even that much out.

But Brittingham, a former Rutgers recruit, could wind up more like Evans or Jonassen than Jay DeDea or Frank Sheptock.

After a 991-yard, 16-touchdown freshman year, he led all of Division II in rushing as a sophomore in 2005, gaining 2,260 yards and scoring 32 touchdowns, then after an injury-plagued 1,003-yard year in 2006, gained 1,435 yards as a senior with 23 touchdowns, winning Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division Player of the Year honors.

Still, estimates of his potential range from a short-yardage back and kick returner to nothing more than a camp body.

The Sporting News gave him a fifth-round grade, calling him “a power back with the toughness to run over defenders. … Has a nose for the end zone as a goal-line runner.” However, they say he “lacks elite speed,” as his 4.6-seconds-plus 40-yard time suggests.

Pro Football Weekly also gives him credit for “nice run balance, strength and power to push the pile. Can slam through the line and plow in short-yardage situations.” But speed and intelligence are questions in that guide, too.

Still, I’ll be hoping to hear his name at some point today, hoping he’ll land in a situation where he can be that end zone specialist.

And who knows? Maybe he’ll be the guy who puts my hometown school on the football map, rather than just another line of agate type in the transactions.

Who's your favorite sleeper pick? I'll be hoping he gets chosen, too.