M&B’s Spring Football Draft: A Three-Way Battle For First

With the coaches’ spring draft happening this weekend, we decided to get in the spirit by waging our own spring draft. Call it competitive drafting.

This meant James, Anthony, and Nick all trying to fill out three complete starting units, based only on the guys on campus right now. We discovered that there were not enough offensive linemen, and outside linebacker and defensive tackle were tight spots, as well. But it was lots of fun.

Here were the top ten selections:

The Draft

#1. Wilton Speight (James)

#2. Chris Evans (Anthony)

#3. Rashan Gary (Nick)

#4. Donovan Peoples-Jones (James)

#5. Maurice Hurst (Anthony)

#6. Mason Cole (Nick)

#7. Kareem Walker (James)

#8. Eddie McDoom (Anthony)

#9. Michael Onwenu (Nick)

#10. Ben Bredeson (James)

Rashan Gary and Wilton Speight went 1-2 at the coaches’ draft, followed by Chase Winovich, Khaleke Hudson, and Devin Bush. That’s a good sign that the team is high on those guys; there’s a lot of spring hype going around, but being a high draft pick chosen by the coaches says a lot.

By the way, here’s a photo of the three of us putting together our own selections:

Here was the rest of our top 25. We all split into our own strategies, and frankly probably winged it more than we should have.

#11. Khalid Hill (Anthony)

#12. Cesar Ruiz (Nick)

#13. Patrick Kugler (James)

#14. Mike McCray (Anthony)

#15. Bryan Mone (Nick)

#16. Juwann Bushell-Beatty (James)

#17. Khaleke Hudson (Anthony)

#18. Tyree Kinnel (Nick)

#19. Ja’Raymond Hall (James)

#20. Brandon Peters (Anthony)

#21. Josh Metellus (Nick)

#22. Nolan Ulizio (James)

#23. Andrew Vastardis (Anthony)

#24. David Long (Nick)

#25. Devin Bush, Jr. (James)

Chase Winovich wasn’t picked until #28 by James, with the first tight end coming off the board at #30 (Tyrone Wheatley, who Nick converted to right tackle at the very end of the draft) and Kekoa Crawford all the way down at #39 (again, Nick).

The Teams

ClevelandJames: Wilton and a Don Brown pass rush

James’ team was quarterbacked by Wilton Speight, with Kareem Walker, Ty Isaac, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nate Johnson, and Ian Bunting backing him up. He was second at emphasizing his offensive line, landing (from left to right) Juwann Bushell-Beatty, Ben Bredeson, Patrick Kugler, Nolan Ulizio, and Ja’Raymond Hall.

On defense, he got two of the top five picks in the coaches’ draft, all in the later rounds: Winovich and Devin Bush. Overall his defense was Winovich, Michael Dwumfour, Garrett Miller, and Corey Malone-Hatcher at D-Line, Devin Bush, Jr., Ben Mason, and Josh Uche at linebacker, and Benjamin St-Juste, Keith Washington, Jaylen Kelly-Powell, and J’Marick Woods in the secondary.

Anthony Broome: Young studs all over the place

Anthony’s quarterback was Brandon Peters, who went with the #20 pick. (Peters, incidentally, will be starting opposite Wilton Speight in the real spring game.) He surrounded Peters with Chris Evans, Eddie McDoom, Tarik Black, Zach Gentry, and Khalid Hill for some muscle. The line was a bit of a struggle, with (L-R) Stephen Spanellis, Greg Robinson, Andrew Vastardis, Greg Froelich, and Anthony Kay.

He made that up, though, with play-makers at every level of the defense: Ron Johnson, Maurice Hurst, Carl Myers, and Donovan Jeter, plus Mike McCray, Devin Gil, and Jared Wangler at linebacker, then Khaleke Hudson, Jordan Glasgow, Ambry Thomas and Brandon Watson in a very strong secondary.

Nick Bodanyi: Defense! Linemeenn!

Nick was stuck with John O’Korn at quarterback, giving him the unceremonious 66th and final selection of the draft. After contemplating Michael Sessa and Garrett Moore, though (make that, ‘HOLDER OF THE YEAR’ Garrett Moore), he surrounded O’Korn with Karan Higdon, fullback Henry Poggi, Kekoa Crawford, Drake Harris, and tight end Sean McKeon. He also picked Tyrone Wheatley, but converted him to right tackle at the last minute. His line took a lot of early draft picks, and had Mason Cole, Jon Runyan, Jr., Cesar Ruiz, Michael Onwenu, and Ty Wheatley, Jr. going left to right.

On defense, Nick went after Rashan Gary and Bryan Mone early, and snagged Carlo Kemp late. He added Lawrence Marshall at DL, Mike Wroblewski, Noah Furbush, and Elysee Mbem-Bosse at LB, and Tyree Kinnel, Josh Metellus, David Long, and Lavert Hill in the secondary.

Now, The Choice Is Yours

Who made the best team? Look and decide: