God bless the people at the Wall Street Journal: when they deign to cover football, especially grubby ol’ college ball, they do so with the attitude of your most savage accountant whipping up a razor-sharp prospectus. The prospectus in question this time is the WSJ’s ongoing survey of college football programs and the success of their recruits, which uses a six-point scale to measure not only how high college players are drafted out of their respective programs but how positive their impact on their NFL teams actually is.

Squatting happily atop the pile are the two state universities from Florida, Florida State and our own beloved University of Florida. The recruits from both schools not only garner high draft picks; they also make their teams better. As much as it pains us to say this, that’s no surprise with Florida State, who according to the WSJ “blew away” the competition. Two words answer why: Derrick. Brooks. Another name helps, to: Mickey Andrews, the evil, frog-mouthed, dirty, skunk-souled bastard whose defenses have maimed Gator offenses for the better part of two decades now. The driving force behind the program now comes from his presence, and he’s the one responsible for turning FSU’s defense into Rushmore Prep for the NFL.

And while this certainly looks happy-making for Florida–the NFL’s rife with Gators now–the survey brings little good news for Alabama. Taking Shaun Alexander out of the equation leaves Alabama with precious little to claim in the way of value added for draft picks. Ditto for Colorado, whose NFL class is aging out of significance.


Freddie Milons. Yeah, that guy’s gonna be unstoppable in the NFL!