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Seeing as how I have nothing else to write about for a few weeks until the bowl selections are made I thought it might be interesting to consider who may enter the NFL draft early this year.

Cases coud be made for much of the offense, but I would say really only Jorgensen on defense. However, I really don’t think many, if any of them will go.

If you take away the TCU and Utah games Max Hall had a tremendous season. One which would have at least drawn the consideration of numerous scouts. Fortunately for us, He screwed up any chance he may have had when he threw five picks and had a fumble to close out the season. Talk about leaving a bad taste in their mouths. Max, and BYU will be better off with him hanging around.

Harvey’s season didn’t quite blow anyone away, but the talent is definitely there to go to the next level eventually. He needs one more year to really prove his worth and there is no reason to think he won’t take it.

Perhaps the greatest threat to leave early is Austin Collie. He leads the NCAA in yards, and has had a phenomenal year. I am sure he is garnering at least passive interest from multiple NFL teams, and he would be stupid to not at least consider it. However, the deck is stacked for next year to be even better getting both Utah and TCU at home. Not to mention his timing with Max can only get better, and he could add to his new BYU receiving yards record. Let’s cross our fingers he stays.

Dennis Pitta should also draw some attention which he will definitely consider. The BYU tight end factory continues to roll on, and he is another good one. Just like Collie, I think he would benfit greatly from another year in the national spotlight where he can gain more press and respect. Only time will tell how it turns out.

On defense, the only real prospect to go pro is Jan Jorgensen, but I don’t think this year was good enough for him to move on. He was so stellar last year that teams really started working him this year and knowing his work ethic he will study film all summer and come back that much stronger next year and ready to face the double teams.

This is all merely speculation and we won’t know anything for months but I don’t really see anyone moving on because it would be in all of their best interests to hang around for one more year.

The discussion at this point in the season naturally revolves around what teams will go to what bowls. In that light it will be very interesting to see where BYU ends up. The most obvious choice is for BYU to go to The Las Vegas Bowl once again. This seems the most likely seeing as how they have sold it out in the past, and the bowl committee will be looking to make that same money again this year.

I must admit that I really don’t want this to happen. I am tired of Las Vegas. Even though it is considered a lesser bowl, I would rather see BYU go to the Poinsettia Bowl. In fact, I read an interesting idea where the Pac-10 could give up their half of the Poinsettia Bowl and let Boise State come down and play BYU. Now there is a grand idea.

It would be great to see BYU play a good team in a bowl for the first time in years. That would allow BYU to have something to get up for and challenge them to get some momentum going for next year. I am a little concerned that if BYU gets stuck playing another crappy Pac-10 team they will be lazy about it, and get beat which is definitely not what they need at this point.

It would be nice if the bowl environment would allow for BYU to go to some other bowl somewhere else, but with all of the conference guarantees that will never happen. I actually kind of miss the old days when you really didn’t know where your team would end up because there were very few guarantees. It gave you a chance to play teams you otherwise probably would not have, and it gave some suspense to the selection process.

I would really like to see them go back to a system where there are fewer guarantees. Maybe even a system where only the conference champion is guaranteed to go to a certain bowl, and the rest get to fight over what is left which would make for a much more interesting bowl season. They really need to do something though, because even some of the BCS games are losing their hype and the rest of the bowls totally are.

They need to go back to having bowl games on New Years Day with the National Championship that night. They complain that a playoff would lengthen the season too much yet the National Championship keeps getting pushed back later and later. There are even bowls after New Years that have no relevance in the national scene.

But, the NCAA is not going to change anything, and BYU will probably be stuck going to another Las Vegas Bowl and have to play another Pac-10 team. I guess it could be worse, they could be done for the season completely.