MOBILE, Ala. — As he tipped his head back, squinting into the Alabama sun, Jeff Byers gave what just may be the state of the college football union address in Colorado.
“Well, there’s me,” Byers said. “There’s the guy from Oklahoma State, the guy from Texas. That’s three, we’re all here. We’re just undercover. Or in different colors.”
Yes, that is three Colorado natives who spent the past week at the Senior Bowl, which is the pre-eminent postseason all-star game for NFL draft prospects. Three players — who were making their professional case to a vast array of NFL general managers, coaches and scouts — having gone outside the state to play college football.
Byers, who was the Gatorade national player of the year at Loveland High School in 2003, starred as an offensive lineman at Southern California. Chatfield High School’s Zac Robinson signed with Oklahoma State and became one of the best quarterbacks in Cowboys history. Lamarr Houston, a two-time all-stater at Colorado Springs’ Doherty High School, became a dominant defensive tackle at Texas.
The most decorated player at Ladd-Peebles Stadium this past week with ties to the state of Colorado may have been the Broncos’ director of scouting, former CU star Matt Russell, who won the Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker in 1996.
“I guess it was all guys who went to out-of-state schools here this time,” said Robinson, who threw for a game-high 176 yards Saturday and passed for the South’s lone touchdown in the North’s 31-13 victory. He outplayed Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who passed for 50 yards and fumbled twice.
“I don’t know why that is,” Byers said. “I guess it’s kind of the luck of the draw for the guys who are here. You come from a good system, good coaches, where you won some games. It all has to work together.
“When you pick a school, you’re kind of looking for the best fit and you hope for the best.”
And while the state’s schools were represented fairly well at the East-West Shrine Classic in Orlando, Fla., this month with Air Force safety Chris Thomas, Colorado State’s Klint Kubiak, Cole Pemberton and Shelley Smith and CU’s Riar Geer taking part, the coveted invitations to the Senior Bowl have been in short supply.
Since Brian Iwuh, Joe Klopfenstein, John Torp and Lawrence Vickers played in the game in 2005, the Buffs had no players in 2006 to go with only Mason Crosby in 2007 as well as Terrence Wheatley and Jordon Dizon in 2008.
Crosby joked during his week that he was “the lonely guy.”
And since sending five players to the 1998 Senior Bowl, including Joey Porter, Colorado State has sent only three players to the 12 games since, the last being tight end and long snapper Joel Dreessen six years ago.
“It’s an honor to come here,” Byers said. “That’s how I took it, that’s how I think everybody looks at it. But there are a lot of good players who will get drafted who aren’t here.”
In the grand scheme of things, a school’s number of pro prospects isn’t always going to determine the level of play or quality of the program overall. It’s just one piece of a vast puzzle, especially since there are so few spots to be had in Mobile.
But the NFL’s talent evaluators say they go where the players are and that they don’t expect to make all that many trips to the state of Colorado in the weeks leading up to the April draft beyond each school’s pro timing day in March. CU especially continues to try to regain its stature in the Big 12 Conference as well as on the national scale since the Buffs’ last January bowl appearance in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl.
“Really, it’s the same for everybody. I mean, nobody plays the mercy rule in the Big 12, you know,” Missouri linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. “Guys get you down in our league and they want to keep you down. I mean, have you seen some of the scores in the league sometimes?
“They’re going to keep piling on. You get down, you have to do a lot of things to get back. It’s really tough to get back up. I know at Missouri, you start thinking and hoping the foundation has been laid, we went to a couple of bowl games and sometimes that’s all it takes. But nobody else wants to give up their spot, so if you want back up, you have to bump somebody out. That’s just the way it is.”
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
The last time . . .
• A Colorado player was in the Senior Bowl was 2008 (cornerback Terrence Wheatley and linebacker Jordon Dizon).
• A Colorado State player was in the Senior Bowl was 2004 (tight end and long snapper Joel Dreessen).
• An Air Force player has never played in the Senior Bowl.
• A Northern Colorado player was in the Senior Bowl was 2005 (wide receiver Vincent Jackson).
