Will Gibson Get the Call Tomorrow?

Huge day for NFL hopefuls tomorrow. And the biggest name in the WSU universe is, rightfully so, Brandon Gibson.

We all know the story. The kid made a bit of a splash his first year, then exploded in years two and especially year three. Year four, 2008? Uh, yeah, like the rest of the program, we’ll just gloss over that. It was bad, bad, bad. OK, injuries, QB issues, offensive line issues, new system, etc. It all rolled into one big ball of UGLY for 2008, and young Brandon wasn’t spared.

But the good news is that tomorrow is a chance to turn it all around for Gibson. How does Gibby stack up with the mock drafts?

Well, if you believe in Mel Kiper, Gibson should be happy this weekend. Kiper’s mock has Gibson landing in Atlanta as a fourth-rounder. Note – the ESPN article is a premium insider article, so, instead I’ve linked to an article that mentions Gibson in Kiper’s mock draft. Atlanta could be a nice fit for Gibson. QB Matt Ryan is on the rise, it’s in a dome so the atmosphere is nice and comfortable for at least eight games a year, and they are in the NFC “nascar” division so the weather should be quite comfortable down there.

Another mock draft has Gibson as a fifth-rounder, to Philly. Cold, sure, but Philly has the look of a major force next year. And having McNabb throw you the ball could be a very, very good thing.

Finally, one more mock has the Cowboys taking Gibson in the fifth round. Hmm, nice situation there with Romo. And a new stadium too, which is always cool.

So there you have it. There are a lot more mock drafts out there, but three is enough isn’t it? Anyway, as a second day pick, Gibson will at least get a look by someone to play on Sunday. But even if he follows the Bumpus route and goes practice squad for his first year, that’s still not a bad gig if you can get it.

One thing that would be pretty cool is to think of the starting trio of WR’s on the WSU roster in 2006 – Jason Hill, Michael Bumpus, and Brandon Gibson. If Gibson makes a team next season, and Bumpus can stick with the Seahawks, that’s all THREE starting WR’s from the 2006 team on an NFL roster. Could that ’06 version of the WSU WR’s be the best in school history?

Moving on, it’s gotten really ugly with the senate bill SB6116. Ugly in that WSU is squarely taking a lot of the blame, if you read some of the comments at SonicsCentral.com (be warned, it’s not pretty!). And so ugly that senator Ed Murray, one of the sponsors of the bill, has actually amended his bill to fight the use of funds for athletic department purposes. In other words, Murray is so frustrated by the loud WSU fans fighting this thing that he went out of his way to amend his own bill to try and hurt WSU.

But after all the noise we’ve made about this, including a banner flying over Oly saying fight the bill? Again, we’re the easy targets. Even if YOU didn’t fight this thing or are basically “whatever dude”, because of the colors you wear and/or where you went to school, you will get blamed.

Finally, there could be some news coming on the Apple Cup. That’s all we’re saying. Stay tuned.

ENJOY YOUR FRIDAY, and GO COUGS!