One Mountain West Bowl Remains, Fresno State’s Adams Plans NFL Jump

Last week, Fresno State kicked off the 2013 NCAA football bowling season but now the Mountain West conference will have to wait until Jan. 1 for its next and final game. This will be the Heart of Dallas Bowl with UNLV (7-5, 5-3) versus North Texas (8-4, 6-2).

To-date, the conference has had three bowl winners: Utah State (S.D. County Credit Union Poinsetta Bowl), San Diego State (Famous Idaho Potato Bowl), Colorado State (Gildan New Mexico Bowl) while there’s been two losers: Fresno State (Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl) and Boise State (Sheraton Hawaii Bowl).

Vegas currently has UNLV joining the L column (+6.5, 54 o).

For the teams that have played their bowl games, many players will take a much-needed break while some more experienced ones may be looking toward the 2014 NFL Draft. At the top of the conversation has been Fresno State’s quarterback Derek Carr. Questions are swirling on whether or not his performance in last week’s game affected his draft stock.

Derek Carr

Carr, playing in front of numerous NFL scouts, had his worst game of the season with his 217 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception. This came as he entered following a Mountain West Conference championship game win; he stood as the FBS leader with his 4,866 passing yards and 48 touchdown passes.

In a mock draft this week by Mocking the Draft, it still had Carr going in the top 10–in fact, he’s a top three as he’ll go to the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. The blog writes of Carr:

The book on Carr is out, and Southern California showed it blowing out Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl. Carr is a strong-arm pocket passer who gets tentative when facing a blitz. Would that make Jacksonville a good fit for Carr? According to Pro Football Focus, the Jaguars are near the middle of the pack in pass blocking. It stands to reason the line will be better next season with a healthy Luke Joeckel. It’s also a fair assumption that an NFL offensive line would perform better than Fresno State’s did this season. Getting a quarterback in place sooner rather than later should accelerate Jacksonville’s rebuilding process.

This isn’t the only mock draft to still have Carr going high. CBSSports also has him going to the Jaguars as well as the Minnesota Vikings for the eighth pick. SI.com’s Fansided mock draft has Carr going in the fifth spot to the Cleveland Browns.

For now it appears his stock wasn’t affected too much as he’ll still go as one of the first quarterbacks.

Perhaps he’ll be joined by one of his offensive weapons of choice, wide receiver Davante Adams, who said this week he’ll leave school early for the draft.  A redshirt sophomore, he had a record-setting season with school records for passes (131), yards (1,718) and touchdowns (24). Had Adams grabbed one more touchdown, he would have set a Fresno State career record.

Davante Adams

But he how will fare in the upcoming NFL Draft is another story. According to the Fresno Bee, Adams got a third-round evaluation from the NFL Draft Advisory Board; however, his stock could rise if his speed improves and he performs well at the pre-draft workouts, providing a good show for NFL scouts and coaches.

Adams currently sits in the 10th spot for wide receivers for the draft from CBSSports; it has projected him to go in the second round.

Fresno State could also lose safety Derron Smith. The All-Conference junior actually submitted his NFL Draft Advisory Board paperwork prior to the Las Vegas Bowl.

He said of his decision to do so via the Fresno Bee, “It’s just the smart thing to do. It doesn’t mean that I’m leaving. It’s just a smart move to see where you’re out, how the NFL people view your potential at the next level.”