The Advocare V100 Bowl featured the Arizona Wildcats and the Boston College Eagles. These teams feature two of the Nation's top running backs. For Arizona, Ka'Deem Carey and for Boston College, Andre Williams. The game was dominated by the Wildcats from the beginning, both as a team and individual performances, as Carey had the better game of the two.
There wasn't really any other NFL Draft prospects in this game to go along with these running backs.
Ka'Deem Carey, RB, Arizona
Carey was named 2013 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year after averaging over five yards a carry (5.3 ypc), finishing with 1,716 yards and 17 touchdowns. Carey is a junior but is expected to go pro and is ranked as the No. 1 running back on a lot of draft boards.
What I liked:
Showed good strength on first touchdown as he feel forward after getting hit to get across goal line. Along with play where he lowered shoulder and ran over linebacker.
Picked the right hole and exploded through it nearly every carry.
Good burst through small area, shown on second rushing touchdown.
Sixteenth straight game of 100-plus rushing yards.
Still maintained strength after making move. Made quick spin move in open-field to make tackler miss and drug the next one for a couple yards.
What I didn't like:
Lost fumble on first carry of the game.
Lost ball again after long run in the fourth quarter but was able to recover his own fumble.
Funny that Head Coach Rich Rodriguez said that Cary reminded him of Steve Slaton, who he coached at West Virginia, and who had a great rookie season in the NFL but eventually fumbled himself out of the league. Carey undoubtedly will fix this problem, if it even is a problem. By the way, it's not.
Stock Report: Up
You can't go much higher than where he already is but after a 27/169/2 stat line, it could go up a little bit.
Draft Day Projection: Late 1st-2nd round
Carey showed all the tools that he possessed in this game and maybe a possible problem, but will still be drafted as one of the first running backs in the upcoming NFL Draft.
Andre Williams, RB, Boston College
Williams finished fourth in Heisman voting this season and was the Nation's leading rusher with 2,102 rushing yards. He had four two-hundred yard rushing games and one three-hundred yard rushing game this season.
What I liked:
Showed good concentration, holding on to the ball after bad exchange with QB.
Everyone knows about his strength but in case you didn’t, watch this.
Showed toughness coming back into game after going out a few plays after being tackled awkwardly.
Reminds me of Marshawn Lynch a bit.
Lowered shoulders, kept legs turning and fell forward to get only touchdown of game.
What I didn't like:
Had zero receptions all season long. Does get subbed out on passing down situations, could be combination of poor hands or poor blocking?
Rarely got to second level of Arizona defense as the defensive speed was causing problems for BC's offense all game long.
Stock Report: Neutral
Williams did show more of what we already knew but nothing else. He didn't play poorly enough for his stock to go down but a 75-yard 1 TD performance isn't enough for it to go up either.
Draft Day Projection: Third Round
His lack of top-line speed is undoubtedly keeping NFL teams from going too crazy over him but he has the opportunity to impress with the Senior Bowl and individual workouts.
Other notes:
Arizona OLB Marquis Flowers is in his senior year and finished the season with 11.5 tackles for loss and 1 sack but showed good ability in the bowl game. He made a few big plays, whether it was tackles for loss or a hard hit, Flowers used his speed and played all over the field. His current draft day projection is either 7th round or an undrafted free-agent.
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