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Today's Military Bowl features the Cincinnati Bearcats vs. the Duke Blue Devils and will air on ESPN at 1 o'clock.
The Bearcats have 16 players currently in the NFL, four of whom are on the Eagles (Jason Kelce, Connor Barwin, Trent Cole, and Brent Celek) and one of whom is a Giant (Adrien Robinson). The best Bearcat players recently entering the league is talented Chiefs rookie tight end Travis Kelce, who reminds some of Rob Gronkowski and Broncos defensive linemen Derek Wolfe.
This year there aren't any prospects likely to be drafted in the first two days though offensive linemen Eric Lefeld is worth watching. He is a 6-foot-5, 309 pounds, which is good size for a NFL linemen. He has started since the second half of the 2011 season. He's an offensive linemen to watch in this contest. They also have a draftable middle linebacker in Jeff Luc. He's more of a Day 3 prospect, but 'beezer fans should be watching to see if they think he could help the Giants out.
The Virginia Tech Hokies have a lot of players in the NFL and two recent Giants picks were Hokies David Wilson and Jayron Hosley. Will that scare them off any potential Hokies picks? I doubt it, but the track record with Hokies hasn't always been great. The best player in the NFL for the Hokies is probably safety Kam Chancellor for the Seahawks. Though you could argue OL Duane Brown or CB Brandon Flowers. Last year 1st round pick Kyle Fuller has played well for the Bears as well.
This year the best prospect is safety Kyshoen Jarrett. Jarrett doesn't have great size at 5-11, 192 pounds, but he very good range and is a center field type in the NFL. This is something I think the Giants desperately need. Jarrett is a coverage safety, but he has the size of a cornerback. Can he tackle enough in open space to be a player teams rely on to play on the back end? I think so. Fringe top 100 player.
If the Giants had him and resigned Antrel Rolle (or even Stevie Brown) to play with Nat Behre a pure center field type could definitely be involved in a number of packages. He's the player I'm most interested in watching. Safety Detrick Bonner is another draftable prospect. He has more size and maybe even more straight line speed than Jarrett.
The most intriguing player in the game is defensive end Dadi Nicholas reportedly ran in the 4.47 range 40-yard dash. That's impressive because he's 6-4, 235 pounds. Nicholas has said he plans on returning to the Hokies next year, but 17 tackles for loss 8.5 sacks and 4.4 speed he might re-think that. Doesn't have the size to play a traditional 43 DE for the Giants, but is an interesting prospect.