USD Football 1996

mall schools don't necessarily mean small time. Far from it. The National Football League has a long and distinguished roster of players from non-Division I-A col– leges. Hall of Farner Walter Payton (Jackson State) and future inductee Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State) are often the first names to come to

up game. You can either play or you can't." But while the so-called small colleges have become a gold mine for talent, it takes more digging to find each nugget than it does at the major institutions. Not every small-college starter is an NFL prospect. And the competi– tion level is far inferior as well. So are the weight rooms and the other facilities . "Sometimes it 's harder for a Division II player or small-college player to make it in the NFL," said San Francisco 49ers linebacker Lee Woodall, a 1994 sixth-round pick out of West Chester (Pa.) who developed into a Pro Bowler in just his second season. "They have to per– form above everyone else so much that you have to be one of those players that stands out in your league. Coming from Division I, you can be a player that doesn't stand out as much. But if you're a Division I player, you faced pow– erhouses, you faced men that you are proba– bly going to face in the NFL, you faced that type of caliber, you faced those types of schemes. "You begin to wonder, coming from a small school, what it is that you are missing. It's easy to get caught up into it, to say, 'Just because I'm from a small school, I probably won 't get drafted or they'll probably just overlook me.'" Woodall was overlooked originally; the for– mer Division II star wasn't even invited to the major college all-star games or the NFL scout– ing combine. So why do some players take the lesser– known road to the NFL, instead of the one more traveled? Back in the '60s, some of the best college foot– ball was played in the black schools, noted Roger Jackson, a regional scout for the Minnesota Vikings who played his college football at Bethune-Cookman. "Back then, just about the only option that they [black players] had was

lt•s not always easy. but small• college players continue lo nudge their way into the NFL.

mind, but they are hardly alone. Many NFL teams-and the Pro Football Hall of Fame– are bursting with talent from outside the major-college fraternity. "It used to be it was somewhat unusual to have three , four, five or six guys from small schools make it in the league in one year," said Buffalo Bills executive vice pres– ident/general manager John Butler, a mas– ter at plucking talent from the small col– leges . "It's not so unusual right now. I don't know if that's a combination of the salary cap and their abilities or what's taking place, but small-school players sure seem to be making an impact up here." The NFL is well aware of the often unpol– ished but talented players who can be gleaned from the small-college ranks . Of the 254 players selected in the seven rounds of the 1996 draft, 48 came from non-Division I-A four-year institutions, with three tabbed in the first round-Kutztown linebacker John Mobley (Denve r) , Texas A&M-Kingsville tackle Jermane Mayberry (Philadelphia) and North Carolina A&T tackle Jamain Stephens (Pittsburgh) . "Scouts can see talent wherever it is," said Atlanta Falcons backup quarterback Perry Klein, who transferred from Division I-A Cal– ifornia to tiny C.W. Post for one season and wound up the third quarterback picked in the 1994 draft. "A big school, a small school, a pick-

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