The Case Against Mount Cody - Final Part

Well, here it is. My final entry. Hope you guys enjoy it.

I'll tell ya...it's late, I'm kinda tired...but I have been itchin' to write this final part and I have to at least get it started and get as much as I can done.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who has participated in the posts. There have been some great points made. I've been a Cardinal fan for as long as I care to remember and livin' in PA doesn't give one much chance to talk AZ football, so all you guys are like a lifeline to me. So, once again, thanks!

When talk first started circulating about drafting Cody in the first round, I thought, "Really?" I'm no Crimson Tide fan but I watched probably 4 of their games  that I could remember and I never remember thinking to myself after the game, "Wow, that guy is awesome!" So I decided to start my research and believe me...I would guess I have put in as much time on this guy as most GM's have done in the last month. And my research has provided me with the #4 and final reason not to draft Cody:

Reason #4: IMHO TERRENCE CODY JUST PLAIN OLD STINKS!

Now you'll notice I put IMHO, because that is what it is. I know others have high opinions of him and I don't want to offend anyone. But to tell you the truth, I think I am being kind in my description because now that I am done looking over evreything I can possibly find on him, I will no longer refer to him him as "Mount Cody" but as "Commander Cody and His Lost Planet FatBoys". How this guy ever got so highly rated is so far beyond comprehension I don't even know where to begin. The man is a total Urban Myth. Dominant play does not exist when he is on the field. When he enters the NFL he will officially be the worst NT in the NFL and that includes Ronald Fields.

First I would like to TRY to explain the fascination people have with him .My guess is anyone looking for a NT look at his size and the first thing you do is think run-stuffer. So you go to check the Alabama def vs the run and you see 2.73 YPC! "Bling!(light bulb goes on) and you say there it is, he's the NT, they stuff the run, so he is great! But remember, in college when you sack the QB for a 10 yard loss, that goes down as a loss of 10 yards rushing. Now since Cody never recorded a sack in his career and he is NEVER on the field in passing situations, I found it kinda hard to credit him for these plays. So I decided to go back and redo the numbers with the sacks taken out. AND, I did one more thing. I did not include any games against VASTLY inferior competition such as Chattanooga, FIU, Western KY(2008) because if he had to pad his stats vs these teams how good is he really? Some may think this unfair. Oh well...my post, my  rules. So what I used for the Alabama stats for 2009 were all conference games, plus the ACC opener and the NatlChampionship vs Texas(11 games). And the totals are: 278-1191 yds(4.28 YPC) 108.3 YPG. Still some very impressive numbers and I dare say just about the best in the country, but not the misleading 2.73 YPC.

Next, I went over Cody's stats using the same rules as above and this is his 2 year total over 21 games: Solo tackles 12 - asissts 23. So in 21 games he actually made 12 plays all by his lonesome. Doesn't scream domination in my book. And just out of curiousity, because I knew that because of his lack of conditioning and ineffectiveness in certain situations that he was off the field alot, I wanted to check out what his backup, Brandon Deaderick did over the same time period, under the same rules, of course. 22 games: Solo tackles 20 - assists 25. Hmmmm, wait a minute, why did this guy make more plays than the Commander? He is the backup. Something is very wrong here. Tthe only way to get to the bottom of this is to check the tape.

When I first started looking into players, I just went to youtube, typed in their name and many of these players either have their own highlight reel, or more likely a mock draft site had put something together. But the only thing I could find on Cody, clip after clip was the highlights of him blocking the 2 kicks vs Tenn. Oh and one other where he hurdles a fallen Ryan Mallet. I don't know...maybe you guys could get something out of it. So what I had to do was search ALABAMA VS whoever and watch the entire game highlights. Very tedious, yes, but it started to clear some things up. First was that Alabama DOES have a great def. One of the fastest defenses I have ever seen in college. And the key to the defense was pressure. You put your QB in an obvious passing situation vs them and he was dead meat! And they do have GREAT players, especially #57 Dareus, by far the best, but Cody just doesn't happen to be one of them. There is a guy on youtube, his moniker is MrUAfootball who has a ton of game tape on Alabama and you should check him out. The only thing is, he shows NO negative plays from the ALA games, only the positive ones. But there is plenty of negative tape out there too, you just gotta search for it(check out the highlights of the game vs Va.Tech where late in the 4th Q Ryan Williams runs for a 32 yard TD and try to explain WTF Cody is doing on this play? Even the lineman doesn't seem to know what he is doing.

So I'm watching the film and I start realizing as I am watching not just that on most real positive plays that Cody has little or no impact, but that HE ISN'T EVEN ON THE FIELD for alot of the plays! So I start making notes: Ms.St. game 1:06 in, blocked 1 on 1 , no threat; 2:59 in falls down one step into pass rush - Team intercepts; LSU 7yard loss - nowhere near the play; Auburn .25 in, sack - not within 10 yards of play;  Ark 3:26 makes tackle with 3 others; 3:30 Thrown on his ass! I'm thinking to myself, "Is this for real? Is this what everyone is so worked up about?" I mean, people, THESE ARE ONLY THE GOOD PLAYS!!!

But I still feel there has got to be more. Boom! A site I had been checking for awhile, prodraftparty.com(go to it, it is great) , has finally put up some highlight reels on SEC players and there is now some tape dedicated just to CODY! Yay! And I open it up and it is a WHOPPING 3 mins. Huh? 23 mins of highlights on SUH. 20 mins for McCoy. 10 mins Brian Price(watch it!); 10 mins Lamar Houston. AluAlu had 5 mins from ONE GAME. And all they could come up with is 3 mins on this guy - 18 plays? In fact, one of the highlights is of the Alabama OFFENSE for Crissakes! I guess they needed some filler to get to 3 mins. I dunno. But at least in the highlights you can see him doing some positive things. I rated the 18 plays: 9 positive - 4 so-so(he didn't do anything to hurt the team) - and 5 plays were actually, well, bad either because he got pushed back off the line or didn't react properly to a play. You compare his reel to the other lineman...it's embarrassing! But it is even worse than that. Look at the highlights closely. What do you see? Almost every play(14 out of 18) has FOUR down lineman in it, not THREE. And EVERY PLAY has at least 4 guys rushing, sometimes more. They couldn't find one single highlight with a real 3 man rush? Not one? Look at the tape of AluAlu, because they run a 3-4 also. Look at the pressure they get rushing 3 men and compare the Cody 'highlights'. Look at the way their three man front plays the run and compare to Cody.  What a stinkin' joke!

Still, it just doesn't feel right. A few plays here, a few plays there. I want to see a body of work from a whole game. So I keep on looking and finally my quest has reached the Holy Grail. A full reel of tape from one game. And what's better, it's his game. It is THE GAME that cemented the legend. The game that had people talking heisman consideration(oh yes they did). The Tenn game. The two blocked kicks to keep the the undefeated season alive. THE GAME WHERE THE URBAN LEGEND WAS ELEVATED TO MYTHIC PROPORTIONS. The website is called finalmockdraft.com and if you are reading this you MUST go there and see the tape. Click on video highlights and go to #6 and you will see a full 24 plays of unmitigated domination.......by the Tennessee offensive line, more specifically, the center for Tenn., one Cody Sullens. So I go to my notes and start jotting things down:

Play1) Phantom Double-team as lineman has no one else to block and just gives Cody a little shove

Play2) Blocked 1 on 1 by Sullens and as he tries to make the play is PLANTED right on his face

Play3) 1 on 1  - stoned

Play4) Center runs right past  Cody to block LB's, Cody cut to turf by the Guard

Play5) Douleteamed...and driven 2 yards back

Play6) Stoned by 2 SEPARATE 1 on 1 blocks

And it goes on and on. And are the announcers calling him out on his play? Noooooo! Gary Danielson and Verne "Scotch & Soda" Lundquist are singing his praises, comparing him to Gilbert Brown. Why? Because they both like hamburgers? There is one play that the Commander actually gets past a lineman that gets the guys in the booth so giddy they show it twice. The play is designed to go right as evidenced by the LG pulling right and the RB running right. The RG after admittedly moving BACK on Cody's initial pop, releases him and turns to his LEFT, then suddenly realizes his mistake and tries to recover to the right, but it is too late as the flow is already well past him. Over and over I watched it. It was like watching the Zapruder film "back, and to the left...back, and to the left...back, and to the left...." This was a blown assignment and no one is going to convince me otherwise. But even with this, the RB still evades the now unblocked Cody until he is corraled by 3 ALA players and as he is just about to hit the turf, fatboy falls on top of him. This play so excites Danielson he coos "Oooooh, that young man's gonna make alot of money someday." Yeah, if every lineman he ever goes up against blows their assignment, and even then he is gonna need some help.

So 22 plays from scrimmage, this guy does jack, but then there are the blocked kicks. I don't want to get into the whole thing, but he basically does sqwat as on the first kick, Dareus paves the way and it hits Cody in the stomach( even Danielson admits "that is a low kick") and the second kick hits him in the armpit and are more the result of an injured kicker and the Alabama 'max block scheme" than any talent on the part of Cody. Go to the recap of the game at ESPN, where Coach Saban describes it. But if you want to laugh, you must read the quote in the recap by Cody after the game claiming how he himself knocked the lineman to the turf to make the block on the final play. Really Commander? I didn't see any Tenn players on the turf. Just adding to the 'urban' legend.

Now as I was saying Cody Sullens, was just taking him behind the lockers and stealing his lunch money all day, and by this time your probably like me saying, "Screw Cody, let's draft Sullens", but alas that is not going to happen either. You see Cody Sullens, a Senior walkon, who was only playing because Josh McNeil the starting center was out for the year, is 6'1 and weighs 260 lbs. Let me say that again. HE IS 6'1" AND WEIGHS 260 LBS!!!!!! ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME!!!!! Commander, you got your ass beaten, sealed and thrown to the ground by Tatoo for God's Sake! Sullens is so highly thought of that if you look at Mel Kiper's player rating of all the draft eligible players, he is not even listed. Not even a 20. 

So with all that said, I will make a prediction on Cody. Not only will he NOT be drafted in the 1st round, but I think he will still be available when we pick in the 2nd round, and I STILL DON'T think we will draft him. There is one team that might take a shot in the 2nd round, but I'll go out on a limb and say they pass.  Again, people will rightly question why I think I know better than others who do this for a living. Well, I don't think I am more informed than the coaches and scouts and I think when he is still sitting on the board late in the second round, it will actually prove that they do their job. It is the talking heads in the booth who don't do their job. It is the morons over at ESPN and NFL network who help create this myth, never really bothering to check whether this guy has any talent. We know how uninformed they are just by the way they talk about the Cardinals going into this draft. Guys like Charles Davis, Adam Shefter et al, I swear these guys must take payola the way they promote certain players. Again, watch the tape of the Tenn game. Listen to how they rave about this guy as he gets his butt kicked all over the field. It is happening right before their eyes and they don't see it!

Well, that's it. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading my posts as much as I have enjoyed writing it. And if any Cody supporters have now changed their mind, please raise your hand. I would love to hear your thoughts now.