MWC yields just a few players in '08 draft

It's been one week since the NFL summoned players as draft particles.

In crunching draft numbers with Mountain West Conference football: There have been more productive years.

The MWC had seven players drafted by last Sunday, the same as its non-BCS brother, the WAC.

Of note, Southern Cal had 10 Trojans drafted.

Of course, this was also a year in which the MWC had young football teams. Neither BYU nor Utah started senior quarterbacks. BYU, eventual champions, had a sophomore-dominated offense. Wyoming was young at QB, so were TCU and New Mexico, who started freshmen.

It was a young MWC in 2007.

This wasn't the case in 2005, when the league had 16 players drafted, and in 2006, when there were 12.

Once again, San Diego State led the league with four players selected, beginning with QB Kevin O'Connell in the third round by New England.

The biggest surprise of the MWC draft was that TCU had no players chosen. The second surprise was the selection of San Diego State deep-snapper Tyler Smith to Seattle in the sixth round. The third-biggest surprise was that Ute safety Steve Tate went unpicked and signed a free-agent contract with Tampa Bay.

Tallying the past 20 years, BYU and San Diego State are tied for the most players drafted (44), followed by TCU (34), Utah (31), Colorado State (21), UNLV (20), Wyoming (19), New Mexico (18) and Air Force (4).

Of note, Boise State has had 15 players picked in that time period, and Utah State and Weber State have each put eight players in the draft.

What states produced the most NFL draft picks since the inception of the MWC in 1999 for the 2000 draft?

Florida leads with 190, followed by California (185) and Texas (141). In the intermountain area for that period, Utah ranks third in production of NFL draftees with 20, behind Colorado (21) and Arizona (20), followed by Idaho (12), Nevada, New Mexico (8) and Wyoming (5).

If you like to keep tabs on how the MWC compares with the WAC, since 2000, the Mountain West holds a slight lead over the WAC in draft picks. The MWC has had 94, or an average of 10.4, while the WAC has 81, or a 9.0 average.

Utah leads both leagues with the top draft pick since the MWC was formed with the No. 1 selection of Alex Smith by San Francisco in 2004. The Cougars have had at least one player drafted for 14 consecutive years.

In the past 20 years, California has produced the most high school players drafted (301), followed by Florida (255) and Texas (244).

The toughest break by a MWC potential draftee was Wyoming cornerback Julius Stinson, a first-team, all-conference performer. Two days before the draft last week, he was working out when he went up for a pass and ruptured his Achilles tendon.

Here's a list of initial free agents signed from the MWC: DB Brian Bonner (TCU), San Diego; LB David Hawthorne (TCU), Seattle; OL Chase Ortiz (TCU), Cleveland; DB David Roach (TCU), New Orleans; QB Caleb Hanie (CSU), Chicago; DE Jesse Nading (CSU), Houston; P Jimmie Kaylor (CSU), Atlanta; WR Damon Morton (CSU), Carolina; LB Kelly Poppinga (BYU), Miami; DE Jeremy Geathers (UNLV), New Orleans; WR Travis Brown (UNM), Seattle; T Devin Clark (UNM), Seattle; T Devin Clark (UNM), Washington; DB Steve Tate (Utah), Tampa Bay; WR Derrek Richards (Utah), Tampa Bay; OL Jason Boone (Utah), New Orleans; Martail Burnett (Utah), Minnesota; OT Gabe Long (Utah), Houston; TE Wade Betschart (Wyoming), San Diego; and P/K Billy Vinnedge (Wyoming), San Diego.

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com