2023 NFL Draft: Week 12 Stock Report

This week, we saw a lot of action that affected our stocks, but who had our profits boosting and who is falling to the red?

We are one week from the end of college football’s regular season, and the pressure is mounting for several teams. A major scramble is happening for those four prized playoff spots, with more teams in the mix than ever in the playoff era. As we all know, some teams finish the season with their biggest rivals, so this week could be somewhat of a trap game situation, and that is what we saw with Michigan and Ohio State.

What about TCU? They stayed undefeated, but it was a close one against Baylor. However, this should not hurt their playoff chances, as they have beaten five ranked opponents and mostly done it in a dominant fashion. It makes no sense when the committee says an undefeated team doesn’t deserve a playoff shot.

Where do we stand on the SEC? Georgia is dominating the season as expected, but the rest of the conference seems a bit down this year. Alabama has two losses and will not be playing in the SEC Championship, which is extremely rare in the Nick Saban era. We thought Tennessee would be the surprise team, but that thought ended after South Carolina dropped 63 points on them. What is with the schedules for this conference? With one week left, Alabama played Austin Peay, and LSU played UAB; that’s gross.

Now that we have that out there let’s talk about stocks. Who had our profits on the rise, and who went into the red?

Surging

Trojan Warriors:

No one was more impacted this season by the transfer portal than USC, though it seems like 80 percent of their team are new players from different schools. With that said, it has worked out incredibly for them. If the Trojans can win next week against Notre Dame, they will have put themselves right in the middle of the playoff picture. 

Hiring Lincoln Riley was expected to have a big impact on the team, but they have been outstanding on offense from the start. Caleb Williams has been a very consistent playmaker and isn’t making turnovers. Before his injury, Travis Dye was having his typical season of consistently great running back play. 

The player who has made the biggest impact on offense, though, is wide receiver, Jordan Addison. He is an outstanding route runner and a very smart player with a lot of playing experience. It is evident when he is on the field that the team views him as the leader, which he truly exemplifies in his play. It may be difficult for the PAC12 to make their first playoff appearance because the conference has cannibalized itself and no team has a perfect conference record, so it will be interesting to see what happens if USC wins again next week.

Running Back Country:

Who said the run game was dead and the position obsolete? It is safe to say that myth has been busted significantly. There are more outstanding running backs this year than in a long time. You can make an argument that the Heisman finalists all be running backs. Of course, that isn't happening because there are deserving players, but the argument can be made. 

Michigan's Blake Corum has rushed his team to an 11-0 start with a huge matchup with rival Ohio State coming up next. Corum now has eight consecutive games of at least 100 yards and has 18 touchdowns on top of it. The only games he didn't break 100 yards were blowout wins, and he didn't play the whole game. 

Another running back who had a career day was Texas' Bijan Robinson. Though he has had a rollercoaster season, he is still considered the top running back prospect and showed why this week. His career-high 243 yards and four touchdowns(also career-high) show just how much of a game-wrecker he can be. 

However, no player has been more consistently great than Mohamed Ibrahim of Minnesota. He has yet to have a game under 100 yards and has collected 19 touchdowns. Sure his team isn't the best, but the stats don't lie, and they are incredible. If the award is truly about the best player in the country, Ibrahim not being in New York as a Heisman finalist would be straight-up disrespectful. 

Falling

Rocky Top To Rubble Top:

No team captivated the national audience more than Tennessee this year. Their 8-0 start of the season had everyone thinking playoffs as they looked like they had one of the nation’s top offensive units and a defense that could compete with anyone. 

Even after they lost to Georgia, we all looked past it and said who cares that they almost beat the defending National Champions? 

This week was different, however, because that did not look like the same team. Their defense was nonexistent, having 63 points scored on them, and the offense was sloppy and looked out of sorts the whole game. It was a step backward for the program as this loss made you think, here we go, it’s the same old Tennessee as every year. That is a far cry from where we were just a week ago, which is sad because they were turning a lot of heads this season. Finishing the season off strong will be vital for Tennessee because it shows that the program is making strides. If the rest of their season is fumbled, that would be a devastating blow to the football program. 

QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, UCLA:

Statistically, you might look at this game and think he played well, but when you break down the film, you see a different story. Yes, he kept his team in the game and scored many points, but he had four turnovers that ultimately cost his team the game. 

Thompson-Robinson's three interceptions were all brutal and throws that he should know better than to make. All of them were misreads and thrown directly at the defender. It was a bad look because it showed he struggled to read a defense. After all, he has put together a very good senior season. Though one game is usually not a good enough sample size, this was different. He looked genuinely overwhelmed by the USC defense and made the same mistakes. Athletically, he will get looks for the NFL, but it isn't easy to see him high on anyone's draft boards as a quarterback. 

The pre-draft process will be extremely important because if he wants to play at the next level, he needs to prove he can break down a defense. 

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