With less than a week to go to the 3pm kickoff at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday, January 28th, the nation’s premier pre-draft event is in full gear this week preparing for the 63rd installment of the Senior Bowl. Over 800 general managers, coaches, scouts and front office personnel from all 32 National Football League teams, are descending on Mobile and the one-of-a-kind event right now.
Considering that ALL 107 players from the 2011 Senior Bowl made their way on to NFL rosters, at least for the start of training camp, it’s obviously a ‘can’t miss’ event for NFL staffs. Last year’s draft saw 83 players chosen from the 2011 game, 12 of them in the very first round; the other 24 players were all signed as undrafted rookie free agents before the start of camps. So there’s a lot on the line for both players and coaches alike this week. Senior Bowl rosters will be available on a continuous basis online at www.seniorbowl.com and a complete roster will be released to all media outlets on Sunday, January 22nd (today).
One of the unique facets of the Senior Bowl is obviously that the respective North and South squads are coached by NFL coaching staffs. This year, Leslie Frazier and his Minnesota Vikings staff will be coaching the North, and Mike Shanahan and his Washington Redskins staff will be leading the South. In related news this week, Keenan McCardell was let go by the Redskins, so Redskins Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan will look after the wide receivers; and Redskins linebackers coach Lou Spanos was hired by UCLA, so he will be replaced at the Senior Bowl by Defensive Coordinator Jim Haslett.
Redskins coaches and fans alike, will of course be interested in the quarterbacks playing in Mobile, as Washington could use a couple of them. Expected to be playing are Arizona’s Nick Foles, Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden, and San Diego State’s Ryan Lindley for Shanahan’s South; while Boise State’s Kellen Moore, Wisconsin’s Russell Wilson and Michigan State’s Kirk Cousins will quarterback the North.
Players will be arriving all day today, but should all have arrived by 6:30pm tonight. Each player will take a physical, and attend team meetings tonight at 8:30pm.
The national weigh-in is scheduled at the Mobile Convention Center from 10:30-11:45am tomorrow morning. The North team will then practice at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, and the South team will practice at Fairhope’s Municipal Stadium (both 2:45-4:15pm), with all other practices being held at Ladd-Peebles – North in the mornings, South in the afternoons. Post practice news conferences will be held at 5:30pm, Tuesday through Thursday, at the Riverview Plaza Hotel. Head coaches from the North and South squads will be in attendance, as well as selected players. The Senior Bowl will also provide daily video packages to the media.
Visit the Media Information section of the Senior Bowl website, for printable PDFs for Lodging Information, Maps, Player Announcements, Player Schedules, and Game Week Schedules.
Also available on the official website:
Collection of Senior Bowl news and headlines
You can follow the Senior Bowl on its official Twitter site and become a fan on Facebook. Tag all of your tweets with #SeniorBowl. Follow me @TheHogsdotNet.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Mark Solway