2007 Nfl Draft Prospects

Area briefs: Tigers' Thompson, Diehl top NFL prospects

Thompson ranked fifth on the Clemson team last year in tackles with 56 and was a big reason the Tigers ranked in the top 20 in the nation in scoring defense and total defense. He also had 15 quarterback pressures in his 13 games for the 2010 Tigers.

Diehl started 10 of the 13 games as a fullback and had 34 knockdown blocks, by far the most among Clemson backs and receivers. He was a big key to Clemson's success in short yardage situations. He has played in 43 games in his Clemson career and needs just 11 games to set the Clemson career record for games played.

... Brad Miller was named a first-team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association at shortstop.

Sophomore firstbaseman Richie Shaffer was named a second-team All-Atlantic Region selection by ABCA.

... Caroline Magnusson was named to the All-ACC Academic Women's Tennis Team.

... Yannick Maden was named to the Men¹s Tennis All-ACC Academic Team.

WOFFORD: The Terriers had 30 student-athletes named to the Southern Conference Spring Academic All-Conference Team from seven different spring sports on the list of 326 SoCon student-athletes.

The local athletes honored include baseball players Alex Wilson (Landrum), Konstantine Diamaduros (Spartanburg) and Clark Wise (Spartanburg).

USC UPSTATE: The Spartans placed 133 student-athletes on the A-Sun All-Academic team, the second-highest total since Upstate joined the league in 2007.

Andy Staples: How NFL draft prospects rated as recruits | The Hail ...

Just like the NFL scouts who evaluate draft picks, the folks who rank football recruits have their moments of prescience and their moments of lunacy. For example, no recruitnik looks back fondly at 2005. Future stars such as Eugene Monroe (Rivals.com’s No. 3 overall player), Rey Maualuga (No. 5) and Mark Sanchez (No. 7) were listed alongside busts such as defensive end Melvin Alaeze (No. 4), receiver Fred Rouse (No. 6) and quarterback Ryan Perrilloux (No. 16).

That won’t be the case when recruitniks look back on their performance in 2008. Five of Rivals.com’s top 15 prospects (No. 4 Julio Jones, No. 5 Patrick Peterson, No. 9 A.J. Green, No. 14 Blaine Gabbert and No. 15 Tyron Smith) appeared in the top 10 of the Mock Draft filed recently by SI.com’s Don Banks. So unless someone drops like a stone, Rivals will have correctly pegged five early- to mid-first rounders while they were still in high school. The prognostication could get better. Clemson defensive end Da’Quan Bowers (Rivals’ No. 2 in 2008) is likely to go in Thursday’s first round, and Ohio State offensive tackle Mike Adams (No. 3), USC offensive tackle Matt Kalil (No. 11) and Ohio State center Mike Brewster (No. 12) — all of whom are still in college — may be future first-round picks.

So how did the other potential 2011 first-rounders rank as recruits? Some, such as Auburn quarterback Cam Newton and Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn, were pegged as future stars from the beginning. Others, such as Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley, were considered projects. One prospect, Baylor offensive lineman Danny Watkins, wasn’t rated at all. But don’t blame the recruitniks for missing a future star. Watkins didn’t even play high school football. Read on to find out why. ( Prospects listed in probable draft position, according to Don Banks’ Mock Draft 5.0.) Recruit ranking: Five stars (Rivals high school), four stars (Scout high school), five stars (Rivals junior college)