2010 NFL Draft: Hokies and Irish Have Big Weeks

As always, there were plenty of surprises during the NFL Draft and several of them happened to involve the schools we follow here at Stars & Slights.

The biggest news was certainly Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen falling all the way to the Carolina Panthers who selected him with the 48th overall pick.

This will be viewed by many as a bad thing, but I see some positives in the fall for Jimmy. The biggest knock on him is his perceived "cockiness" and this will certainly take him down a peg or two. It's important to be humbled (though the many sacks he took in college certainly helped) and there's no doubt Mr. Clausen now has a very different perspective from which to learn and work.

Also, Carolina is a very talented team. The big problem for them was an oft-injured Jake Delhomme. With the Rajun' Cajun' now in Cleveland, Clausen has a shot to be the guy in Charlotte once he's ready.

For me, the most exciting moment of the draft came four picks later when Brian's Pittsburgh Steelers selected Virginia Tech defensive end Jason Worilds, who will move to outside linebacker in Pittsburgh's 3-4 defensive set.


Worilds was the first Hokie drafted and will take his relentless motor and strong work ethic to an organization that values those things perhaps more than any other team in the NFL.

Some other surprises included Irish wide receiver Golden Tate slipping to the 60th overall pick (far lower than I would have taken him) and former Hokie walk-on Cody Grimm was selected in the 7th round.

Grimm is an undersized linebacker who has worked extremely hard and made himself into one of the Hokies' leading tacklers and an NFL safety prospect picked up by Tampa Bay. Truly inspiring.

Here is the complete list of players drafted from both schools. Best of luck to all of those drafted and to everyone signing free agent deals as we speak (type).

Notre Dame

QB Jimmy Clausen- Carolina, Round 2
WR Golden Tate- Seattle, Round 2
OT Sam Young- Dallas, Round 6
C Eric Olsen- Denver, Round 6

Virginia Tech

LB Jason Worilds- Pittsburgh, Round 2
S Kam Chancellor- Seattle, Round 5
OT Ed Wang- Buffalo- Round 5
P Brent Bowden- Tampa Bay, Round 6
S Cody Grimm- Tampa Bay, Round 7

Nike; Virginia Tech Unveil New Football Uniforms

So the day arrived. This morning in a rather large-scale production on campus featuring head football coach Frank Beamer, former Tech greats Antonio Freeman and Bruce Smith, along with the Voice of the Hokies Bill Roth and a giant Nike army vehicle, unveiled the uniforms Tech will wear this weekend as part of Nike's "Pro Combat" promotion.

The uniforms will be auctioned off starting tomorrow to raise money for Herma's Readers, Frank Beamer's charity encouraging reading for kids grades K-3. He started to honor his late mother who was a schoolteacher in the Commonwealth.

Quarterback Tyrod Taylor and linebacker Cody Grimm modeled the new kits in front of a crowd of students likely wondering what all the hoopla was about.

The best part is probably the white helmet, which is a nice modernized version of some of Tech's older helmets. The obsessive compulsive in me wishes they'd made the middle stripes symmetrical though.





Not surprisingly, the Nike cleats are also super cool looking. Inside they have the school motto, "Ut Prosim" which means "That I May Serve" along with the Hokie Stone pattern seen on the gloves posted the other day.



While they may look a little too new age for some, I'd vote in favor of them over the current stupid Nike uniforms (which we thankfully never wear). Good news is, it sounds like Nike is on board with making our throwback threads our permanent jersey's next season.

Also, these new Nike threads are not just strange looking, they're incredibly high-tech. Through some super technological advances, these pro combat unis barely hold water or sweat, so a soaking wet jersey weighs less than the current ones do dry.

Thanks a bunch science!