Anybody else doing a big party tonight? Gonna have some buddies over, bunch of steaks, pizza, brewskies. Can't wait to see Will drafted. Might be the biggest moment in UTEP history. Just called in sick to work. Lots of prep work to do.
NFL Draft Party
- Thread starter KaneFan29
- Start date
"(NEXSTAR) - America's Team could stay in state to find their next OL star.
UTEP's Will Hernandez was a second-team All-American at the West Texas school.
Hernandez will likely be one of top guards taken in the first or second round.
The guard started 47 games for the Miners. In those contests, he gave up no sacks or only one."
"Vikings Interest: 9/10
UTEP's Will Hernandez was a second-team All-American at the West Texas school.
Hernandez will likely be one of top guards taken in the first or second round.
The guard started 47 games for the Miners. In those contests, he gave up no sacks or only one."
"Vikings Interest: 9/10
- Hernandez has a solid base and a very thick frame. He’s considered a “people mover” in the run game.
- He brings a very physical presence to the trenches.
- Elite upper body strength as evidenced by his bench press at the combine.
- Excels at both run blocking and pass blocking.
- Started 49 straight games at left guard for the Miners.
- He’s very athletic and agile for his weight (330 lbs.).
- After studying Hernandez in November when Pro Football Focus’ first mock draft projected him to the Vikings, his performance against NFL-level competition in the Senior Bowl and the NFL Combine further solidified his draft position as an early round pick.
- PFF graded Hernandez as the nation’s top guard, and pass blocker, of 2016. In 2017, he made their All-American team.
- Down side:
- Hernandez lacks ideal height and length. He has short arms and small hands.
- Lateral quickness may be a minor concern at the next level.
- His quality of competition at UTEP was lower than that of big conference prospects.
- Has been labeled by scouts as “over-aggressive” at times, causing him to miss his blocking assignments.
- May be best-suited in a power gap scheme.
Will to the Broncos would mean a Kugler-Hernandez reunion. Let it be so.
But as a Miner who admires Hernandez and remains loyal at a personal level to Sean, if this comes to pass, I hope it works out for Will.
Otherwise, Koogs, in his first few months in Denver, might have spent some personal/professional capital on a wash-out.
Come'on, Will, do what we know you can do.
I just hope he doesn’t go to Cleveland tomorrow. They have 2 out of the first 3 picks tomorrow and hopefully they f**k it up like they did with the 1st and 4th pick tonight.
Unless the Broncos trade up, he'll most likely go to the Giants with the 34th pick.
Who knows. But the tape should speak for itself. He played tough and dominated his competition, at least he didn’t phone it in during the season. That would have been a red flag.
I remember reading where people were concerned about the fact that he was a late qualifier, and they questioned his intelligence. But he graduated, which is more than I can say about some of these players. So who knows.
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Points well taken. Nobody accused Will Hernandez of mailing it in. Never happened.
Sean Kugler gets ripped on this message board; everybody has an opinion on the guy. Will Hernandez can tell you Koogs placed as much emphasis on hitting the books as hitting the weights. Results have been reflected, not on stadium scoreboards, but in graduation rates. That part, the Kugler staff got right.
Good on the former staffers. Good on Will.
Sean Kugler gets ripped on this message board; everybody has an opinion on the guy. Will Hernandez can tell you Koogs placed as much emphasis on hitting the books as hitting the weights. Results have been reflected, not on stadium scoreboards, but in graduation rates. That part, the Kugler staff got right.
Good on the former staffers. Good on Will.
I can't recall fans on here ripping him for off the field performance. He got a lot of kudos for pushing the "student" in the student athlete. If national championships were given out for that performance, Kug would be in the playoffs and OU would be a cellar dweller.
Chuckling at that one, Professor. You're stone-cold right. The Miners might have finished 0-12 last football season, but rank second among Texas universities for grad rates and such, behind only Rice and ahead of ATM and Texas.
Take it from a Miner of yesteryear, it was not always so. I came to UTEP in the 1968 recruiting class of 45. Four of us graduated.
Kugler and players such as Will Hernandez were active parts of that paradigm shift.
Life’s too short. I live mine by the motto “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
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On the NFL vine, my spies are like shortstops getting old. They have limited range. What I do hear, however, is similar to the post from picks up. UTEP has a couple senior DBs who could wind up on a watch list.
Both Kahani Smith and Kaylon Beverly are listed at 6-1 and +/- 200 pounds. If they are, in fact, that tall, and they can run backwards like an incumbent senator, maybe the Miners could keep the NFL draft streak going.
Good for recruiting, yes?
Otherwise, the NFL draft TV coverage wears me out. I don't watch it, but the other evening, while waiting at a local bar for a drink (imagine that), I happened to glance up at a TV. Big mistake on my part.
Every time a draftee is announced the NFL commissioner acts like he just won the lottery, and hugging and grubbing on the kid as if they both have accomplished something.
Somebody must love this stuff, or it would not be televised, but I think it's lame, in the extreme.
Commish needs to shake hands with the guy, welcome him to the NFL process and the opportunity to finally get paid, then disappear. Dude needs to stand DOWN.
Enough with the basking in reflected glory. I find it cheap. Bush league.
Agree? Disagree?
Both Kahani Smith and Kaylon Beverly are listed at 6-1 and +/- 200 pounds. If they are, in fact, that tall, and they can run backwards like an incumbent senator, maybe the Miners could keep the NFL draft streak going.
Good for recruiting, yes?
Otherwise, the NFL draft TV coverage wears me out. I don't watch it, but the other evening, while waiting at a local bar for a drink (imagine that), I happened to glance up at a TV. Big mistake on my part.
Every time a draftee is announced the NFL commissioner acts like he just won the lottery, and hugging and grubbing on the kid as if they both have accomplished something.
Somebody must love this stuff, or it would not be televised, but I think it's lame, in the extreme.
Commish needs to shake hands with the guy, welcome him to the NFL process and the opportunity to finally get paid, then disappear. Dude needs to stand DOWN.
Enough with the basking in reflected glory. I find it cheap. Bush league.
Agree? Disagree?
