By Robert L. Herron and Taylor Rogers |
This week, the Senior Bowl returns to Mobile, Ala. – which hosted its first Senior Bowl in 1951. Each year, the Senior Bowl serves as the premier college-football all star game that attracts the top eligible collegiate players as well as all of the NFL teams interested in evaluating future prospects.
Jim Nagy, the Executive Director of the Senior Bowl, leads a group of scouts that select and invite players to participate in the event. In 2021, the Senior Bowl included participants that made up 41% of of the NFL Draft – a Senior Bowl record of 106 players drafted.
The 2022 Senior Bowl will feature the coaching staffs from the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions. Both staffs are coming off their first years on the job. The Senior Bowl is a full-week event. Many view the week of practice and NFL interview availability as the most important evaluation period that athletes will experience during the draft process.
Tuesday, February 1, represented the first full day of Senior Bowl activities. The day started with a introductory press conference featuring Pittsburgh’s Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback Kenny Pickett and starting defensive lineman, Phidarian Mathis, from the University of Alabama. Then, practice sessions for each team took place at Hancock-Whitney Stadium on South Alabama’s campus.
Following practice, the Senior Bowl hosted their annual Summit. The Summit was hosted by Joey Mulinaro (@joeymulinaro on Twitter) and ESPN College Game Days’ Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit on Twitter). Additionally, the Summit featured the head coaches from the Senior Bowl teams – Robert Saleh of the New York Jets and Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions -, Steve Sarkisian for the University of Texas, James Franklin from Penn State University, Bryan Harsin from Auburn University, and Nick Saban from The University of Alabama. The coaches spoke on the current state of college football, the transfer portal, Name Image and Likeness (NIL), and future outlook of college football.
Stay tuned for coverage for the Senior Bowl this week.
Robert L. Herron is Acting Director of Sport Exercise Science at the United States Sports Academy. Robert is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist® with distinction from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA-CSCS*D®) and a Clinical Exercise Physiologist through the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM-CEP®).
Taylor Rogers is the Academic Affairs Coordinator at the United States Sports Academy. Taylor is currently a graduate student at the United States Sports Academy where she is completing her master’s in Sports Management.