Alfonzo Dennard’s last college highlight was an on-field fight with South Carolina receiver Alshon Jeffery, where cameras caught the former Husker throwing a punch during the second half of the Capital One Bowl.
Dennard knows that same image will be on the minds of front office personnel, coaches and scouts while he’s sitting down with them at this week’s NFL combine in Indianapolis.
“When I was at the Senior Bowl, all of the teams, the first thing, that’s what they asked me about,” Dennard said.
And what did he say?
“I told them that I just got frustrated,” Dennard said. “We, as a team, lost our focus. The game just got out of hand. … I take that blame. I’m not that type of person. I think (the NFL teams) know that.”
There’s more on Dennard coming in Wednesday’s edition of The World-Herald. So check that out. Dennard talked about his Senior Bowl experience — cut short because of a hip injury. About his seemingly increasing pool of skeptics. About his expectations for the combine (the event begins Wednesday; Dennard reports Saturday).
For now, I browsed through some of the most recent assessments from various draft analysts across the Cyberworld for their takes on Dennard. Here’s a quick recap…
>> National Football Post: The website ranks Dennard ninth overall among cornerbacks. “He’s strong/feisty, can press off the line and turn and run. Needs to clean up some technical flaws both in press and off the line, which hinders his balance. But can be a guy who could start both on the outside and in the slot at the next level.”
>> Mike Mayock, NFL Network: He no longer ranks Dennard among the top five cornerbacks in this year’s draft.
>> Tony Pauline, SI.com: He ranks Dennard 45th overall in a top 50 list of draft prospects. “Dennard consistently shut down opponents in college, but a poor week of practices at the Senior Bowl has caused his draft stock to plummet. He needs to run fast at the Combine or a move to safety could be in the offing.”
>> Peter Schrager, FoxSports.com: His latest mock draft has Dennard going 23rd overall to Detroit. “He struggled with South Carolina’s Alshon Jeffery in the ‘Huskers’ bowl game, but has enough good game film to ensure he’s still a first round selection.”
>> Pete Prisco, CBSSports.com: Predicts Dennard will go 31st overall to New England in his latest mock draft. “They really had issues in their secondary. It’s time for Bill Belichick to hit one of his secondary picks.”
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Not sure Dennard will improve his stock at the combine but I do believe he’ll be a very good starting corner in the league. Guy is just a great competitor.
he stuggled during senior week because of his hip injury, he shut down Alshon Jeffery up until the fight. Almost all of Alshons receiving yards came on the hail marry to end the half, it was about 60 of his 120 yards receiving. Dennard shut down Justin Blackmon in 2010 when Prince was struggling to shut down Justin, and Prince was a first round pic. I think any Husker fan would agree with me when I say that Dennard is probably a better shutdown corner than Prince was. When Fonzie got hurt at the start of the year our pass defense was ranked around 97th I believe, and when he came back from injury, we finished the season off at 17th; not too shabby my freinds. Dennard is a gifted player, with tremendous upside, never did he have a bad game in a Husker uniform. He shut down Blackmon of OK State and 2 time 1st team all american and 2 time Belitnekoff (spelling?) winner, Alshon a 2 time first team all-american, Cunningham an all-american, McNut from Iowa all conference, and the kid from Wisconsin who was all conference, all of which are highly rated amongst various draft gurus.
Great info. Dennard and Prince are both great but according to QB’s and O-coordinaters last year Prince was a more lock down CB than Dennard. Guy deflected more passes than he allowed completions last year. That is just rediculous.
Even if he has to move to Safety, he will perform well!
Players actions are a reflection of their head coach. Pelini’s meltdowns make it seem ok for them to throw punches, stomp on players who are down, etc. Peter Schrager is right, he’ll probably end up at Detroit with his ol’ buddy Suh. Maybe the two of them will start pulling guns out of their uniforms.
Ouch man…. I Agree that Bo’s behavior has had an impact on these student athletes, but looping a loss of composure against a great receiver and Suh’s behavior is kind of degrading… The way I see it, Dennard has a long way to go before he is at “Suh status.”
However, I DO agree that we can stop future players from having melt downs by teaching fundamentals in a more Osborne-esque manner. “Not the Victory but the action, not the goal but the game, In the deed the glory, team before self, play your hardest regardless of the outcome, etc…”
At that point I think we will start seeing more Brook Berringer like mannerisms…
Cheers! and GBR from the Little Apple
corndevil. I will arrange for you to bring all your displeasure with Bo to him face to face ,man to man and that is a melt down we will all would pay to see him have. LOL
Ouch!
Yeah because nobody on Dr Tom’s teams ever threw a punch. Get a clue and back to moms basement you naughty boy.
Wow ! you amaze me. Able to turn an article on Dennard into a slam of Pelini, who would’ve thought CD slamming Bo, no way, that’s a first. Listen if you some how pull off that meeting face to face between CD,and Bo please let me know I will pay anything for that.
Wow ! you amaze me. Able to turn an article on Dennard into a slam of Pelini, who would’ve thought CD slamming Bo, no way !, that’s a first. Listen if you some how pull off that meeting face to face between CD,and Bo please let me know I will pay anything for that.
Dennard’s success comes from physicality, even against Ashlon, who was considerably bigger. However, the NFL doesn’t allow the hands on all the way down the field, so he’s got to get them messed up within the first 5 yards or he’ll really struggle. The one play he didn’t apply the hands…Hail Mary.
Dennard is 5’10″ without big time speed. He will struggle to be successful at the pro level playing against great recievers every week. I will be surprised if he hangs around for a long NFLcareer but I wish good luck to all ex-Huskers.