Monday Musings... NFL Draft Edition

Good Monday to all of you. To our readers in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, we continue to keep you in our prayers. It's hard to believe what we're witnessing on television is actual footage from our home state. It's surreal on so many levels. It certainly puts sports in prospective...

While there were few surprises in the first round of the NFL draft, there were plenty later for former Auburn players. The word of the weekend has to be disappointment. It's not easy judging talent at the high school level, but understanding the needs of an NFL team is mindboggling.

Can someone explain to me what intangible Lee Ziemba is missing in the eyes of NFL personnel? He was a four-year starter and consensus All-American on a national championship team. How does talent like that fall to the seventh round? Crazy. The silver lining is that he'll join teammate Cam Newton on what will likely become the new favorite team of Auburn fans, the Carolina Panthers...

You knew the second you heard it, it was the wrong decision. Auburn coaches most certainly tried to talk him out of it. Today, he starts to pick up the pieces. So is the life for former Auburn wide receiver Darvin Adams.

In what can only be described as a nightmare scenario, Adams didn't hear his name called over the weekend. It would be hard to find another receiver who had a better year in college football than Adams did last season. Yet, his name was rarely mentioned in NFL circles.

Somewhere, Adams got some bad information. Instead of coming back to Auburn for his senior campaign as a preseason All-American, he now must latch-on with an NFL squad as a free agent. The odds will be against him. Let's hope he finds a way...

Count me among those who got sick of reading about Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay's mock draft selections. Each week, ESPN unveiled their picks like it was the gospel. So how did they do? Kiper picked nine of the first 32 correctly, while McShay hit only eight correctly. Maybe if McShay had spent less time criticizing Newton and doing more research, he wouldn't have embarrassed himself so badly...

It's a mixed up world we live in. While much of the off-season has been focused on the issues at Auburn and the problems at Ohio State, there's been little media attention give to Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly and the death of student assistant Declan Sullivan, who was killed late last year when high winds caused the scissor lift he was videoing from to fall during practice.

Where is the outrage? While no is accusing Kelly of not caring, he certainly owns responsibility for what happened that tragic day. This wasn't a storm that just crept up on the team. It was clear to everyone, including Sullivan that he shouldn't be in a portable tower with winds that strong. "Gusts of wind up to 60 mph today will be fun at work ... I guess I've lived long enough," he wrote on Twitter an hour before his death.

Notre Dame has already been fined $77,500 by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which found that the university "did not establish and maintain conditions of work that were reasonably safe for its employees."

Apparently, trading memorabilia for tattoos is a more compelling storyline to fans than the preventable death of Sullivan. There are some things in this world, I just don't get...

Am I the only one who finds it curious that former Florida coach Urban Meyer seems to pop-up on television every time ESPN talks college football? Didn't he say he was stepping away from the game to spend more time with his family?

In recent weeks, I've seen him do stories from Oregon, Utah, Ohio and Michigan. For a guy who wanted family time, he sure is racking up the frequent flyer miles...