College football isn't a minor league

It's that time of the year where Draft Twitter issues platitudes about college football.

I noticed an interesting tweet recently about a draft prospect with whom I’m pretty familiar.

Marcus Whitman @TFG_Football

Iowa State should be banned from College Football for how they used Will McDonald. Using a 6'3 240lb Speed Rusher as a 3-3-5 end, often inside the Tackles as a 4i/3 Tech is psychotic behavior.

It’s just that time of the year, when NFL analysts and greater “Draft Twitter” start to look at film of the top college prospects to offer their opinions on their prospects for the professional game.

As you might imagine, if you’re familiar with famous Iowa State and their “Flyover” 3-3-5 defense, and y’all should be since I write about it regularly…this take did not go over well with college football twitter.

The notion Iowa State should be destroyed for what was clearly an effective strategy which has had them amongst the top-ranked defenses every year and lifted their program from obscurity is of course silly.

Yet there’s also a kernel of truth to Whitman’s tweet. If you were looking to develop Will McDonald in order to go be an NFL star, you wouldn’t use him in the fashion Iowa State has. Ultimately, he’s not really a 3-down lineman he’s a pure NFL Edge who’s at his best coming around the corner for the quarterback. His deployment at Iowa State is one of many arenas where the difference between college and NFL football is revealed.