College football primer Week 9: Is LSU a one-stop shop for the Giants?

Good morning New York Giants fans! Happy Saturday and welcome to Week 9 of the college football season.

There’s still 10 games left to be played in the NFL schedule and anything can happen. But that being said, it’s starting to look like another year of turning to the draft early for Giants’ fans. The silver lining to that perpetual cloud is that this is also the time of year when the college football schedule starts to heats up and prospects start to really generate momentum.

We have plenty of intriguing games this week, and I wouldn’t blame anyone who wants to watch (18) Ole Miss vs. Oklahoma (ESPN, noon), (15) Alabama vs. (21) Missouri (ABC, 3:30 p.m.), (25) Vanderbilt vs. (5) Texas (SEC 4:15 p.m.), or (6) Miami vs. Florida State (ESPN – 7:00 p.m.). There will be plenty of future NFL players on the field in all of those games.

But we’ve talked quite a bit about most of those teams in recent weeks. Instead I want to drop in on some teams we haven’t talked about quite as much lately.

(24) Navy vs. (12) Notre Dame

ABC – noon

With all due respect to the Navy Midshipmen, we’re here for Notre Dame’s draft prospects.

Navy’s updated Wing-T offense should present a good — and fairly unique — test for Notre Dame’s defense, and that could make this valuable scouting tape.

The name that will stand out for Giants fans is starting defensive lineman Howard Cross III, son of former Giant, Howard Cross. Unfortunately, Notre Dame will be without star cornerback Benjamin Morrison, who was previously been ruled out for the season following hip surgery. Morrison is reportedly expected to declare for the 2025 draft, and he’s as highly regarded for his football IQ and technique as his is his athleticism and ability as a corner.

The Giants could also look at safety Xavier Watts. The 6-foot, 200-pound graduate student has solid athleticism and the kind of ball skills you’d expect from a converted receiver. The Giants’ defense has been great, but their lack of interceptions is a glaring issue.

(1) Oregon vs. (20) Illinois

CBS – 3:30 p.m.

We talked about Oregon fairly recently with their Week 7 game against Ohio State. And much of what was said then is still true. Dillon Gabriel is a good quarterback who might slide in the draft due to factors outside of his control (age and size). The Ducks also field talented players on both sides of the line of scrimmage that could interest the Giants, as well as a pair of talented receivers in Tez Johnson and Evan Stewart.

But we haven’t really talked about Illinois yet.

Cornerback Terrance Brooks might be a sleeper to watch in the draft this year. He transferred from Texas to Illinois this year, but has yet to get on the field consistently. Brooks has good size at 6-foot, 205 pounds and was a productive player for the Longhorns with 3 interceptions and 7 passes defensed in 2023. Illinois also has a trio of receivers in Xavier Scott, Pat Bryant, and Zakhari Franklin who could have upside on both special teams and as developmental depth options on the third day of the draft. We could also hear more about Illinois QB Luke Altmyer as the process unfolds. He’s having a career year, throwing for 8.3 yards per attempt and a 15:1 touchdown to interception ratio, though his completion percentage is a good-but-not-great 65.9.

(14) Texas A&M vs. (8) LSU

ABC – 7:30 p.m.

There are going to be players to watch on both sides of the ball in this game.

We’ll start on the TAMU side with Nic Scourton. Scourton is a compact, powerful, versatile, and disruptive defender at 6-foot-4, 285 pounds. He has experience playing both edge and defensive line and is both very stout against the run and able to disrupt with explosiveness and some heavy hands. He’s had a good year since transferring from Purdue to Texas A&M, and has gone from being considered a Day 2 value pick to being a first rounder.

Texas A&M has several other good prospects, including defensive linemen Shemar Stewart and Shemar Turner, WR Moose Muhammad III, and QB Conner Weigman. But none of them quite measure up to Scourton as prospects.

Turning to the LSU side of things, the Giants could be interested in their left and right tackles, top wide receiver, quarterback, and linebacker.

We could have some great battles between Scourton and LSU tackles Will Campbell and Emery Jones Jr. Both Campbell and Jones are widely considered to be first rounders, and Campbell (the left tackle) is a potential Top 5 pick at this point in the process.

The Tigers also boast one of the best off-ball linebackers in the country in Harold Perkins, as well as yet another talented receiver in Kyren Lacey.

Quarterback Garrett Neussmeier is a rising prospect who has gone from being considered a potential 5th rounder at the start of the season to being a talked about as a high second round pick now. Where he ends up is anyones guess, but he has a solid assortment of tools. Neussmeier could stand to fill out a bit, but has a springy lower body, a crisp release, and appears to have solid field vision. He also has good ball placement to put the ball where only his receiver can make a play on it, or throw his receivers open. Neussmeier isn’t at the top of the QB depth chart yet, but he bears watching over the remainder of the season and potentially through the draft process.