Friday bowl games feature productive senior defenders

With two bowl games today, one would think there would be double the NFL prospects to keep an eye on. In the case of today, that is not necessarily true. Between the Potato Bowl and the Bahamas Bowl are a lot of underclassmen and juniors with bright futures, but very few stand out NFL draft prospects. However, two senior defenders stand out as future NFL players.

In the Bahamas Bowl, starting at 12:30 PM on ESPN, Toledo will take on FIU in their final games of the season. For NFL draft fans, they’ll want to pay attention when Toledo is on defense and defensive tackle Reggie Howard is on the field. While he is a bit undersized at 6’3” and 280 pounds, Howard is a quick twitch, highly technical defender. He is a very aware run defender and his speed makes him disruptive on passing downs. Howard is only a two year starter at Toledo, but he has been productive from the jump. FIU will be the final test of his college career, and NFL teams will be watching the undersized tackle continue to prove that numbers on the scale are outweighed by numbers in the box score.

Later today, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (bowl names are insane) will be on ESPN at 4 PM. Western Michigan fields a dangerous rushing attack with junior running back Levante Bellamy and senior touchdown machine Jamauri Bogan. To counter Western Michigan, BYU will be relying on their senior tackling machine to quiet the Broncos’ ground game. Sione Takitaki has been a mainstay on the Cougars defense for four years now. The 6’3”, 230 pound linebacker is a hammer in the run game, a disruptive blitzer and can stay on the field on third down without worry. Takitaki is a phenomenal athlete too and he will be flying around the field against WMU for sure. He is easily the best prospect you will see on television today.