This season’s Super Bowl LIII between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams brings up fewer players from the annals of collegefootballfan.com history relative to previous years. Very few photos as well. Here are our notes featuring games played in by players in this year’s pro championship who have made it to the top at the next level in games collegefootballfan.com attended while playing at the collegiate level.
New England Patriots
RB James White –As a junior at Wisconsin in 2012, he ran seven times for 13 yards behind RT Rob Havenstein, starting for the LA Rams now at right guard, in a 24-21 OT loss to Penn State at Beaver Stadium to finish 7-5,4-4.
RG Shaq Mason – Mason played his final game for Georgia Tech in the Capital One Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve where. His blocking for option QB Justin Thomas, game MVP, and the rest of Tech’s triple-option backfield set an Orange Bowl rushing record of 452 yards in the 49-34 victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs led by Dak Prescott. The Yellow Jackets finished ranked 8th in the nation with an overall record of 11-3.
CB Stephon Gilmore – As a senior at South Carolina in 2011, the Gamecocks defeated Navy at home in an early season battle, 24-21. In their regular season finale, the Cocks defeated Clemson at home, 34-13. SC finished with an 11-2 record to finish 9th in the nation. The Bills selected Gilmore in the first round. Now he plays for the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.
S Devin McCourty and CB Jason McCourty, Rutgers – The twin brothers played together in the Scarlet Knight secondary from 2006-2008 before Jason went to play in the pros a year before his brother. Devin played in all 52 games while at RU (36-16) when they won four bowl games under HC Greg Schiano. Over that span, collegefootballfan.com attended nine games with the Knights winning six. One included RU’s biggest win in school history defeating Louisville in 2007, 28-25. Losses later to Cincinnati and to WVU knocked them out of major bowl contention. They finished 11-2 finishing at No. 12.
Los Angeles Rams
C John Sullivan – LA’s starting center leads the way as he is one of three starters for the Rams who played in games we attended. Sullivan played on a 3-9 Notre Dame team in 2007 we saw fall at Penn State, 31-10. Previously, we mentioned RT Rob Havenstein of Wisconsin.
RG Austin Blythe – The Iowa Hawkeye’s memory is not much better that that of the guy playing to his left. We watched the Hawkeyes get dominated by Tennessee in the 2015 Taxslayer Bowl ,45-28. Three late Iowa scores made the final look respectable. It wasn’t.
DT Aaron Donald – All-Pro and one of the NFL’s premiere players, the former Pit Panther and his teammates fell to Navy in Annapolis in his final season in 2013, 24-21, on a Navy FG with no time remaining. Stats found reveals that Donald had four tackles, on for a loss. Pitt finished 7-6 to a Navy squad that finished 9-4. The Rams selected him in the first round and came up with a gem.
Coming Up
FCS Wrap, 2019 Schedule planning, Pro draft