Team captains draw attention at NFL draft
Chuck Long has been around big-time football for 27 years.
He was a Heisman Trophy candidate at Iowa in the 1980s and a first-round draft pick by the Detroit Lions. He was an assistant coach at perennial college powers Iowa and Oklahoma in the 1990s and is now head coach at San Diego State.
Long had seen just about everything you can see in football – until he arrived in San Diego in 2006, when he inherited quarterback Kevin O'Connell.
"I've never been around a four-year captain," Long said. "Two-year captains are rare."
There are a handful of two-year captains on the NFL draft board. Three-year captains are unusual in college and four-year captains are unprecedented.
But O'Connell was that rare player for the Aztecs. He redshirted as a freshman in 2003, then was voted a captain by his teammates for four consecutive seasons.
The NFL loves players who exude leadership qualities, so team captains become attractive commodities on draft day. They command respect in the locker room. The NFL wants leaders, not followers.
Among the two-year captains in this draft are Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long and Virginia defensive end Chris Long, who project as top-five picks. Others include Illinois linebacker J Leman, Notre Dame safety Tom Zbikowski and Southern Cal quarterback John David Booty.
"That meant everything to me, especially having never been a starter," Booty said. "Being patient, waiting around for three years, then to be named a captain without ever stepping on the field as a starter showed me how much the guys believed in me as a leader and in my ability to go out and win football games."
O'Connell served his first two seasons as a captain for then-coach Tom Craft and the last two for Long. His second coach saw his leadership manifest itself twice in 2007. The first episode occurred before the Aztecs had even played a game.
In his initial summer under Long in 2006, O'Connell did not push for his teammates to participate in unsupervised throwing drills. But last summer, "he was picking them up and driving them to drills," Long said. "He was taking ownership of the team. That was a huge jump for him."
The second occurred on the field. In a November game against Wyoming, O'Connell rallied San Diego State from a 21-0 deficit for a 27-24 victory, throwing the winning touchdown pass in the game's final minute. It was the greatest comeback by the Aztecs in 29 years.
O'Connell leaves San Diego State as the school's all-time leading rusher at quarterback with 1,330 yards, its third all-time leading passer with 7,689 yards and its only four-year captain.
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