Bess Due For A Big Raise With Dolphins

Proving that the NFL draft is not an exact science, former Warrior Davone Bess is having a Pro Bowl-type year for the Miami Dolphins. In his third season after signing with Miami as an undrafted free agent, Bess is second on the team in receiving behind only Brandon Marshall. On a recent Monday night game, analyst and former head coach Jon Gruden gushed that Bess is “one of the best inside receivers in the league” and called him “a first-down-making machine.”

Co-analyst Ron Jaworski was similarly effusive: “If I’m Miami, I’m going to find a way to get Bess more touches, nevermind third downs.” In that game alone, Bess made nine grabs for 93 yards and a touchdown. He’s in the final year of his rookie contract and is poised to finally make the big money. He is currently at the NFL minimum, but according to former player and current ESPN analyst Ross Tucker, it won’t be for long.

“Judging by his performance and barring an unforeseen development, Bess should play for a minimum of $3 million next year,” says Tucker. “And it could be more.”

Bess has come a long way since his days dragging the ball machine out to the UH practice fields in the pre-dawn darkness.

* It is quite clear that neither Boise State nor TCU will come close to playing in a national championship even if they go undefeated. After Boise State beat New Mexico State 59-0 and dropped in the poll from No. 3 to No. 4 – behind Oregon, which crushed then-No. 9 Stanford 52-31 – it is obvious that the WAC schedule will prevent them from moving up.

TCU will suffer the same fate, as the Mountain West has only Utah to provide a reasonable power rating.

This is exactly as it was drawn up by the BCS. They had no intention of letting one of the little guys into the title game. It would be a tremendous embarrassment to the power conferences. It’s interesting that

CBS announcers have begun to disparage Boise State in a condescending manner while broadcasting SEC games. They’re joining in the Nick Saban cry of “body of work” meant to point out the difference in quality of opponents. No sensible person could argue that the WAC or MWC present the difficulty of the SEC on a weekly basis, but that does-n’t preclude Boise State from being as good as any team in that conference, with the possible exception of Alabama. And on a given night maybe besting the Crimson Tide.

And Saban knows this quite well, having been badly beaten by Utah in a bowl game a couple of years ago. Think you could convince Saban or LSU’s Les Miles or Florida’s Urban Meyer to go up and play the Broncos on the blue field? Of course not.

It’s much easier to condescend to the Boise States of the world while telling your athletics director not to dare schedule them. bobbyc@hawaii.rr.com