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The first half of the bracket comes to a close as the final match-up gets underway. Offense has gained some momentum with a few wins strung together, but unfortunately for them that streak comes to an end as two defensive players face off. Yep, that fullback we enjoyed watching bust some heads while at LSU came to Baton Rouge as a defensive tackle. The other one made one of the more impressive transitions from high school to college and has a bright future ahead of him. However, only one can close out the first half of a bracket with a win.
No. 2 Seed J.C. Copeland
The first thing that jumps out at you watching this video is that Copeland sports one of the quickest first steps I have seen until watching Trey Lealaimatafao (who you will get a glimpse of later in the tourney). The knock on Copeland was he was too short to be a college defensive tackle at 5'11". Despite his shortcomings (a little pun intended, not there though), the coaches loved his tenacity and he became one scary run blocker for them. Fans thought they were getting a quick defensive tackle after watching his highlights and for good reason.
No. 7 Seed Rashard Robinson
You have to head to HUDL if you want to see Robinson's highlights, but don't worry, it's well worth the trip. Before making one of the more impressive transitions from high school to college, Robinson was a promising 6'3" cornerback where Patrick Peterson once roamed. While you don't see a lot of the man coverage that garnered him early playing time at LSU, you see a lot of the other abilities that he brings to the field. A tenacity to hit anyone around him, hard, running up to the line to make plays, and chasing down opponents who are thinking a touchdown is in their near future. Robinson showed a little bit of everything and showed the potential that Corey Raymond quickly saw and helped transform into one hell of a cornerback.
While some may have thought looking through this tourney that their memories of Copeland's film would carry him through. Unfortunately, only 32 players made it into this and gives everyone a difficult match-up, as we saw with Valentine upsetting No. 1 seed Perrilloux earlier. Every match-up, well almost every, can go either way and it's up to all of you to decide who in fact moves on to the next round.
Two Things To Remember:
1. You are voting on who has the best VIDEO. Not who you think will be better at LSU, not who you think will project to be a better NFL player. You are judging the two videos above.
2. You have until Wednesday at midnight to cast your vote for your selection before the poll closes and we move on to our next matchup later that morning.