Beginning today, the National Football Post will be covering all of the college football all-star games, practices and workouts that are taking place over the next few weeks. 

FROM JOHN MURPHY:

                   

HOUSTON, Texas – The 84th annual East-West Shrine Game began recently as 100 of the top senior prospects arrived at the JW Marriott Hotel with NFL scouts and a handful of scouting directors waiting anxiously to get their post-season evaluations underway.

Players were greeted by an abundance of player profile sheets, HRT and Troutwine (TAP) testing. Sunday, they made their visit to the Shriners Children’s Hospital, which gives these young men some perspective before three days of practice in the shadows of Reliant Stadium.

The Houston Texans act as hosts for all 32 NFL teams, with some 200 scouts and front-office personnel in town for Monday morning’s weigh-in process.  The teams will alternate morning and afternoon practice sessions through Wednesday before most scouts head home for a few days of rest before heading to Mobile, Ala., on Sunday.

While the game is important in order to judge players on film, it’s the individual one-on-ones and positional evaluations that are watched more closely by scouts.

There were a number of updates to the game’s roster the past two days as the Under Armour Senior Bowl continued to deal with its own issues. Several players are not expected to play in the game at Mobile.

From the East roster: Boston College defensive tackle Ron Brace (Senior Bowl), Michigan State safety Otis Wiley (own choice), Wisconsin linebacker DeAndre Levy (knee injury), N.C. State tight end Anthony Hill (Senior Bowl), Purdue running back Kory Sheets (Senior Bowl), Georgia Tech cornerback Jahi Word-Daniels (hamstring) and Penn State center A.Q. Shipley (personal).

From the West: Cal-Poly wide receiver Ramses Barden (Senior Bowl), SMU punter Thomas Morstead (Senior Bowl), Hawaii defensive end David Veikune (Senior Bowl).

East head coach Bobby Ross welcomed several new faces throughout the day on Saturday, including Memphis defensive tackle Clinton McDonald, Mississippi State safety Kevin Fitzhugh, Kentucky linebacker Johnny Williams, Alabama tight end Nick Walker, Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky, Iowa cornerback Bradley Fletcher and Maryland center Edwin Williams.

While West head coach Gene Stallings was busy getting his coaching staff together for meetings, the day was marked by the arrivals of Oklahoma State punter Matt Fodge, Oklahoma wide receiver Manuel Johnson and Oregon defensive end Nick Reed.

Williams (Kentucky) and Reed (Oregon) will have the longest trips to Houston as they received late word of their invitations, and after waiting to pick up their football gear on Saturday evening were scheduled to arrive Sunday in time for meetings and the first real day of the event.

What The National Football Post is Hearing

* One interesting note came from a former high school coach of SMU punter Thomas Morstead, who claimed the local prospect had been threatened with the loss of his Senior Bowl invitation if he didn’t drop out of the Shrine Game.

* Some of the most popular prospects on day one of interviews and scout-to-player interaction were Texas Tech DB Darcel McBath, San Jose State DL Jarron Gilbert, Fresno State QB Thomas Brandstater, Richmond DE Lawrence Sidbury and several of the impressive big-bodied offensive linemen on the East roster.

* Also, a west coast agent continued to baffle game officials and NFL staff members by having several signed players pass on all-star game invites to train for the NFL Combine.  It left many shaking their heads.

* Keep an eye out for Valdosta State junior wide receiver T.J. Williams, a name that could be overlooked when the list of declared underclassmen is released to NFL teams on Jan. 16.  The talented, speedy Florida native began his career at Michigan State before heading closer to home.  He led the Blazers with a 16.6-yard average per catch and flashes the vertical speed to become a hot topic at his pro day.  At roughly 6-feet-2 and 185 pounds, he expects to run between low 4.4’s to high 4.3’s when he works out for scouts.

John Murphy started his own company - Next Level Scouting, Inc. - in 1999 and quickly became a familiar face in scouting circles with his detailed reports and information to all 32 NFL teams. He currently serves as Director of Scouting for the Calgary Stampeders, the recent winner of the 2008 Grey Cup Championship, completing the season with a 16-6 record. Murphy, serving as head coach, then led the South team to a 27-0 victory in the 8th annual East Coast Bowl, the first-ever shutout victory and only the second win by the South squad in the game's eight-year history. He previously worked as a U.S. college and pro scout for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, and he has served on the selection committee for the East-West Shrine Game since 2002. He also is one of the creative forces behind the Texas vs. the Nation All-Star Challenge where he serves as V.P. Director of Player Personnel and helped develop the NFL Draft Bible.