Syracuse Football: Alton Robinson was a ‘no brainer’ pick for Senior Bowl
Syracuse football star Alton Robinson is heading to Mobile, Alabama for the Reese’s Senior Bowl. Here are all the details.
Syracuse football will be represented at the Reese’s Senior Bowl in 2020.
On Thursday morning in an official press release, it was revealed that senior defensive end Alton Robinson has accepted an invitation to play in the 71st Reese’s Senior Bowl.
Alton is the 58th member of the Orange to earn an invite to the most prestigious college football all-star game on the planet.
https://twitter.com/seniorbowl/status/1194803341680873473
When the decision was made our Paul A. Esden Jr. had an exclusive conversation with Jim Nagy, Executive Director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl.
Q: Why Alton and what went into the decision?
Jim Nagy:
"“Alton has been at the top of our board since last Spring. He’s a player that we really think highly of. Finding pass rushers at the next level is imperative. You aren’t going to be a good football team if you can’t affect the quarterback. Robinson’s ability to do that has put him squarely on our board for the last 10 months and he hasn’t moved. It’s a fluid process and players often move up and down our board, but even with his numbers down this year from 2018, the traits are there. By bringing him down here to Mobile for a week we think that with all the one-on-one drills we do leading up to the game, we think he can really help himself ahead of the 2020 NFL Draft.”"
For context here’s a look at his stat production
“Robinson is the ACC active leader with 17.5 sacks and ranks ninth on Syracuse’s career sacks chart. Additionally, Robinson has 94 tackles, 29.5 tackles for loss, five forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in 33 games (31 starts),” per the official press release.
Q: It seems like the marketing for this event has been taken to another level with you leading the charge, why was that so important to you?
Jim Nagy:
"“I just felt really strongly that we needed to market our game differently. I think with us sending our scouts around the country and going to games and posting videos is a really great way to connect with the players. There’s a recruiting element to this job that went unattended to the last several years and it’s hard. We don’t have a budget to send people around the country to meet with kid’s parents as a college does. So social media was a really great avenue for us to connect with the players. I think this is super sponsorable because we have such a unique event. When you have over 100 draftable players, multiple top-10 picks, and future NFL stars in a small-town environment is amazing. This should be a national destination for football fans every year. It’s an awesome week and the NFL descends upon us for seven days. We have 900 NFL people down here, all the decision-makers, head coaches, and GMs. So we just really owed it to ourselves to ramp up the marketing for the Senior Bowl.”"
Q: How proud are you with the results? The majority of the people that attend the Senior Bowl have been drafted and some have even become NFL superstars.
Jim Nagy:
"“I’m really proud of the guys who come down here and aren’t afraid to compete. These kids have a lot of people in their ears telling them not to come play in an all-star game and that they shouldn’t risk getting hurt. That’s not what the NFL teams want. They want guys who can compete. The most rewarding part of the job over the last year and a half is seeing last year’s Senior Bowl alum go on to the NFL and have so much early success.”"
Q: The Senior Bowl selection process is a bit of a mystery to a lot of football fans, how do you guys select the roster and who deserves an invite to Mobile, Alabama for the Senior Bowl?
Jim Nagy:
"“It’s an extremely thorough process. I spent 18 years in the NFL and we’re trying to pattern our game after an NFL personnel department. It was really important for me to hire a team of scouts, this isn’t a one-man or a two-man job. We have scouts all around the country that have prior experience in the NFL. Not only are they at the games and watching tape at home, but they’re very well connected. Each of them has their own network of contacts in the NFL and at each respective school. So in other words collectively we have great reach. So we go to games live, we watch a ton of tape, and we talk with the NFL to see what players they want to see ultimately. It’s a multi-layered process and I believe we’re the first all-star game to ever select our rosters this way and I strongly feel it’s the only way to do it. This game is about getting the best of the best here.”"
Check out the rest of the interview below!