Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 20, 1992 TAG: 9201200108
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
BILLS UNEARTH PLAYERS IN SMALL PLACES
THE BILLS HAVE made good use of players who didn't come from the traditional college powerhouses that fill the rosters of other NFL teams.\ Buffalo Bills player personnel director John Butler looked over the team's list of 1991 draft choices and alluded to third-round pick Darryl Wren.
The list said Wren was from Pittsburg State.
"That should be the University of Pittsburgh," Butler said with a smile and a wink.
It was no misprint. Wren didn't play for the Pittsburgh Panthers, but for the Pittsburg State Gorillas, a Division II school in Kansas.
Most NFL teams think big when they scout for college talent, paying closer attention to players from traditional Division I powers like Notre Dame, Oklahoma or Penn State. Not the Bills.
Buffalo has made a habit of finding the lesser-known talent that labors for schools whose games aren't televised, whose alumni don't have national fan clubs and whose football budgets don't exceed the gross national product of many Third World countries.
As was the case in last year's Super Bowl, 12 of the Buffalo players who will face the Washington Redskins on Sunday played collegiately for schools under the NCAA's Division I-A.
Six are starters: Pro Bowl wide receiver Andre Reed (Kutztown), free safety Mark Kelso (William and Mary), tight end Keith McKeller (Jacksonville State), offensive tackle Howard Ballard (Alabama A&T), defensive end Leon Seals (Jackson State) and nose tackle Jeff Wright (Central Missouri State).
The others are kicker Scott Norwood (James Madison), wide receiver Don Beebe (Chadron State), tight end Pete Metzelaars (Wabash), rookie defensive end Phil Hansen (North Dakota State), wide receiver Al Edwards (Northwestern Louisiana State) and Leonard Smith (McNeese State).
The Bills insist they don't single out small-college talent; they look for talent, period.
"We don't look at the school. We look at the player," general manager Bill Polian said. "The same thread runs through each of the drafts since the three of us [Butler, Polian and coach Marv Levy] have been here and that's intelligence, football temperament, toughness and speed."
A.J. Smith, Buffalo's assistant director of collegiate scouting, said, "Small colleges . . . we like these players. It's not by design."
Still, the Bills' personnel department has to work a little harder to work out players in Chadron, Neb., and Kutztown, Pa. Such players generally are ignored by most teams.
"When you're coming from a small school, you don't get as much recognition, you don't get as much TV time," Edwards said.
The conventional wisdom is that players at large schools are better prepared for the NFL because they play against players they will later face in the NFL.
"Some teams have never had success with them [small-school players], so they don't draft them," said Bob Ferguson, Buffalo's assistant general manager and director of pro personnel. "Some teams don't even scout small schools, like the Bears. They only go to Division I schools."
Because of this skepticism, Metzelaars said small-school players face closer scrutiny.
"There's a lot of questions involved for a guy in a small school," he said. "Is he just goofing around, playing football because he likes to play it and could care less about it, or is he going to go after it and put in the time and be dedicated enough to compete in the NFL?"
Ballard said, "The biggest problem is it puts doubts in general managers' and head of scouting departments' minds. A lot of Division II or III or I-AA [players] are in the NFL, and doing a good job. The doubt isn't in the players' mind."
Reed said good players at small schools "feel they can play with the best of them.
"That's how I felt as long as I've been playing and I came in here seven years ago," he said. "I had as much a chance as anyone else."
Wright said players often end up at smaller schools because they are late developers.
The Bills dipped into the small-college ranks again in last year's draft, when only five of the 11 picks came from Division I-A.
The Bills' infatuation with small college players may evoke smirks in other personnel departments, but Smith said he doesn't care.
"I know we're getting a lot of jokes," he said. "Whether it's Notre Dame, Anderson or Clark doesn't make any difference if he's a football player."