It's like wielding a paint brush in the presence of Monet, like trying to teach music to Mozart.
Kevin O'Connell, meet Tom Brady.
While but a select few get a chance to study at the feet of the masters, O'Connell, the former San Diego State quarterback, was awarded that opportunity yesterday when he was selected by the New England Patriots in the third round of the NFL draft.
The fifth quarterback and 94th player taken overall, the 6-foot-6, 225-pound O'Connell will fly to Foxboro, Mass., this week to show his wares to a team whose quarterback has three Super Bowl rings, two Super Bowl MVP awards and zero competition.
“It's absolutely unbelievable,” said O'Connell, who was the first Mountain West Conference player selected in the draft. “To be able to be around a player like (Brady), as well as a coach like Bill Belichick and Coach (Josh) McDaniels (the team's offensive coordinator), I'm on cloud nine.
“I just want to be like a sponge around (Brady), to watch everything he does, how he deals with teammates, film study, work ethic, what he does in the weight room. I have a chance to emulate and be around a guy who, in my opinion, is pretty much the best to have ever played the game.”
Brady, denied an opportunity to pocket a fourth NFL championship when the unbeaten Patriots fell to the New York Giants in last season's Super Bowl, will turn 31 in August. New England currently lists two other quarterbacks in Matt Cassel, a seventh-round pick out of USC in 2005, and Matt Gutierrez, an Idaho State product who was signed as an undrafted free agent last year. Cassel has made 14 appearances in three seasons. Gutierrez was inactive as the team's third quarterback in 11 games last year.
The first SDSU quarterback to be selected in the draft since Dan McGwire in 1991, O'Connell worked out for McDaniel in San Diego earlier this month.
“Of all the coaches I met through this process and worked out for, he had, by far, the best approach when it came to teaching,” said O'Connell, who last year became the first SDSU player to lead the team in rushing and passing in the same season.
“You could tell from the first time that we put on the tape and went out on the field that he really understood the best way to get things across and the best way to evaluate. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and the way he's handled the quarterbacks in New England.
“I really didn't have any hopes of when I would go as much as where, and to go to an organization like New England, which is pretty much the class of the NFL in my mind, is a wonderful opportunity.”
In addition to O'Connell, SDSU, which did not have a single draft pick last year, had three other players selected yesterday. Long snapper Tyler Schmitt was taken by the Seattle Seahawks with the 23rd pick of the sixth round (189th overall), and receivers Brett Swain and Chaz Schilens were claimed by the Packers and Raiders, respectively, in the seventh and final round.
Meanwhile, USD quarterback Josh Johnson, whose 40-yard dash time (4.55) at the NFL Scouting Combine in February was the fastest among quarterbacks, became the eighth quarterback selected when he was taken by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the 25th pick in the fifth round.
The 6-foot-3, 213-pound Johnson, who ranked first nationally in total offense among Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) players last season, was the 160th selection overall.
A native of Oakland who threw for 9,699 yards and 113 touchdowns in his four-year career at USD, Johnson was named the Offensive MVP of the East-West Shrine Game in January after throwing for 43 touchdowns with one interception during the regular season.
Johnson joins a crowded quarterback corps in Tampa. The Bucs currently list six QBs: Jeff Garcia, Brian Griese, Luke McCown, Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski and Jake Plummer, though coach Jon Gruden said earlier this month that Plummer told the team he has retired.
Yet having spent his entire career at USD running the West Coast offense, Johnson has at least one advantage in that Tampa Bay employs a similar attack.
“It feels great. I'm ecstatic,” Johnson said. “It's a perfect fit, a blessing in disguise. I knew how many quarterbacks they had, but we didn't even talk about that. Coach Gruden just said he wanted me to come in and work and he was real excited to work with me. I'm going to go in there this week and get it going.”
New Mexico wide receiver Marcus Smith, a Morse High graduate, was selected by the Baltimore Ravens with the seventh pick of the fourth round. Smith, the 106th pick overall, was the leading receiver in the Mountain West Conference last season, setting a school record with 91 catches for 1,125 yards.
Mick McGrane: (619) 293-1850; mick.mcgrane@uniontrib.com
