More On Gargiulo

Former defensive end standout Anthony Gargiulo '06 is wisely hedging his bet. Although he's hoping the Montreal Alouettes will eventually budge from their offer of a two-year contract and give him a one year deal with an option for the second (see Big Green Alert premium story) he's not standing pat. He now has a workout scheduled in a couple of weeks with the CFL's Calgary Stampeders. Of note: Calgary has just two defensive ends listed on its roster.

Speaking of the 6-foot-3, 254-pound Gargiulo, check out what this web site has to say about him:

Despite adding over 10% to his weight, his measurables and quickness are still unreal. I personally witnessed him running a 3-cone at 6.48 seconds, which is scary quick.

and this ...

I liken him to a Javon (sic) Kearse type player who can put his hand down or stand up and play like a linebacker in coverage, able to run with TEs or RBs stride for stride. Another current player comparison – again, this is potential – would be Jason Taylor. Yes, Garguilo has that kind of athleticism.

Some of the numbers quoted on the site: 4.58 in the 40; 37.5 vertical; 30 reps at 225 pounds; 10-foot standing broad jump; 3.96 short shuttle and as fast as 6.42 in the three-cone.

Two things of note about Anthony:

• For someone who has been out of school for a year he's young. He began school early. If he'd started when other kids born in late October started, he would be just graduating this spring. And if he'd gone to a scholarship school, he'd likely have redshirted and would be playing his redshirt college season in the coming fall.
• A former Dartmouth coach told me about a circle drill he used to have the players run. He said in all the years he'd been coaching, he'd never seen what happened when Anthony's feet started moving. The coach told me the grass turf actually ripped as me made his cuts around the circle. The coach said he couldn't believe what he was seeing but that's how quick Anthony cut and it happened all the time.
  

Green Alert Take: Hyperbole (and misspelling) aside, Gargiulo is an intriguing prospect. While any of the numbers might be off a tick (including his weight), the overall picture they paint is hard to ignore. He was a dominant force in the Ivy League who was considered a potential draft pick a year ago. The knock on him is that he's probably not big enough to be an NFL defensive end and doesn't have experience at outside linebacker. He's been working hard at getting his shot since the summer and the feeling here is that if someone takes a chance on him they won't be disappointed.

From today's story in the New York Post about the New York Giants looking at quarterback Anthony Wright as a possible veteran backup to Eli Manning: "Wright, 31, is arguably the last proven quarterback remaining on the market." I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when Jay Fiedler saw that comment.

Cornell coach Jim Knowles after the first day of spring ball as quoted in the Ithaca Journal: "... (W)e have to grow that passing attack. Going on 12-13 play drives is great, but it is so easy to make a mistake. You need to have some quick strikes.”

And finally, a clarification. Harvard Sports Information Director Chuck Sullivan is one of the good ones in the business, not afraid to answer the hard question when called upon. Unfortunately, Chuck's comment about Tommy Amaker's salary and how it would be received among his new Harvard coaching colleagues this week was misunderstood by the school paper. What Sullivan was trying to convey, he shared with me in an email, was was why the school doesn't "disclose salary numbers for any coach. It wasn't given as an explanation of Amaker's contract, primarily because I know exactly one detail of his deal -- that it is a multi-year contract."

Sorry, one more thing. The weather forecast is calling for 3-5 MORE inches of snow tomorrow. ARGH!!!