Evander 'Ziggy' Hood From A Missouri Fan's Perspective

by Michael Bean on Apr 28, 2009 3:29 AM EDT

One of the things I did yesterday after the completion of the draft was to set about learning a bit more about some of the players the Pittsburgh Steelers selected from those that were observing them and writing about them during their college careers. That's where Rock M Nation came in handy. RMN is SB Nation's fine Missouri Tigers blog , and Ross (rptgwb) from the site was kind enough to answer just a few brief questions I had about him as a starting point to hopefully get to know Hood a bit better before training camp convenes later this summer. Many thanks to him and if you're so inclined, go dig through the archives at their fine digs for some more Hood commentary from the past. It's always well done. - Blitz-

BTSC 2009 NFL Draft Coverage:

The Class
The Pittsburgh Steelers 2009 NFL Draft Class Analysis
AFC North Draft Grades
1st Round Selection - Evander 'Ziggy'Hood, DL, Missouri / Press Conference
3rd Round Selection - Kraig Urbik, OG, Wisconsin / Press Conference
3rd Round Selection - Mike Wallace, WR/KR, Ole Miss / Press Conference
3rd Round Selection - Keenan Lewis, DB, Oregon State / Press Conference
5th Round Selection - Joe Burnett, CB/KR, Central Florida / Press Conference
5th Round Selection - Frank Summer, FB, UNLV / Press Conference
6th Round Selection - Ra'Shon Harris, DL, Oregon / Press Conference
7th Round Selection - A.Q. Shipley, C, Penn State
7th Round Selection - David Johnson, TE, Arkansas State
UDFA Signings Tracker
Mike Tomlin Talks To NFLN After the Draft

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BTSC: I know that y'all do a great job with your super local and 'on the ground' coverage of Mizzou athletics. Thought there might be an anecdote or two amongst your community members about him as a person or classmate.

RMN: I wish I had some personal anecdote just ready to go, but most of what we know is a reflection of what we've seen on Saturdays and what we've been told by Dave Matter (Columbia Tribune) and Gabe DeArmond (PowerMizzou.com), two fantastic beat reporters who can't speak highly enough about the type of guy Ziggy is. He's the soft spoken guy from Amarillo, Texas with strong family ties who still takes time to go speak to the players at his old high school. An Amarillo paper did a story on just how much it meant to him and to his community to be an organization's first pick. And I hate to bring this question back around to football, but Mizzou D-Line coach Craig Kuligowski once had a great quote about Ziggy following the 2007 season:

"Ziggy's motor on the field never stops," Kuligowski said. "He not only listens and is coachable, he learns quickly and nobody works harder. He is the first to arrive and the last to leave. The story I like to tell about Ziggy is when we run sprints, he runs with our receivers and running backs. None of our other lineman are athletic enough to dare do that."

BTSC: On a team with guys like Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin, Chase Coffman and other stand out players this past two years, can you comment on what kind of leader Hood was amongst those great players, and what kind of leader he was - vocal? workmanlike yet quiet?

RMN: I probably answered this question in my previous answer. Over the past few seasons, Missouri hasn't exactly been hurting for vocal leadership. You weren't going to find a practice in which Chase Daniel, Martin Rucker, and Sean Weatherspoon fell silent. Hell, Ziggy's DT companion in 2007 -- Lorenzo Williams -- once punched a hole in a hotel wall by accident trying to fire the team up in a pregame speech. Needless to say, Ziggy was never the "hole puncher" type.

BTSC: To close, I'm curious what you might think about:

his strength
his ability to play some NT somewhere down the line
his durability in terms of injury and in terms of how he may or may not have worn down late in games or seasons he was physically out there playing

RMN: A - Just off of career impressions at Missouri, I never really considered strength a suit of Ziggy's. But as time went on, we began to hear more and more about the guy's determination in the weight room. That improvement came apparent in Mizzou's Pro Day, when Ziggy put up a personal best 36 reps in front of NFL talent evaluators, much to the delight of Hood and WR Tommy Saunders (skip to 2:04 into this video. Ziggy will never be the type to manhandle interior lineman, but he's grown into a player able to best utilize his strength in a manner that best benefits him.

B - Personally, I question his ability to play the nose in a 3-4 scheme. I just think the size limitation may be too much. The most apt comparison I can come up with for Ziggy is La'Roi Glover. I think he'd best excel as a DT in a 4-3 or as an end in the 3-4. The guy has a relentless motor and is one of the fastest interior lineman I've seen in the college game. His best asset is his jump off the ball. He had an uncanny ability to be on or past the opposing lineman by the time the guard/center could get out of his stance. But, we've learned never to put anything past Ziggy.

dfh

I certainly think his frame could be added to, as he's shown the ability to build in the weight room. He came to Missouri as a weakside DE at 230 pounds. He's made position switches before, so I won't complete gamble against him. I just find it hard to believe it'd be a smart idea to potentially have him lose a step and jeopardize his biggest asset by adding weight and plunking him down in the middle.

C - Unlike a lot of other Missouri draft picks (Maclin, Coffman, William Moore), I can't recall any durability issues with Ziggy over the past few years. If you want an anecdote about the kid's toughness, during his sophomore year, he fractured his foot in the third game of the year and was expected to miss the rest of the season. After undergoing surgery to insert a screw in his foot, he missed all of three games.

Not only did he seem to stay healthy for the majority of his career, he never seemed to wear down in a game. This was made all the more impressive by the fact that he almost never saw a break in his final two seasons. During Ziggy's career, Missouri was blessed with a fair bit of depth at defensive end, but never much in the way of defensive tackles. His junior year, it was Ziggy and Lorenzo Williams on 90+ percent of snaps, and during his senior year, it was Ziggy and Jaron Baston for 95+ percent of snaps. You just simply couldn't take the guy off the field. You would think it would have worn the guy down over the course of a game or over the course of a career, but he was almost better as seasons and games went on. I don't feel like looking up stats to corroborate this, but based on tangible game impact alone, Ziggy seemed to just wear out opposing linemen as games progressed.

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Alot of good things said...

And I am coming around on this pick, I do like Ziggy as a person, its just his fit with the system that worries me now. This line:

He had an uncanny ability to be on or past the opposing lineman by the time the guard/center could get out of his stance.

One of the best things about him I heard was his ability to play behind the line of scrimmage, but if this is how he does it, not taking a guy on and beating him, that doesn’t work in the pro’s. 99% of the linemen in this league are fairly athletic, smart players. You can’t just beat a guy off the snap in the NFL, consitently at least, and certainly not in a 3-4. This sounds like the same problem I have with alot of the “tweener” OLB/ DE’s that come into the draft. It’s not all speed in this league (Everette Brown). I’m hopeful that Ziggy isn’t of that same mold. His ability to learn and dedication to his craft that everyone speaks of is very encouraging, so coach him up (which we do pretty well) and let him play, I guess we’ll all see. I’m trusting the front office on this one.

by NYSteelersFan4 on Apr 28, 2009 8:05 AM EDT reply actions

good analysis and explanation

To me, it comes down to one simple thing: I think he’s a hell of a lot stronger than people are giving him credit for. Threw up a bigtime number at the Combine on the bench; nothing screams frail or lanky at all with his build.

Also, Big 12 has been known to have some good offensive linemen. Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor (this year’s #2 overall pick), Texas Tech. He’s going to be just fine.

May not be a Pro Bowl star, but as Mike Tomlin said: ’There are no holes with this guy."

by Michael Bean on Apr 28, 2009 8:29 AM EDT up reply actions

Just out of curiosity...

What was your opinion of passing on Maualuga? I’m just now getting over the fact that a guy I’ve hyped for a few years, who was projected to go in the teens, fell to us and we passed on him. I’m fully aware of the holes in his game, which became even more clear to me as I watched the first round go by without his name being called. I’m trying not to dwell on it, but…

It’s very rare that we pass on a guy projected that high who fell that far (despite the seemingly low necessity of a pick at that position). Even though there’s no real need for a MLB now, we always draft for a few years down the road. Putting him on a team with real leadership to show him the right way to go about his particular brand of linebacking (if thats a word) without the missed tackles. We could of harnessed this guy’s beast mode and made him a probowler. In Cincy his talent is wasted.

by NYSteelersFan4 on Apr 28, 2009 9:43 AM EDT up reply actions

i think mauluga will be great

Perhaps the best tackler in the draft. But I don’t know if he’ll age as well as Hood will. I think Hood will really be at his best in the age 26-32 window whereas Maulugas best years are probably in the next three or four. That’s just a hunch about Rey, but as for Hood, I hear people say ‘we didn’t get an impact player or much ‘value’ for this pick’. Hogwash. Maybe not immediate value, but the NFL Drafting game is about long term value and pieces that stick that can be built around. Safe bets like Aaron Smith type players. We saw what happens when Smith went down in ’07. I think the organization feels he can be similarly effective for a similarly long time as Smith. That, to me, is tremendous value and the kind of impact that allows teams to just be somewhat consistent in their evaluation of skill position players to piece around the unheralded foundations of the team. I think Hood will be that, even if not right away. Not sure you can say the same about Mauluga for ten years down the road. Dunno, my two cents.

by Michael Bean on Apr 28, 2009 10:22 AM EDT up reply actions

How to get an A in the draft

Let your D-line completely fall apart to the point where you absolutely need a starter. Have your team suck enough to have a high draft position, or alternately trade up to grab an immediate impact starter.

You nailed it Blitz. We don’t need or want to spend money for an impact starter. We drafted Hood to make an impact next year or the year after. As a bonus he will be really pushing Keisel this year to excel, and will hopefully be able to step in on nickle packages. He will probably see more snaps than 80% of the 1st round steeler picks.

Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.

by steelguy99 on Apr 28, 2009 10:30 AM EDT up reply actions

From an unqualified standpoint...

The biggest knock I heard on Maualuga through the entire process was his inability to play within a system since he just likes to roam free and hope his athleticism can bail him out of bad situations. From an outsider’s perspective, that’s a trait that doesn’t particularly strike me as very Steeler-like.

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by RPT on Apr 28, 2009 10:32 AM EDT up reply actions

Very good point

And that’s something I didn’t think about either.

by NYSteelersFan4 on Apr 28, 2009 10:42 AM EDT up reply actions

But I guess...

You could also say some diamonds start out a little rougher than others. Also good coaches mold their systems to fit players in the same sense players have to mold their games to fit the system. The latter more often than the former. Look at Polamalu, we allow him to roam, as is his style, and have built that into what we do. I suppose having two guys like that could cause some issues though.

by NYSteelersFan4 on Apr 28, 2009 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions

unless you’re Pola

by tkired on Apr 28, 2009 8:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Nice

Perspective. You can’t see the forest through the trees. I try to pride myself on keeping in perspective. This is probably as pumped about any player in the draft as I’ve been for a while. I lost sight of the big picture.

With as much insight into this team as you have you could probably make some good money through… I don’t know… a book deal or something.

by NYSteelersFan4 on Apr 28, 2009 10:38 AM EDT up reply actions

Just to add...

I think a lot of his “beat your man upfield” mentality is not only A) a testament to what he does best, but also B) primarily a reflection of the system he was in and what the team asked him to do.

For all the speed Mizzou had at defensive end, the Tigers had a tendency to be extremely ineffective on the pass rush, coupled with the fact that Mizzou failed to blitz effectively ALL season long in 2008. Playing defense in the Big 12 is a daunting enough task as it is. Playing defense in the Big 12 without much of a pass rush is suicidal.

As such, rather than the “hold your double team to free your backers to make plays” mentality that most teams instill in their defensive tackles, Mizzou’s coaching staff essentially set him loose. At the college level, when you’ve got certain weapons, you’ve got to cater and adapt your system to those talents. Mizzou did that by allowing Ziggy to create his own pass rush up the middle of the field.

It’d be irresponsible and patently homerish of me to guarantee you that Ziggy can transition into that type of DT, but, as I got into in the post, the guy is coachable, he’s getting stronger by the day, and he’s always seemed willing to do whatever the coaching staff asked of him. I think this is further aided by the fact that he’s in an organization that knows how to groom talent specifically for the style of football it likes to play.

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by RPT on Apr 28, 2009 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions

Thanks for dropping by and providing us all with substantial information, btw.

Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.

by steelguy99 on Apr 28, 2009 10:23 AM EDT up reply actions

Not a problem at all.

I love working with and dropping by communities like BTSC.

http://www.RockMNation.com
Follow RMN on Twitter!

by RPT on Apr 28, 2009 10:33 AM EDT up reply actions

Second that...

Very much appreciated. Learning about our future guys is great, especially from a real fan who has seen him for a few years.

by NYSteelersFan4 on Apr 28, 2009 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions

You got

one of the hardest working and dominant defensive linemen to come out of Missouri since Justin Smith. He will be a team leader and an Albert Haynesworth type once he puts on a little weight. Your fortunate to get this guy at 32. All the best Ziggy.

by Haleystheman on Apr 28, 2009 5:45 PM EDT up reply actions

The story I like to tell about Ziggy is when we run sprints, he runs with our receivers and running backs. None of our other lineman are athletic enough to dare do that.

Welcome to the steelers, sir.

Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.

by steelguy99 on Apr 28, 2009 9:14 AM EDT reply actions

I can just see Ziggy sitting down next to harrison and attempting to lift with him every day.

Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.

by steelguy99 on Apr 28, 2009 9:15 AM EDT up reply actions

Good Stuff Blitz…been looking for this type of write-up on Ziggy…I am starting to get very excited about this pick.

I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!

by Frank Mineo (DYMS) on Apr 28, 2009 9:46 AM EDT reply actions

Thank You, Rock M Nation.....

For giving Steeler Nation insight into Ziggy cause most of Us have not seen him play as much as you have.

I am impressed with Ziggy’s motor, and how he runs sprints with the receivers and running backs

by Steeler Y360 Nation on Apr 29, 2009 4:55 AM EDT reply actions

He runs sprints with the receivers

My eyes nearly popped out reading that. No way would you want to line Ziggy up at nose tackle and drop that speed. Nice thing is that he will gain some weight, kid is not done growing or getting stronger. Definately a good pick. Give him a year or 2 and watch him rack up sack after sack and Timmons busting down the other side. Oh my this could get scary.

by SteelCityTom on Apr 30, 2009 4:14 PM EDT reply actions