Da Donkeys Postdraft Analysis

Like previous years Denver concentrated on focusing on their needs. Last year focus was found in the trenches (Jarvis Moss DE-Florida, Tim Crowder DE-Texas, Ryan Harris OT-Notre Dame, Marcus Thomas DT-Florida). One such focus was the offensive line. Matt Lepsis retired and is a tremendous loss. However, Ryan Clady (12th pick) should fill in nicely and start immediately. Clady has light feet, can neutralize quicker edge rushers on a regular basis and has agility to react to a quick change of direction. He anchors well and plays with great patience. Kory Lichtensteiger (C-Bowling Green) should provide better depth on the OL. He is alert to defensive schemes, can play both RG and LG and moves well in the box. Kory did suffer a torn labrum left shoulder injury in 2006 but played through it. With the 42nd pick Denver took Eddie Royal (WR-Va Tech) who will be utilized as a KR/PR. Royal struggles with physical corners but does have some blazin bronco speed. He does possess great ability to chance direction and acceleration but will drop a few passes. I'm not exactly sold on that pick. I believe there were bigger holes that could have been filled at that time. One such example is Trae Williams (CB from So Florida, picked up by Jacksonville) or Orlando Scandrick (CB Boise State, chosen by Dallas) who were both still available. Scandrick even ran a 4.32 timed forty. Champ is in his 10th year. Lynch will likely retire when 2007 is done (16th year). Foxworth has a good chance he's leaving via free agency also at the end of this coming year. Dre Bly is in his 10 year. Those will be some big holes need to be addressed quickly. Coach Shanahan has also stated that both Selvin Young and Mike Bell aren't everyday backs. Well, both Ray Rice (RB Rutgers, selected by Baltimore) and Steve Slaton (RB West Virginia, grabbed by Houston) were also available. However, I do like adding Ryan Torian (RB Arizona St) to the stable as well as Peyton Hillis (RB Arkansas). Ryan has a 34 inch vertical and has good field vision. He was a JC transfer from Butler Community College and won a national title there before joining up at Arizona State. Torian sat out the final 7 games with a Lis-Franc fracture. If he can regain his former form Ryan could be a steal for a 5th round pickup. If you followed Arkansas football even remotely you'd be familiar with Darren McFadden or Felix Jones. Peyton Hillis often paved the path for McFadden or Felix to run through. The secondary was addressed with Jack Williams (CB Kent State) and Josh Barrett(SS Arizona St). Jack possesses rare speed (4.32 forty) to start and stop. He has good balance and is a self starter. Williams can be a relentless blitzer and definately a vocal leader with a great team attitude to make up for the lack of size (5-9 some say is generous). At 6-2 225 Josh Barrett is built along the lines of a OLB. He ran a 4.35 forty and has a 31" vertical. He graduated with a Bachelors in Marketing (hopes to be a dentist someday). At Arizona State linebacker Spencer Larson was unquestionably the team leader. He is a high motor type and has great vision for developing plays. Unfortunately, he lacks a explosive quickness but does close well. On the defensive side Carlton Powell (DT Virginia Tech) has great line speed. He was the fastest (5.12) of all defensive tackles timed. Carlton has great instincts and feel for double teams. At 6-2 300 he was a dominant run stopper for Virginia Tech with solid character. Overall, I think this was a good draft but could have been better. There were some good choices made. Some bad choices made. However, noone will really be able to truly evaluate this draft for a number of years to see who came strong or who didn't come at all.

Airline woes

With recent flight cancellations, record fuel prices, delayed flights, overbooking, airline bankruptcies (Skybus, Frontier, Aloha, etc), layoffs, etc civilians may begin taking alternate travel steps. One bad sign can be seen when some airline shares are cheaper than an airport burger (ExpressJet $2.21, MesaAir $0.96). Maintenance spending has been cut back for years as well as company cost cutting (wages, pensions dissolved, benefits, etc). Northwest was the first to not feed passengers. United was the first to charge for extra checked ticketed baggage. Across the board we are now starting to see more mergers, discontinuing flights, pulling out of hubs, etc. Where does it end? Will this be the beginning of something else? Are we going to see a major airline close its doors in the near future? Or will we be seeing a airline that begin using alternative fuel in the near future? Definately interesting what might be in store for this industry. Any thoughts? Would love to hear.

Getting The Most For Your Dollar

Things can be tough financially in the day and age we live in. Taxes seem to get higher every year. Inflation keeps goin up along with the price of gas. We are all trying to make our ends meet. I figure I'll do my small part of what I can to help in ideas how we can get the most of our hard earned dollar(s). Here's a few ideas of items or things we can do for only a dollar! They are as follows...



1-Park downtown for a half hour
2-Purchase the latest edition of the Tooele transcript
3-Drive out to Wendover and put it all on red (granted the trip will cost you more than a dollar in gas)
4-Trade it on ebay for a different dollar
5-Make a lightweight two inch telescope (1x powered)
6-Get 100 pennies, find a fountain and make a 100 wishes
7-Pay off all your debts in Mexico
8-Level a wobbly table
9-Buy something off Mcdonalds Value menu for 99 cents (save a penny!)
10-Buy pretty much anything at the dollar store

Six Strings

Earlier in the day there was a discussion of who the best guitarist is. I believe that depends on many factors which includs (criteria, technical, genera, etc). Everyone has their own personal favorites so I decided to include mine as well. Yours might not agree completely with mine but hey this is my blog. In the process I tried to factor in different musical genera's across the board and that they must be living. They are as follows and NOT in any particular order:



Gary Hoey/Rock
Eric Johnson/Rock
Armik/New Age
Eddie Van Halen/Rock
Ottmar Liebert/Flamenco
Neil Zaza/Rock
Christopher Parkening/Classical
Joe Satriani/Rock
Govi/New Age
Eric Clapton/Blues

....would love to hear your thoughts or who would be on your list of top 10 living guitarists.

Da Donkeys Predraft Analysis

On April 26th the Denver Broncos will make their first selection of the 2008 NFL draft. Last season was rather disappointing to me as a lifelong fan. Their record of 7-9 spoke volumes. Their run defense was an open door policy. Whatever ran in and ran right through Denver's "D". I guess you could say we had the Swiss Cheese Defense (lots of major holes). Denver ranked 30th versus the run. The offense didn't seem to fare much better. At 21st in the league for putting points on the board the broncos could seriously use some sort of a boost (Red Bull, Rockstar, or ANYTHING at this point). From last years squad Denver lost a fair amount (Rod Smith, Jason Elam, Javon Walker and Matt Lepsis among notables). Somewhat recently they picked up Marlon McCree, Boss Bailey, and Keary Colbert. McCree should be a breath of fresh air especially with Lynch in likely his last year. On the other hand I'm not exactly sure what they see in picking up Colbert for losing Javon (who I thought was also a major nonfactor last year altogether) to the raiders. Colbert hasn't caught a touchdown since the 2005-6 season. After Brandon Stokely I don't see a whole lot of receiving depth. It would be nice to see some added depth. I assume depth will be added shortly at left tackle most likely through the draft. Two OL potentials include Chris Williams from Vanderbilt (6.6 317) or Ryan Clady from Boise State (6.6 316). Would absolutely LOVE to see Clady wearing Bronco colors! Either would likely see playing time immediately helping to offset the retirement of Matt Lepsis (who was rock solid!). This year Denver drafts at 12 and at 42 (2nd rd 11th pick). Some names I'd love to see Denver take a hard look at pending at what position they are looking at include

OL Ryan Clady/Boise St (6.6 316)
OL Chris Williams/Vanderbilt (6.6 317)
WR Early Doucet/LSU
WR Limas Sweed/TX
WR Andre Caldwell/FL (runs 4.37)
WR DeSean Jackson/Cal (runs 4.35)
RB Mike Hart/Mich
RB Ray Rice/Rutgers
ILB Dan Connor/PSU(6.3 233) Blue Collar! Best tackler ever at linebacker "U"
DT Frank Okam/TX (6.5 347) Solid pass rusher desperately needed
DT Sedrick Ellis/USC (6.2 305) Not likely to slip past Cincy at #9
CB Antoine Cason/AZ
CB Mike Jenkins/So Florida
CB Trae Williams/So Florida
FS Kenny Phillips/Miami

...regardless of what transpires via through free agency, trades and or the draft it will definately be interesting to see what happens. Looking to definately rebound from the 2007 season!

Origination Of Tooele

Since some of you might be wondering about our great city and its origination I took a few and googled some information. Back in 2004 Tooele had a population estimated at 27,903. Tooele according to the Census Bureau has 21.2 miles of total area. Its name is thought by some to have evolved from an old Ute indian word for tumbleweed (we definately have enough tumbleweeds!). Some explain its origination from a Native American chief but controversery exists about whether such a chief actually lived. Others hypothesize the name derives from "Tu-Wanda" the Goshute word for Bear or from "tule" a spanish word of Aztec origin meaning bulrush. About 100 Goshute Indians lived in the Tooele valley when Capt. Howard Stansbury surveyed the region for the US Army in 1853. On 4 Sept 1849 three Mormon pioneer families settled on a small stream south of present Tooele city. A few months later four men obtained timber rights from Small Canyon (today's Middle Canyon) and Big Canyon (Settlement Canyon). Tooele City Corporation was formed in 1853 and grew to a population of about 1200 at the turn of the century.

This Is The Place?

Our state has declared "This Is The Place". I did some background reasearch to see what I could find with a little geography of our wonderful state.

Avon/Kinda by Mantua & Hyrum
Beaver/Yes it actually has its own airport!
Booth/That's about all it is
Dividend/Sits near Eureka but probably doesn't make a dividend
Echo/Awesome fishing near Coalville
Eggnog/Thought it was something during the holidays
Flux/Past Grantsville on I-80 but before Delle
Gandy/Upper Corner Millard County
Genola/Down by Payson
Gilluly/Soldier Summit (Wasn't he in some video?)
Hailstone/Other side of Park City
Ioka/Near Roosevelt
Jerusalem/2000 miles away (actually by Moroni)
Keniworth/Price helper area (thought it was a trucking company)
Leeds/Nothin but weeds (Near Hurricane)
Levan/Down by Nephi
Loa/Good fishin at Fishlake
Mutual/Castledale area
Neola/Near Roosevelt
Notom/About 20 mi west of Hanksville
Ouray/Campground & fishing at Pelican Lake
Partown/Juab county almost NV border
Sego/Above Junction of Hwy 191 & 70
Shivwits/St George area
Ticaboo/Just above Lake Powell-great for summertime visit!
Tooele/Where I live!
Toquerville/Near Hurricane
Tucker/Soldier Summit area (gotta get my name in somehow!)
Upalco/Kinda by Tabiona
Virgin/By Hurricane

I'd really like to think that each and every state is unique. Any thoughts? Or know of any unique actual town names? Would love to hear!

Sense Of Direction

Over 200 years ago when this great country was founded our forefathers carefully thought out a constitution. The US Constition is fundamentally changeless. In over two hundred years there have only been 26 amendments, ten of which were in the original Bill Of Rights. It is that standard in which the country is evaluated. It has been the basis for making major national decisions. Similarly each individual should have their own constitution, personal sense of direction, or mission statement. Each individual's should be timeless. It should be based upon principles that never change. It should be something that can always rely on when making a tough decision. Something that they can always come back to. That mission statement will be able to direct them in the correct path. George Washington used as his motto "Exitus Acta Probat" (The End Proves Actions). Since my favorite number is five I divided the different possible arenas of life into 5 areas (Eternal, Estate, Emploment, Environment and Ego). If I were to have a personal motto I'd choose Nil Sine Numine (Nothing Without God's Will). Without a sense of direction or mission statement an individual will never be able to discover a true complete personal identity and live fully invested in leaving a legacy. Would absolutely love to hear your thoughts, ideas or mission statements!