King fans, I apologize for doing what I thought was the right thing yesterday, though it meant missing the King-RCD game yesterday. But I think it was a good trade and a win-win situation for all.

I was scheduled to freelance the Staples-New Canaan game for The Advocate. The Post (which is now a sister publication) was going to be there, so I had an option: still do the game of cover King-RCD. And with all the talk on this board about King this week, I chose that game.

But Saturday, Joe Ryan,who has covered King a few times, was scheduled to do Wright Tech/Stamford Academy, and that game was postponed without any notice. And I was emotionally tied to Staples-New Canaan because of the death of a former teammate.

So I asked Joe if he wanted to take King from me – and have a paycheck – and I’d go without this week and go where I spiritually needed to be, and then volunteered my time to The Advocate with a notebook item for Monday’s issue.

In return, Joe will do a post some time this season on King. I just have to work the timing out with him.

Here’s Joe’s article for The Advocate: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localsports/ci_10819470

And now here’s my thoughts on King:

• Could King compete in the FCIAC? It depends. When you have a bunch of Division I talent (Silas Redd, Eric Joyner, Kevin Pierre-Louis) you should, in theory, be able to have a very talented team. But with the size of the school, there are a lot of holes on both sides of the ball, and maybe their individual performances don’t stand out as much.
• Are Redd, Joyner, and Pierre-Louis being recruited because of what they do in the Fairchester Athletic Association? While their legends are growing there, that’s not where college scouts determine the potential of players. That has to do with how they performs in camps. Now the academics at King are helping – you need some pretty darn good grades and SAT scores to get into Boston College and Virginia.
• Does it mean the FCIAC has less talent because its players aren’t going D-I? Not all. Ryan Sedlacek (who I saw yesterday at Staples) went D-I and has a shot to start at a very fine academic institution, Illinois, next season. Greenwich stars Jonathan Meyers and Chris Bisanzo turned down D-I offers to go with the academics and I-AA ball (Meyers with Princeton, Bisanzo with Georgetown). And take a look at New Canaan product Zach Renner, who went unrecruited and is a walk-on special teams monster at Georgia. Both the FCIAC and the FAA produce their fair share of Ivy League and NESCAC talent, too (and players who could probably buy and sell me like a commodity).
• Can you evaluate who the better team is by a scrimmage? Not really. Maybe in the final preseason scrimmage before the regular season, when game-planning goes into efect. There you’re talking more about getting ready for the regular season vs. evaluating talent. More often than not we read into scrimmage results as a harbinger for the regular season, only to get burned.

It wasn’t until after former Staples offensive tackle Ryan Sedlacek committed verbally to Illinois last summer that the general public began to notice the 6-foot-4, 285 lb. crusher.

And by Week1 of the 2007 season, we could see why Illini head coach Ron Zook andoffensive line coach Eric Wolford fell in love with Sedlacek.

The nationally-ranked Illini have redshirted Sedlacek for the season, and have him listed as third on the depth chart at center. And the plan is to keep him there – Sedlacek is behind a pair of senior snappers, and slated to start as a redshirt frshman in 2009.

“The two centers in front of me are both seniors, so my coach (Wolford) wants me to be the starter next year,” Sedlacek said. “I’m just working hard to get a lot stronger and I go up against a few All Big 10 players every day on scout team.”

By the way, the uniform Sedlacek wore on the sidelines Sept. 6 against Eastern Illinois is being auctioned off. You can click here for your chance to take it home.