MKRob Sports

Golden Tate will start his NFL career playing for the same coach that roamed the sidelines of Notre Dame’s biggest rival over the course of his Notre Dame career after being selected #60 overall by the Pete Carroll coached Seattle Seahawks in the 2nd round of the NFL draft.

Tate ended up being the fourth wide receiver selected in the draft behind Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant, and Arrelious Benn.  Ironically, he was selected by Carroll over former USC wide receiver Damiam Williams who ended up getting selected in the 3rd round by the Tennessee Titians.

That wasn’t the first time in the draft Carroll selected a player from another school over one of USC’s highly ranked draft prospects.  The Seahawks selected Texas safety Earl Thomas over former Trojan Taylor Mays.  Mays ended up falling to 49th overall, one spot after Jimmy Clausen,  and the proceeded to take some shots at his former head coach.

The quarterback situation in Seattle isn’t great with aging Matt Hasselbeck as the starter and the inexperienced Charlie Whitehurst as the backup, but on the bright side, Tate should step in as the Seahawks #2 wide receiver behind TJ Houshmanzadeh pretty easily.

Unfortunately he will also be playing for a head coach that flamed out of the NFL pretty quickly the last time he was in the league.

Tate ended up getting drafted a little later than most felt he would picked, but not too much later.  He was projected as a late first/early second round pick, but most felt his height would prevent him from being a first rounder.

It will be interesting to see how much the Pete Carroll connection will affect how much Notre Dame fans cheer for Tate at the next level.  I suspect most Irish fans will hope for great things for Tate, but won’t be upset if it doesn’t translate to too many wins for Pete Carroll.  Personally, I hope to see Tate excel in the NFL even if it does help out Carroll in the process simply because there hasn’t been a single player that has been more fun to watch develop into a star at Notre Dame more than Tate considering where he started in a long time.

With Tate and Clausen both off the board, the remaining Notre Dame prospects likely to get selected during the final day of the draft include Kyle McCarthy, Sam Young, and Eric Olsen.