Rams Select T.J. McDonald With the 71st pick in 3rd Round

McDonald has spent his football life trying to live up to the name his father made for himself as an All-American safety at USC in the mid-1980s and 13-year NFL veteran who won a Super Bowl as a member of the San Francisco 49ers in 1994. T.J. (stands for Tim, Jr.) has never shied away from that pressure, however, earning his own accolades over the past couple of seasons. McDonald’s brother, Tevin, is a true sophomore safety who enrolled at crosstown rival UCLA instead of following his dad and brother as Trojans.

The high school All-American (Tim, Sr. was his head coach at Edison High in Fresno) didn’t get a chance to star because of the team’s deep secondary his true freshman year, but he did play in every game as a reserve and on special teams. The departure of Taylor Mays, however, gave McDonald a chance to fill the leadership and production void as a sophomore. League coaches named him second-team All-Pac-10 in 2010 after he led USC with 89 tackles while also posting three interceptions and four pass breakups. McDonald missed the team’s season finale against UCLA with a right shoulder injury. Multiple media outlets named McDonald to their All-American teams after he started 11 of 12 games in his junior year, missing the first half of the Colorado game for a big hit against to “defenseless” Stanford receiver Chris Owusu the previous week. The 2011 first-team all-conference pick had 67 tackles and three interceptions on the year, and his second career blocked punt helped the team beat Oregon in Eugene. McDonald and the Trojans entered the season with National Championship expectations, but stumbled to a six-loss season with the defense playing particularly bad football down the stretch. McDonald moved into more of a hybrid linebacker/safety role for USC, setting a career high in tackles (112) and tackles for loss (6.5). He also recorded a sack, deflected five passes, and nabbed two interceptions on his way to second-team All-Conference honors.

Rams Select WR Stedman Bailey with the 92nd pick in 3rd Round

Bailey starred at Miramar High, where he was teammates with Geno Smith, and was coached by former Mountaineer Damon Cogdell. Bailey caught 68 passes for 1,163 yards and 14 touchdowns as a senior. He was a Florida Class 6A first team all-state selection as a senior and second team as a junior.

Bailey redshirted his first year on campus. In 2010, as a redshirt freshman, he played in all 13 games, and recorded nine starts. He caught 24 passes for 317 yards and four touchdowns. In 2011, Bailey hauled in 72 passes for 1,279 yards and 12 touchdowns. He was named to the All-Big East second-team by the conference’s coaches. Bailey had his biggest season yet in 2012. Bailey caught 113 passes for 1,627 yards and 25 touchdowns. He set a school record for consecutive 100-yard receiving games (five), against Maryland, LSU, Bowling Green, UConn and Syracuse. Bailey became one of three players to finish with more than 100 yards receiving at Maryland, the first time three players netted at least 100 yards on catches in WVU history and the first time since 1998 WVU had multiple 100-yard receivers. Bailey was named as a second-team AP All-American.

 

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