Barden to play in East-West Shrine Game

Cal Poly senior wide receiver Ramses Barden has been invited to play in the 84th annual East-West Shrine Game, the school announced Thursday.

The college all-star showcase, which will be held at 1 p.m. Jan. 17, 2009 at the University of Houston, is designed to feature NFL Draft prospects and will be nationally televised by ESPN2.

“It means a lot,” Barden said. “It’s nice to have a little bit of recognition and an opportunity to get another game in as the season winds down.”

Through four games, Barden has caught 28 passes for 626 yards and seven touchdowns. He leads the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) with 156.5 receiving yards per game – 22.7 more than the runner-up.

“It’s not surprising, of course,” Mustangs head coach Rich Ellerson said of the announcement.

Barden, a two-time candidate for the Walter Payton Award (given to the FCS’ best offensive player) – which in the past has been won by eventual NFL stars like Steve McNair, Brian Westbrook and Tony Romo – was named to every notable FCS All-America First Team following 2007, when he caught 57 passes for 1,467 yards and 18 touchdowns.

The 6-foot-6, 227-pound Altadena native will be the fourth Cal Poly product in five years to play in the event, which has raised more than $14 million for 22 Shriner hospitals’ free orthopedic and burn care for more than 750,000 children.

Jordan Beck did in 2005, Chris Gocong in 2006 and Kyle Shotwell in 2007. For their senior seasons preceding the game, all won the Buck Buchanan Award (given to the FCS’ best defensive player), which had previously been won by future NFL standouts Dexter Coakley, Edgerton Hartwell, Rashean Mathis and Jared Allen.

Beck, a linebacker, was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 2005’s third round (90th overall). He suffered a season-ending foot injury in his rookie preseason, was later released and spent last season contributing on special teams for the Denver Broncos, who also released him. Gocong, a defensive end at Cal Poly, was chosen by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2006’s third round (71st overall) and currently is their starting strong side linebacker. Shotwell, also a linebacker, was undrafted but played in the preseason for the Oakland Raiders in 2007 before being attached to practice squads of the Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings released him in September.

Each member of that trio faced positional questions when translating to the professional level due to their unique roles in Cal Poly’s flexible 3-4 defense.

Barden, Ellerson said, shouldn’t face those transitional questions because his responsibilities isolated in space at Cal Poly are closer, respectively, to what they’d be at the next level – much like those of former Mustang Courtney Brown, a cornerback-turned-safety for the Dallas Cowboys, who chose him in 2007’s seventh round.

Following last season, Barden considered declaring his draft eligibility early but decided to return after being projected as a fifth-round pick by the NFL advisory committee.

When he was named the preseason Great West Conference Offensive Player of the Year on Aug. 20, Ellerson said through a conference-issued news release, “He’s the best we’ve had when compared to the bunch of guys we have in the NFL today.”

Every opposing head coach on Cal Poly’s schedule has also glowed about Barden’s outlook.

Montana’s Bobby Hauck and Northwestern State’s Scott Stoker both said he could be a first-round pick, McNeese State’s Matt Viator told reporters professional scouts have informed him he was the top prospect in the FCS and during the Great West teleconference call Sept. 29, South Dakota’s Ed Meierkort compared his style of play to the Cowboys’ Terrell Owens. Chuck Long of San Diego State (whose slate included BYU, Utah and Notre Dame) even said Barden was “as good of a receiver as (the Aztecs would) play all year.”

While concerns about FCS players not being able to succeed in the NFL linger a bit, they’ve dissipated considerably, Ellerson said.

“I think our level of competition is respected enough that every year, I sense there’s a little bit less and less of that knock,” he explained. “At the same time, (the game) does put (FCS players) in the practice environment and on the same field with the guys from the Pac-10 and the Big Ten and all those brand-name places, and (scouts) go, ‘Oh, you can still run and still catch it and are still hard to cover.’ ”

As exciting as the opportunity may be, Barden remains humble as the No. 7 Mustangs (3-1) prepare to visit South Dakota State on Oct. 18.

“Without (teammates’) hard work, without their support and their belief, none of this is possible,” he said. “I’m just happy to be the guy from this team that’s going.”