Draft History: 1992

IRVING – Gil Brandt knew the roads to all the small colleges when he ran the personnel department for the Cowboys. He must have left the map for the new regime.

The Cowboys visited some of college football's outposts in the 1992 NFL draft, selecting players from Jackson State, Carson-Newman, Virginia State, Texas Southern, Delaware State, Pomona-Pitzer, Livingstone College and Florida A&M.

The Cowboys didn't neglect the big-name colleges with top picks Kevin Smith of Texas A&M, Robert Jones of East Carolina and Darren Woodson of Arizona State. Put them all together, and Johnson feels the Cowboys made the honor roll with this year's draft.

"I'm biased, but I feel we had one of the best drafts of anybody," Johnson said. "I really believe this was the most productive draft we've had since I've been with the Cowboys."

The old Cowboys under Tex Schramm, Tom Landry and Brandt crafted championship teams with small-college building blocks, selecting among others George Andrie from Marquette, Bob Hayes from Florida A&M, Jethro Pugh from Elizabeth City State, Rayfield Wright from Fort Valley State, Ed Jones from Tennessee State, Jean Fugett from Amherst and Thomas Henderson from Langston.

Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson said this year's sweep of small colleges was by design.

"Because of the quality of our team now, the mid- and later-round picks are going to have a more difficult time making our team," he said. "We felt we'd take chances on players that had the dimensions to play rather than taking a player from a bigger school that we knew was limited.

"With some of these players at the smaller schools, the only thing holding them back was the experience of playing large (school) competition. They have a chance to get better. We've got a chance to make a hit or two down there."

In third-round-pick James Brown of Virginia State, fifth-rounder Rod Milstead of Delaware State and 10th-rounder John Terry of Livingstone, the dimension was size. All three are offensive linemen – Brown goes 331, Milstead 293 and Terry 292.

In third-round pick Clayton Holmes of Carson-Newman, ninth-rounder Nate Kirtman of Pomona-Pitzer and 11th-rounder Tim Daniel of Florida A&M, the dimension was speed. Daniel is a wide receiver, Holmes a cornerback and Kirtman, who played both ways in college and is projected as an NFL safety. All run the 40-yard dash in about 4.4 seconds.

Fifth-rounder Greg Briggs of Texas Southern gives the Cowboys size (6-3, 210) and hitting ability at the safety position. Wide receiver Jimmy Smith of Jackson State has both size (6-1, 200) and speed (4.4). He was the third wideout taken in the draft on the 36th overall pick.

Smith was productive at the small college level, averaging 20.2 yards with his 83 catches in his last two seasons. He also impressed the Cowboys against major-college competition in practices at the Senior Bowl.