Crabtree’s wait terminated early

Seeing as Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree is headed for California as a new member of the San Francisco 49ers, he might one day get to meet Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I was trying to see him while I was down there,” said Crabtree, the 10th overall pick. “But I’ll tell him, ‘I’ll be back.’ ”

Seems the kid not only catches, but catches on.

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Super incentive

So Crabtree is heading to the team where Jerry Rice rewrote all the record books. Quite a challenge.

“I met Jerry Rice at Deion’s place,” said Crabtree, who knows Deion Sanders. “He’s a good guy. I was there with Deion and Jerry Rice. I mean, it was two Super Bowl winners. . . . [Rice] said to keep working hard. He told me everything I’m doing and everything I’m thinking right now. I’m going in the right direction.”

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Bucking Broncos

Tampa Bay traded up two spots to get Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman at 17, worried Denver might get him first. The move reunited Freeman and new Buccaneers Coach Raheem Morris, a former K-State assistant coach.

“I was with Raheem my freshman year, and throughout the process we stayed in touch,” Freeman said. “Not as much as some of the guys on our team, but quite a bit.

“He’s a great guy and a great coach. I remember a whole lot about him from my freshman year, and when this process came along . . . yeah, reunited is a good term.”

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Top Dawg

Matthew Stafford is the first Georgia player taken with the No. 1 pick since Harry Babcock in 1953. He’s also the fourth top selection in school history and the second Bulldogs quarterback to be chosen by the Lions, joining John Rauch, who was taken second in 1949.

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To the nines

The league played host to nine top prospects -- the most since 1996 -- and the green room emptied fairly quickly. The last player to go was Mississippi tackle Michael Oher, selected 23rd by Baltimore.

“Was it three hours? It couldn’t have been three hours. It was about an hour, wasn’t it?” Oher said of his wait. “Dad, he was telling jokes and stuff, so he was keeping everybody up. It didn’t seem like it was three hours.”

Then, the call came. It was Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome on the other end.

“It was the best call I’ve ever had,” Oher said. “He just told me, ‘We’re going to pick you.’ That’s all I heard, and that’s all I needed to know.”

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Quick off line

When Jason Smith, Andre Smith and Eugene Monroe were all quickly snapped off the board, it marked the third time in the last 20 years that three offensive linemen were taken in the top 10.

The other two times were 2002 (Mike Williams, Bryant McKinnie and Levi Jones) and 1997 (Orlando Pace, Walter Jones and Chris Naeole).

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Colts pick Moala

After last year’s draft, ESPN’s Todd McShay projected USC defensive tackle Fili Moala as the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft. Well, it didn’t work out like that, but Moala was a first-day selection -- the 24th pick of the second round, by Indianapolis.

Moala’s numbers didn’t bowl over people the way he could. Although he started his last 33 games for the Trojans, he went without a tackle in three of them last fall.

Surely, though, he played a role in directing the competition into the waiting arms of USC’s linebackers.

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Fast draft

The first round was completed in a record 3 hours 23 minutes, and the second round -- with its shorter wait times -- was a very brisk 2:24.

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No picks

Dallas and Chicago were the only teams that didn’t make a pick Saturday.

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SEC talk

NFL Network host Rich Eisen, on the number of players from the Southeastern Conference taken on the first day of the draft: “It’s fitting that in the town of Madoff, it’s all about the SEC.”

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sam.farmer@latimes.com