FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[allsky7]

Speaking of CNU.....not sure what to make of that as far as H-S versus MC  is concerned. I did not see either the Scots or Tigers play them. Not sure how you beat anyone turning the ball over 8 times. What jumped out at me is the fact that Tiger D only allowed 17 points in spite of that. On the MC side of things.....after the CNU win in NN.....I knew this had the makings of a special season for the Scots. 

As an old school guy.....wouldn't hurt my feelings if I am totally wrong on my predictions and we see a good clean defensive struggle.

[Scots13]

I'm only half old school in that case. I LOVE seeing my boys run up and down the field, but I don't mind seeing 3 and outs either..
Games like last week are going to give me a heart attack some day.

I wonder if HSC will look into history as see the last time the teams played one another it was an 82-14 beat down. I doubt it, but it could happen.  But in the 2003 MC team's defense, it was reported that nearly all of the 2 deep was out of the game with some kind of virus and the JVs pretty much played the entire game. Hopefully we make up for that this weekend.

On Highlanders, Down the Field!

[Scots13]

Congratulations to everyone honored by the USAC today as All Conference players and MC's Coach Rader as he was selected as Coach of the Year.

narch, looks like Reber beat out LC's qb for OPOTY. Not a surprise after the way he ended the year. Congrats.

[tigerfanalso]

Allsky & Scots13

Welcome back to the Commonwealth on Saturday. I hope you guys remember how Virginia gentleman conduct themselves at a football game. I'll be in The Founders lot, come over for pre-game refreshments. I'll have plenty of everything.

[Scots13]

Allsky & Scots13

Welcome back to the Commonwealth on Saturday. I hope you guys remember how Virginia gentleman conduct themselves at a football game. I'll be in The Founders lot, come over for pre-game refreshments. I'll have plenty of everything.

Thank you for the invite. I'll have to dust off my Virginia Gentleman's Etiquette Book, but don't look for me to be wearing a tie and a blazer to a football game!

[allsky7]

LOL!!! I moved back to the Commonwealth in 1987.  Been hiding out in the mountains of Amherst County for the last decade or so. Did you say refreshments? 

I'll get my best duds dry cleaned. I'll be the one Sat. that looks like the guy at the link below. 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://testosterhome.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/braveheart.jpg&imgrefurl=http://testosterhome.net/2013/01/why-flasks-were-invented.html/braveheart&h=168&w=300&sz=1&tbnid=r0ZoGOX9m4O4IM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=200&zoom=1&usg=__U3f6F-IshaKCPpwv0L491Ply68I=&docid=WHjp3nlfGe7QFM&itg=1&sa=X&ei=5jSNUuRJhbHgA-r7gYAM&ved=0CLsBEPwdMAs

[narch]

just got a look at the all-conference teams...can't say i'm overly surprised by any of the choices, although it's interesting that lagrange took home so many poty awards - can't argue against rader, although i was hoping coach goss would get the nod - i was a bit surprised to see mitchell get 1st team and payne 2nd team as a db - mitchell flashed (he played well against cnu and lagrange, in particular), but dj payne was the best db on the mu team...surprised that 2 db's from the last ranked pass defense in the nation got voted all-conference

if reber hadn't won optoy...well, i would have been very upset - i'm really hoping we can see him on some all-american teams - he led the nation in total yards on a team that went 8-2...that's GOT to get him in the discussion  - he's clearly the best qb in the region - i think vaughn cross could get on the table, as well, depending on how deep the list is...

[Scots13]

Completely agree. Even the Goss part 

[D O.C.]

If you've actually looked at those airfares to Portland Thanksgiving weekend, here's a little boost about McMinnville while you think of a way to bring that little unexpected NW vacation up to your wife so she'll think of going along with your idea....

http://1859oregonmagazine.com/72-hours-in-mcminnville

[kickerdad]

Just heard that Mike Dunleavy (head coach at Averett) has resigned this week. Averett is beginning National Search for a coach.

[tigerfanalso]

I would imagine the head job at Averett is not an easy one given lack of facilities and location. You don't have to travel too far in any direction without running into other d3 schools with much better facilities. Recruiting to that campus is probably not very easy. I wish them all the luck in the world.

[narch]

Just heard that Mike Dunleavy (head coach at Averett) has resigned this week. Averett is beginning National Search for a coach.

i've always thought that dunleavy was a classy guy based on my observations (media days, game day, etc.) and i've heard similar things from folks who know - au will no doubt miss his leadership and i wish him the best of luck in the future - that being said, i'm sure au fans have a bit of excitement about the prospect of a new perspective, especially after seeing the turnarounds that new coaching staff's have made at a number of usasac schools - good luck to au...i hope they can get someone who wins 9 of the 10 saturdays they play

[narch]

those of you who are long-time members of this board know that i like to play with numbers...and i'm at it again - given the outstanding season that max reber had this year, i wondered how he stacked up against other qb's nationally - the last few nights i've been working on a spreadsheet that looks at 20 qb's nationally - i have them ranked in the following 8 categories (with rationale in parenthesis)

Total Yards (the qb's job is to move his team...every game)
Yards/Game (a small handful of the ranked qb's didn't play 10 games...i didn't want to penalize them for an injury or coaches decision to sit them in a meaningless game - this measures the impact of each game the qb is involved in)
Yards/Play (many of these qb's played only 3 quarters each game, sitting out in the 4th quarter of blow out games...this metric allows the evaluation to neutralize this impact  and measures the impact of each play the qb is involved in)

I analyzed all three yardage metrics, because all three are important in some respects...for instance, mu needed EVERY total yard that max reber gained this year, while kevin burke from mount union probably sat out a lot of 4th quarters, and his impact is best measured on a per play basis - this seems to be the most fair way to evaluate both of those scenarios

Completion % (a good qb has to be accurate with the ball)
Interception rate (int/attempt...you don't want to give the other team the ball)
Total Touchdowns (rush and pass) (scoring td's is the point)
TD rate (total td/play...because this is a per play statistic, it minimizes playing time concerns)

lastly, i examined a team stat most frequently attributed to qb's (although not always accurately)
Team wins (a guy who puts up good numbers for a winning team should be rewarded)

I ranked each of the 20 qb's examined in each category and then assigned a point value between 1 and 20 for the rank (ex: #1 got 20 points, #20 got 1 point) - in the case of ties, i split the total points between the tied players (ex: 3 players tied for first would each get 19 points...(20+19+18)/3) - i then totaled the points for these 8 categories for each player ranked, and here are the top 5:

PLAYER SCHOOL REGION TOTAL RANK PTS Jonny West Franklin N 132.5 Kevin Burke Mount Union N 126.5 Max Reber Methodist    S 124.0 Austin Damaschke Concordia (WI) N 123.0 Reed Florence Wittenberg    N 111.5 based on these metrics, i would not be surprised to see max reber make an all-american list or two...especially if they go 4 or 5 deep...my calculations have him as the 3rd best qb in the country and the best in the region - here is the full spreadsheet

[kickerdad]

Just heard that Mike Dunleavy (head coach at Averett) has resigned this week. Averett is beginning National Search for a coach.

i've always thought that dunleavy was a classy guy based on my observations (media days, game day, etc.) and i've heard similar things from folks who know - au will no doubt miss his leadership and i wish him the best of luck in the future - that being said, i'm sure au fans have a bit of excitement about the prospect of a new perspective, especially after seeing the turnarounds that new coaching staff's have made at a number of usasac schools - good luck to au...i hope they can get someone who wins 9 of the 10 saturdays they play

They are in the middle of a major fund raising campaign to build a new stadium and put in new turf field. I was told by one of the coaches at the CNU game that they were scheduled for next year but now it has been put off to 2015. Anything would be an improvment. The problem is space, they are very limited unless they can purchase more land around the North Campus where the Football field is. The original campus is in the older section of Danville and there is nothing around it to expand.

[AUgrad40]

Having played for the Averett University for 4 years, I can honestly say that the news of his resignation was a hard pill to swallow.  Coach Dunlevy meant so much to the program, the school, and the lives of his players.  Unfortunately tradition and respect take a back seat to success in collegiate athletics.  His staff had an astounding impact on my life and the lives of many of my team mates.  With that being said, I remain loyal to the university, and I hope they find someone who can bring us back to the winning ways that we are accustomed to.

Good luck to those teams who made it to playoffs!!