FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[narch]

Graham Craig is a finalist for the Gagliardi Trophy. Congratulations to him, his family, and to LaGrange.

good luck to Graham Craig...huge honor to be one of the 10 finalists....

lots of those names are familiar from my qb research below

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

[Scots13]

At first, I thought it was surprising to see Craig on the list for the sole reason that this is his first year at the D3 level and no one really knew of him. And let's face it, most people outside of the region probably don't care about a QB on a team with a mediocre record. Other guys on the list are on teams that are known throughout the entire division.

With that being said, his extracurricular activities and stats are outstanding and he is truly deserving of being on the list. I hope he does well in the final voting and get the award. It would be great for the USAC and LC to have a Gagliardi winner.

narch, I think over the last few weeks your karma has taken a hit from the guys on the ODAC board. I'm giving you a +k for the research you did. Takes time and effort to be a D3 number cruncher. I know I couldn't do it.

[narch]

scots13 - thanks...the numbers really aren't that difficult to crunch...just copy and paste into excel - it's interpreting the numbers that is what matters

[Pat Coleman]

At first, I thought it was surprising to see Craig on the list for the sole reason that this is his first year at the D3 level and no one really knew of him.

Plus that means he has no academic track record in Division III at all ...

[DGPugh]

yall have a most wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving
keep the faith
Go Hawks (and War Eagle)

[Scots13]

Thank you, DG. Hope you and everyone else on the boards are having a great Thanksgiving.

[Scots13]

Since the season for all but 8 D3 teams is over, let's start a little discussion about the 2014 season for the USAC.

After the players end their season, coaches begin their season...RECRUITING.  This weekend is the TSSAA Football Championship weekend at Tennessee Tech's Tucker Stadium.  I didn't go to HS in TN, so I'm iffy on the classifications within TSSAA, but there are 2 divisions. D1 has 6 classes (1A, 2A....) and D2 has 2 classes.

What's this have to do with anything, you ask? Quite a bit, really.

MC is in Blount County and 2 schools within the county (Maryville HS and Alcoa HS) have made their respective title games, with Alcoa just winning their game and MHS playing tomorrow in the 6A game. Neighboring Knox County has Webb School (won D2-1A title), West HS (about to play for the 5A title tonight), and Fulton HS (playing tomorrow for 4A title).

So, with that being said, 5 out of the 16 top high school programs in the state are literally in MC's backyard and have had plenty o' men play at MC. Recruiting season might be a good one for MC, of course they do have to compete with D2 Carson-Newman and Tusculum for the borderline talent in the area.

Hopefully we have another class of local guys from Maryville and Alcoa like last years. I think we had something like 6-8 good ball players from those schools. Really helps with the community being drawn to the College.

Happy Recruiting, USAC. Let's get the players in our programs that will build the league up where it should be!

[CNU85]

Scots,

Sounds very familiar to CNU's situation. I wonder how much of an impact has in the past year's of some very good local talent ending up at CNU (or in your case MC)? This area is a hotbed for talent...the infamous 757. CNU seems to focus on talent at the AA level. In Va there is AAA, AA, and A with each level having 2 divisions. So we have Div 1 and 2 which is A, 3 and 4 which is AA, and 5 and 6 which is AAA. AAA being the schools with the highest enrollment. When I was in school we only had AAA, AA and A...no divisions within. Each football district is all AAA or AA etc. But can have teams in different divisions like 5 and 6. So a district can, and has in the past boasted 2 state champions. In the immediate area, most districts are AAA with schools from Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Va Beach. There are a few AA mixed in. CNU can pull in a few AA all-region or all-state players. But typically an all-state AAA player is heading D1 (like Taj Boyd from Phoebus HS in Hampton). The Peninsula District is a talent pool for sure. Every high school that I can think of can boast of at least one NFL player and some are in the Hall of Fame. Just about everyone I know has graduated with someone who went on to play in the NFL (my brother, me, my wife, my daughter). I think one challenge is that for AAA schools around here, how many players are relatively unknown? They don't make all-region accolades and I wonder if they tend to get missed. Sometimes I see someone on the CNU roster from a local high school and I don't recall anything about his high school career. I guess that's the job of the CNU coaches!

Anyway, sounds like the situation for your boys is positive which means you guys will be contenders for a long time! Something for you to look forward to!

[Scots13]

If I were a coach, I'd be looking into the "no name" guys at higher levels in the state. I don't think it's that big of a jump or culture shocks as compared to small school kids.  No names definitely have ability to play at our level if they had to play against guys like Taj Boyd. Big named guys at small levels can be an asset, too, don't get me wrong.

I think CNU will do well again in their recruiting efforts and bring in some quality transfers.  CNU is too appealing not too, especially for in state guys.

The thing about East Tennessee as a talent pool: the TEAMS are dominate with several good players.  Most of the big named talent in the state are from Middle and West TN. It seems like every year several of the "D3" talent in the Knoxville area that can really make a difference in MC's program head up to Cumberlands in KY. (Just looked at their roster and they have 30 East Tennesseans.) Cumberlands also plays in the NAIA National Championship on the 21st.

Good luck to your boys at CNU and other programs in the conference this off season.

[Scots13]

http://coachoftheyear.com/leaderboard/

Looky here. Coach Rader is currently leading the vote for Liberty Mutual's COTY. Got Facebook? Spread the Christmas cheer and vote for your fellow USAC brother!

[narch]

got a peek at the d3football.com all-region awards...bitter-sweet - i'm happy for max reber being named 2nd team, but disappointed he's not a first-teamer - nash nance had a fantastic year, but the bottom line is that reber led him in almost every major stat category:

completion % (65.9 vs. 63.2)
total yards/game (364.2 1st nationally vs. 337.4  8th nationally)
yards/play (8.06 5th nationally among top 50  vs. 6.83 21st nationally among top 50)
passing yards/game (299.8 10th nationally vs. 292.0 12th nationally)
yards/completion (14.3 6th nationally among top 50 passers vs. 12.7  25th nationally among top 50 passers)
yards/pass attempt (9.46 5th nationally among top 50 passers vs. 8.02 17th nationally among top 50 passers)
rushing yards (644 vs. 545)
yards/carry (4.8 vs. 3.5)
TD ratio (1 per 12 att vs. 1 per 16 att)
INT ratio (1 per 75 attempts vs. 1 per 40 attempts)
passing efficiency (169.2 8th nationally vs. 144.0 50th nationally)

the only statistical areas that nance led reber in were the following:
wins (9 vs 8...of course his winning % was lower at .750 vs. .800)
total yards (4049 vs. 3642...in two more games and 139 more plays...)
rushing TD (17 vs. 4)
points responsible for (264 4th nationally vs. 180 t27th nationally)
points responsible for per game (22.0 4th nationally vs. 18.0 25th nationally)
pass TD (27 t15th nationally vs. 26 t18th nationally...again, in two more games)
fumbles lost (2 vs. 4)

INT's (15 vs. 6...oh wait, that isn't really "leading" that stat category, is it )

2 of the stats that nance leads are a direct result of his team playing 2 more games than reber - i get it...leading his team to the tournament has to count for something, but the bottom line is that reber led him statistically in almost every major category...we're not talking about a situation where the numbers were relatively close and one made it to the playoffs while the other didn't

vaughn cross was named 3rd team all-region...averaged 104 yards/game and is currently 2nd in the nation with 18 td...i've seen the barraffio kid from w&j play (1st team), and he's a baller, but his numbers weren't as strong as most of the guys below him, including cross...he had 11 yards more and 7 td's less than cross in 1 more game...the dude can play, though - the kid from wesley didn't even average 100 yards per game and scored 13 tds, but got a second team nod...if TD's were important with nance vs. reber (total td's is really the only area that nance has a significant advantage vs. reber), why weren't they important in cross vs. the other wr's?

congrats to carter (lagrange) for his first team selection, hightower (m'ville) and copening (cnu) for their second team selections and stephens (m'ville), pridgen (huntingdon), studer (cnu) and barlow (cnu) for their third team selections

[Pat Coleman]

That rushing touchdowns thing is pretty big.

"The Wesley kid" nearly beat Mount Union last week with his speed. His overall numbers are low because he was hurt going into the UMHB game and was hobbling for a couple games.

[narch]

That rushing touchdowns thing is pretty big.

"The Wesley kid" nearly beat Mount Union last week with his speed. His overall numbers are low because he was hurt going into the UMHB game and was hobbling for a couple games.

i'm not saying he can't play...i'm sure he can...but he was healthy enough to play in every game this season and averaged 87.5 yards per game (vs. 104.0 for cross) - even with all that speed, he was a yard per catch lower than cross  (14.58 vs. 15.52 ypc) and scored 5 fewer tds in 3 more games

if TD's were important with nance vs. reber, why weren't they important in cross vs. the other wr's?

and in the reber v. nance argument, the INT thing is almost equally as big

15 vs. 4 rushing TD advantage, 6 vs. 15 INT advantage

[Pat Coleman]

That rushing touchdowns thing is pretty big.

"The Wesley kid" nearly beat Mount Union last week with his speed. His overall numbers are low because he was hurt going into the UMHB game and was hobbling for a couple games.

i'm not saying he can't play...i'm sure he can...but he was healthy enough to play in every game this season and averaged 87.5 yards per game (vs. 104.0 for cross) - even with all that speed, he was a yard per catch lower than cross  (14.58 vs. 15.52 ypc) and scored 5 fewer tds in 3 more games

if TD's were important with nance vs. reber, why weren't they important in cross vs. the other wr's?

and in the reber v. nance argument, the INT thing is almost equally as big

15 vs. 4 rushing TD advantage, 6 vs. 15 INT advantage

Not well. I was at the UMHB game. He shouldn't have been out there and in fact, he rarely was.

[Scots13]

I went to the MC/H-SC game and from what I saw, it's really a toss up between the two. Nance and Reber are equal in my eyes, although I believe you have a valid point in the running td/INT comparison.

If Reber was like MC's Pittenger and was a perceived "run first" guy, then it would be a no-brainer that Nance would be selected over Reber, but fact is Reber wasn't. Averaging right at 300 passing yards a game...pretty dang good. Then had the 15 rushing td's to his resume. Ouch.

If I'm not mistaken, Nance was H-SC's leading rusher on the year. Big bodied guy and had 4 td. And 35 more attempts per INT in favor of Reber solidifies his passing abilities. (1:40 to 1:75).

End of regular season both qb's were leading teams that were 8-2. Nance is in the ODAC and has a much bigger name than Reber. I can see why the selections are the way they are.

Both guys are coming back next year. Hopefully both guys stay healthy and 1) let's not s**t the bed against the ODAC early in the year, 2) the USAC winner makes a run in the playoffs and the ODAC gets kicked in the first round.