Will An Aggie Win Big 12 Player Of The Week This Season?
by Beergut on Nov 3, 2009 4:37 AM CST
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PrintIn the movie S.W.A.T., the villain Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez) asks his lawyer who needs to pay off to get out of prison. When his lawyer says it isn't that easy, he says, "Then tell me who we need to KILL!" I am beginning to sympathize with Martinez's character as each week goes by, and again and again, I fail to see an Aggie earn Big 12 Player of the Week.
I am a realist, and I know our players aren't deserving of an award every single week. However, when I look to see who has won, and Colt McCoy wins Offensive Player of the Week last week for passing for 269 yards and 3 TDs against Missouri, and Landry Jones wins co-offensive POTW this week for passing for 294 yards and 4 TDs in their win against Kansas State, I begin to wonder why Jerrod Johnson didn't win it this week for his 3 TDs passing, 1 TD rushing in our win against Iowa State. I don't have a problem with Baron Batch winning Co-Offensive POTW after his four rushing TDs carried Tech past Kansas, because he put together a phenomenal performance. I don't see what makes Landy Jones' performance so noteworthy, and I don't see how, if his performance is worthy of conference POTW recognition, why Johnson's is not. Both Johnson and Jones had better performances than McCoy did last week, so if the low standard set by McCoy's performance is our metric for comparison, both deserved consideration for offensive player of the week.
I am also unsure about what is going on with the Defensive Player of the Week award. While I think this past week's pick is a no-brainer, because whena defensive tackle has 13 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, and 5 sacks, that is a candidate for national player of the week, not just a conference award. That is a career defining game, not just another weekend on the gridiron. I don't have any issue with Jared Crick winning Defensive POTW, just like I don't have any issue with Batch winning offensive POTW. I do wonder, however, Roddrick Muckelroy making 10 tackles, 2 TFL, and 1 sack on September 19 against Texas Tech makes him a better candidate for Defensive Player of the Week than Von Miller, who tallied 5 tackles, three QB sacks, and a forced fumble in A&M's win over UAB. You can say that Muckelroy's performance is more impressive because it came in a conference game, but I think that is a copout. You play who you play every week, and just because one team has re-arranged their schedule for television doesn't mean their performance should be given more consideration. This wasn't a game against the #1 team in the nation, this was a game in the third week of the season against Tech.
The UAB game was also the game where Uzoma Nwachukwu had his coming out party, scoring four touchdowns on four touches, 3 TD receptions and 1 TD rushing. Oklahoma QB Landry Jones received offensive POTW for his 6 TDs passing against Tulsa, and while I realize 6>4, a redshirt freshman making the second start of his career against Tulsa is less impressive than a true freshman performing like Nwachukwu did in the second game of his college career. When you consider that Nwachukwu stepped up after star receiver Jeff Fuller went down with an injury, his performance is even more impressive. Nwachukwu didn't know he would be such an integral part of the offense that week; Jones knew he was the starter all week, and could prepare accordingly.
So, I am left to wonder if an Aggie will win conference player of the week this season. I think in the absence of some phenomenal performance that represents a statistical outlier that the media members can't ignore (a 400 yard passing/100 yard rushing game by Johnson, or a 10 tackle/5 sack/2 INTs game by Miller), we won't see an Aggie make Big 12 player of the week on offense, defense, or special teams anytime soon.
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I think
that is probably a safe bet. But I would be ok with no Aggie receiving the award if we keep winning.
Television
None of our winning games have been on TV and I think that could explain why so many stellar Aggie performances have been ignored. Unfortunately, on the flip side, all the losses have been TV games. I hope we break that trend this weekend, but I am with MWG, as long as we win, I dont mind. In fact, I hope our player play with a chip on their shoulders because of the snubs.
because most of those games your players are putting up huge numbers in are against nobodies… and when one bad team plays another bad team, and it’s not on TV…. no one is going to give you an award.
by Displaced Longhorn on Nov 3, 2009 1:24 PM CST reply actions
Hmm lets see
So you win awards for putting up huge numbers against “somebodies”. Suddenly everything is clear and this must explain why:
- Lamarr Houston wins Defensive POW for his stellar performance against offensive juggernaut Wyoming, who scored a grand total of 0 pts against Colorado
- Earl Thomas wins Defensive POW for outstanding performance against powerhouse 3-5 UTEP Miners
- and ofcourse thats why Colt McCoy wins offensive POW for posting 269 yds passing, 13 yds rushing and 3 TDs against then unranked 4-3 Missouri while Jerrod Johnson gets “justly” ignored the same week for putting up 238 yds passing, 71 yds rushing and 2 TDs against then 21st ranked 5-2 “nobody” Tech.
Yep makes perfect sense, thats if you are a Longhorn.
you missed the part when i said “one bad team players another bad team”, hint you’re bad and Texas is good, you will be passed over awards because you’re on a bad team. just like the heisman winner has basically been a glam award given to someone on one of the top ranked teams in the country just about every year for the past half century…
as to the colt vs. jerrod argument for that week, colt posted an 84% completion with 31 pass attempts. johnson posted 67% with 28 attempts. colt was the better QB, I don’t know why you’re arguing against him. 182.24 vs. 151.04 rating. johnson added some yards on the ground, but who didn’t that night? it really seems like aggies are just whining about how their players aren’t being recognized for “being the best offense in the country”.
hell, I didn’t even know anyone on the team won a “player of the week” award until this post, why? cause most Texas fans aren’t giving a shit about individual awards right now.
by Displaced Longhorn on Nov 4, 2009 1:49 PM CST up reply actions
As of last week...
….Colt McCoy had the worst completion percentage for passes over 15 yards in the conference. That means he is a jerk, or something, not sure how to interpret that statistic.
Ummm....
Could you cry anymore about a meaningless award?
Who cares about that stuff. I would be happy with a win, and if it means that much to your program/players/fans/coaches, then use it as incentive.
But aside from the crying, I get the impression for POTW is not merely based on stats, but how the stats were compiled and in what situations. No offense, but A&M really hasn’t had any big games. You could argue that Arkansas and Oklahoma State were big games, but Arkansas isn’t ranked (they crushed you) and OSU is definitely not the team anyone thought they would be in the preseason.
Sorry to disagree, but Landry Jones 6 tds > 4 tds, just as you said. I don’t think anyone outside of college station thinks his performance wasn’t more impressive than Uzoma’s.
If you want to win POTW so bad, someone has to have a standout game against Texas or Oklahoma. It is definitely possible, but if it is in a losing effort, someone on one of the other 11 teams will probably get the nod.
Well at the rate Tu has been pouring down its kool-aid we might actually have a couple of stand out games to close the season and tu and out could be on our menu. But we beat Tech when they were ranked (21st) this win was higher than your wins over 25th ranked ou, which was the highest ranked team that you had beaten, until you beat the 15th ranked ok state.
I'm sorry
But this is strange reasoning. Even granting that beating Tech is more impressive than beating OU (which it isn’t) and also granting that we should be more concerned about rankings at the time of the game and not in the present (which we don’t have to), why even compare rankings when, like you said, we just beat a higher ranked OSU team? You were basically saying this: “We beat Tech who was higher ranked at the time than your highest ranked opponent Oklahoma… well, except OSU.” The entire first part of that is then meaningless, and this is not even mentioning the fact that A) We already beat Tech and B) You guys have not faced Oklahoma yet.
by TheElusiveShadow on Nov 4, 2009 12:59 PM CST up reply actions
Except
It’s irrelevant to compare UT vs. OSU and A&M vs. Tech because they took place in differing weeks.
How is that irrelevant?
But, as debatable as that is, let’s grant that. Then comparing Texas Tech vs A&M and OU vs. Texas is then irrelevant, because they took place on different weeks. YUMC’s argument remains bad.
by TheElusiveShadow on Nov 5, 2009 1:41 PM CST up reply actions
Because it's a player of the WEEK award.
There is no baseline. To suggest that if a player wins for x performance on week 1, then to suggest that whomever wins week 2 has to match or beat week 1’s winner’s performance is silly.
I don't think you're really getting what I'm saying
My posts were responding to YUMC’s poor logic in trying to argue that A&M had a tougher, or comparable, schedule than Texas so far. I’m not here trying to argue about the player of the week. I’m merely pointing out the flaw in his reasoning.
by TheElusiveShadow on Nov 5, 2009 4:03 PM CST up reply actions
this isn't crying, this is an observation
Crying is what texas fans did after they were passed over (deservedly) by Oklahoma last year in the Big 12 South tie-breaker. Crying is when you put up a sign declaring yourself victors of a game you didn’t even play in – but qualify it with an asterisk.
As for why a POTW award is important, you get POTW recognition enough, you get on the all-conference team. You make all-conference, you get consideration for All-American. If you are an All-American, you are also in consideration for top national awards like the Butkus, Bednarik, Lombardi, Biletnikoff, etc. Just being in the finals for those awards and going to the dinners means you are brining a lot of attention to your school, and that helps recruit more star players to your school.
I also believe we have some terrific players on our team who are worthy of recognition, and want them to receive that recognition.
Hypothetical Question
I was just wondering and this is still in the realm of pure speculation: If we won out every game from now through the end of our schedule, we will end up with one loss (OK state) in our division, OU will have two losses if this happens (tu and us), then do we win the tie breaker to represent the South in the Big XII championship because we will have beaten texas?
The first tiebreaker is head to head.
So the winner of the UT game (us) would get the nod (assuming I read your question right).
No.
You would not go.
In your hypothetical situation, Texas would have 1 conference loss (aggy) and aggys would have lost to OSU and Kstate in big 12 play. OSU would have 1 or two conference losses (depending if they beat OU) and OU would have 2 or 3 conference losses (depending if they beat OSU).
Texas would advance with a better conference record. The divisional record doesn’t come into play until later on in the tiebreaker process.
You need Texas to flub up once before going to the armpit of the state of Texas where they would have to unexplicably lose.
Keep wishing!
no
conference losses against both divisions count
even if we win out, we will have two conference losses, to Okie State and Kansas State
in that scenario, texas represents the South with only one conference loss (assuming they win all but our game)
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