Welcome to “I Got 5 On It”, each week I’ll be picking five news-worthy subjects based around college football to cover. Ranging from views on Devy prospects, general college football talk, interesting stats, and a little bit of hip-hop music mixed in now and then.
1. Top QB Performers
@FBGChase has done a lot of great work on Twitter with ANY/A with NFL passers. That gave me the idea of using this metric to gauge college passers weekly. If you are unaware of this metric “An advanced statistic in football that quantifies the contributions of a quarterback’s passing game by including five key passing statistics; passing yards, passing touchdowns, interceptions thrown, times sacked and yards lost to being sacked. This measure rewards passers for scoring with a multiplier on touchdowns and punishes a passer on throwing interceptions. This is all combined into a value on a per pass attempt basis.
It’s calculated as follows:
ANY/A = (pass yards + 20*(pass TD) – 45*(interceptions thrown) – sack yards) / (passing attempts + sacks)”
Here are the top 10 performers from week 9 of the CFB season out of 88 qualifying performances.
*Note – The total on the bottom is the tally of all QBs that attempted at least 10 passes this past weekend.
This week, we don’t get very many big names on the top 10 list. Matt Corral had a monster game with 6 TDs. This ended up being the third-best performance of the entire season. Sam Howell had almost 16 yards per attempt in their upset loss to UVA. Howell’s outing ended up being the fifth-best showing for the whole season. Grayson McCall had a big afternoon in his return from injury. McCall has been one of the most efficient QBs all season. His season 12.26 ANY/A is tied for the second-best for the season with Zach Wilson and just behind Mac Jones. Taulia Tagovailoa and Rocky Lombardi had big bounce backs after horrible game 1’s. Neither interests me for Devy purposes. Nevada QB Carson Strong has two really strong showings to start the season. Strong is rumored to be highly thought of by the NFL. A lot of big names just barely missed the top 10. The spots just outside the top 10 went to Mac Jones, Justin Fields, Kyle Trask, and Spencer Rattler. Hendon Hooker had one of the most interesting lines of the 10/10 for 183 yards and 0 TDs but his lack of attempts hurt his chances of making the top 10.
The bottom of the list didn’t have any notable names this week. TJ Finley dropped all the way down to the bottom 10 after having a nice debut last week. Joe Milton finished in the bottom 25 of the week. Both prospects bounced back to reality after good games last week.
2. David Bell
Bell has been a dominating force in the Boilermakers’ first two games. Bell has been targeted 31 times during this two-game stretch. The next man up on Purdue’s target list is sitting at just 15 targets. Out of his 31 targets, Bell successfully caught 22 of them. Week 1, Bell saw 22 targets but only 14 were catchable and he caught 13 of his 14 catchable targets. With a defender draped on him or not, Bell is able to pull the ball in. Bell ranks 16th in the nation in Yards Per Team Passing Attempt (min. 20 targets). Bell’s yards per target is middle of the pack so far, he’s lacked some big plays, and the uncatchable targets bring that number down as well. Overall, I have Bell ranked as the 8th best WR regardless of class, and the 2nd player in the 2022 class only behind Breece Hall. Bell will have a battle on his hands with Ohio State WR Garrett Wilson for the top WR in the ‘22 class.
3. MACtion
By the time you are reading this, the MAC season will have kicked off. Here’s some names to monitor during their brief season.
Dustin Crum, QB, Kent State: Coming into 2019, Crum had only 57 attempts under his belt. A few short weeks into the 2019 season, Crum snagged the starting job. He finished the year with 8.7 YPA and a 20-2 TD:INT ratio. Crum has the ability to use his legs, he tallied over 700 rushing yards in 2019. Crum is more than likely a Day 3 draft pick.
Jaret Patterson, RB, Buffalo: Patterson amassed 1,799 yards and 19 TDs during the 2019 season. While Patterson is an uber-producer, he’s undersized and not particularly fast. Patterson is listed in the 200lbs range, he looks much smaller than that on film. Power is the name of his game, but I don’t see a sub 200lb power back translating to the NFL. I have a lot of questions on how Patterson will translate to the pros. I think Patterson has an NFL future but how productive it will be remains heavily in question.
Skyy Moore, WR, Western Michigan: Moore had a great tFR season in 2019. He tallied 51-802-3 for the year and was 1st Team All-MAC. Moore is poised to be the top receiver for the Broncos again in 2020. Entering this season, Moore looks to have the biggest pro upside for any MAC receiver.
Darius Boone, RB, Eastern Michigan: Boone is now a rFR. Here’s a write up I did on him prior to the 2019 season.
“Eastern Michigan was able to pull Darius Boone from the state of Oklahoma despite getting late offers from Iowa State and Tulsa. Boone is the second-highest rated RB in Eastern Michigan’s class, but I like him a lot more than fellow incoming freshman RB, John Branham Jr. During his senior season, Boone rushed for over 1,500 yards and 24 TDs. Boone shows great patience and vision when running the ball. He displays above-average speed and burst. Boone is a player that I could see really throwing together a couple of really productive seasons for Eastern Michigan. He could develop into a guy that leads the MAC in rushing for a season or two. I really like his upside relative to his conference. “
4. Arizona State Freshman Class
Herm Edwards has given the Sun Devils quite the uptick in Devy prospects. His last two classes have had a number of intriguing prospects on ASU’s depth chart for their opening game. The Sun Devils have four tFR showing up at skill positions.
At the RB spot, they have DeaMonte “Chip” Trayanum listed as an “OR” for the starting spot. While fellow tFR Daniyel Ngata is listed as the third back. Trayanum is a physical specimen and a Devy Watch favorite. Ngata is on the smaller side compared to Trayanum but possesses elite pass-catching skills.
Johnny Wilson is listed as a starter at the Z receiver spot. Wilson is listed at 6’6″ and over 220lbs, he’s a physical mismatch for most defensive backs. LV Bunkley-Shelton is listed as an “OR” at the H receiver position. Bunkley-Shelton is smaller and a shifter runner. He should have an impact on the return game at some point in his ASU career.
The Sun Devils are building a really fun core around tSO QB Jayden Daniels. This is a team to watch for a possible PAC12 title appearance in 2021. I think the youth surrounding Daniels in 2020 prevents that from happening this season.
5. I Got 5 On It
Oklahoma (-38): I’m going to continue to roll with the Sooners. I fully expect them to win out and make the B12 title game once again. I don’t see how the Jayhawks can score enough to cover the 38 points. While OU’s defense isn’t ideal, KU’s offense is just trash. Of teams who have played more than 2 games, KU has the worst ANY/A in the country. They cannot move the ball with the passing game to stay within 38.
Michigan (-3): After falling flat on their faces last week, I think we’ll see an inspired Wolverine team. IU had some troubles in game 1 protecting Michael Penix from PSU’s edge rushers. I expect Kwity Paye to wreak a lot of havoc on the IU offensive line. Should be a close game, but I think Michigan will edge them out late like they’ve grown accustomed to against IU.
Florida (+3.5): A very close matchup. Game can go either way, so I’ll take the 3.5 points with UF. The Gators’ ability to make big plays with the passing game will be the difference. The lack of big plays from the Dawgs offense will come back and bite them. The Gators defense had their best performance of the year last week and will hopefully grow from that.
Minnesota (-7): This game is a late substitution for Louisville +3 after their postponement. This is a get-right game for the Gophers. Their defense has been horrible through two games. Giving up the most yards per play of any team in the nation. But this Illinois offense doesn’t scare me with their second or third string QB running the offense. Look for the Gophers to continue to pound the rock with Mohamed Ibrahim.
USC/ASU (u58): First game of the year after a COVID-influenced offseason. Add on top of that a 9AM local time kickoff. Things likely will be slow and sloppy. I expect the first half will take some time before we get good offensive play. A first half under would be a smart play as well.
*Lines are as of Wednesday at Noon Via BetMGM.
