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 14 of the CFB season out of 96 qualifying performances.
*Note – The total on the bottom is the tally of all QBs that attempted at least 10 passes this past weekend.
Layne Hatcher had a monster week! He averaged over 23 Yards Per Attempt. The prior best on the season (minimum 10 attempts) was 19.1 YPA. Add on top of that 5 TDs passes, giving Hatcher a season-high ANY/A of 28. Kaleb Eleby had the prior high on the season of a 20.52 ANY/A. Eleby found himself inside the top ten once again. WMU doesn’t pass the ball a lot, but they are hitting big plays when they do. Eleby leads the nation at 12.4 YPA (minimum 100 pass attempts). Mac Jones has just been crushing it this season. Every damn week he’s inside the top ten. Same with Kyle Trask, both SEC QBs are now atop the season-long ANY/A standings after Zach Wilson’s poor showing knocked him down a bit. This was by far Wilson’s worst outing of the season, strangely it came against the toughest competition he’s faced. Who would have thought when you’re not facing LA Tech, UTSA, and N. Alabama, your numbers come back down to earth…
As good as Hatcher was, Grant Wells was just as equally bad. Wells tossed 5 INTs on 4.7 YPA against Rice! Wells’ poor performance finished as the second-worst game of the entire 2020 season. Wells has come a long way since his season-opening destruction of Eastern Kentucky that garnered praises of being a top Devy option at QB (LOL). Charlie Brewer had a real tough night against an improving OU defense. He finished with the second-worst game of the weekend. OU now sits inside the top ten defenses at defending the pass according to ANY/A.
2. 2023 RB Class
The top half of the ‘23 RB class is shaping up to be a great one. We finally saw a glimpse of Bijan Robinson’s top-end potential this past weekend. Dropping 172 yards on 9 attempts with 3 TDs, the stat line looked like he was still in high school. It’s going to be a great battle over the next two years with the listed backs of the ‘23 class.
Bijan Robinson, Texas: Robinson is sitting atop my ‘23 RB ranks just by a smidge over Gibbs. It’s extremely close between the two, but I’m sticking with my initial ranks out of high school with Robinson over Gibbs. Robinson is big, fast, and powerful. He has top-end speed and has the capability of trucking defenders on any run.
Jahmyr Gibbs, Georgia Tech: Gibbs is a smooth athlete with great receiving ability. I didn’t expect Gibbs to be as advanced in the pass-catching game as he is. He’s capable of succeeding downfield as a pass-catcher and not just at the LOS.
Tank Bigsby, Auburn: Bigsby leads the SEC in the percentage of rushes with a broken tackle (minimum 35 attempts). He sits third overall in the conference with 45 broken tackles on the season. Bigsby is also top four in the league with a 54% success rate on rushing attempts. Bigsby is much further along than I expected. I thought this was DJ Williams backfield prior to kicking off the season. Bigsby is also a top-notch pass-catcher. With the ability to make some difficult catches.
When healthy, Kendall Milton and MarShawn Lloyd will round out the top five in this class. Then guys like Jase McClellan, Tre Bradford, Deamonte Trayanum, and Jalen Berger will battle for a slot inside the top five of this class before all is said and done.
3. Parker Washington
Washington signed with PSU out of Texas last season. He was a four-star recruit and barely a top 50 ranked WR, but Washington has nearly out-performed all forty-odd receivers ranked ahead of him. He nabbed a starting role from week 1 for the Nittany Lions. In a year with very few impact freshman WR, Washington has been a steady WR2 for PSU out of the gates. He comes into the end of season stretch with a DR of 28% and is on pace for a breakout season as a tFR. Giving Parker a breakout age of 18.6. He’s currently accounting for over 22% of PSU’s receiving yards and grades out near the top of tFR in Yards Per Team Passing Attempt. Washington is an under-the-radar slot receiver that needs to be kept tabs on. Given what happens with Jahan Dotson, if he goes pro or stays in school, Parker may look to be the top option for the Nittany Lions passing attack in ‘21. PSU does have a few intriguing WR prospects signing with them next week that may get a crack at some early playing time.
4. Who The Heck is Jarek Broussard?
The rSO RB at Colorado has had a monster four-game season. He’s already tallied over 700 yards on over 6 YPA. He’s coming off a 300-yard performance against Arizona and has rushed for over 120 yards in all four of the Buffs games. Broussard missed 2018 due to redshirting then missed all of 2019 with an injury. Broussard is currently accounting for over 44% of the yards for the Buffs on the season. He also sits third in the nation, only behind Jaret Patterson and Mohamed Ibrahim in Yards Per Team Play. Granted, a small sample size of four games. It’s hard not to be intrigued by this under-sized back right now. But Broussard is under-sized, lacks long speed, and doesn’t catch the ball. So this hot start may not be as intriguing as the counting numbers may lead you to believe.
5. I Got 5 On It
Florida (-22): LSU has quit on the season and I don’t think they have much fight left in them. Gators should roll big, Tigers don’t have enough offensive firepower right now to keep up with the Gators.
USC (-2.5): Spread is just too close not to love USC here. USC’s offense was clicking Sunday night after some early turnovers by WSU. I’ll ride with Slovis and the explosive Trojans O.
California (-1.5): If WSU looks anything like they did against USC on Sunday night, this’ll be an easy cover. Both offenses have struggled but I’ll ride Cal’s defense against the tFR QB.
San Diego St (+17.5): SDSU has been great against the pass to start their season and will slow the BYU passing attack. I’m expecting a BYU letdown game and will be glad to take 17.5 points. A slow grinding Aztec offense helps to keep it close.
Maryland (-7.5): Maryland has done great against the bottom half of the B1G this year. It’s another story when they’ve faced the top tier conference foes. ‘Terps have the chance to win comfortably against Rutgers.
