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 gage 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 15 of the CFB season out of 79 qualifying performances.
*Note – The total on the bottom is the tally of all QBs that attempted at least 10 passes this past weekend.
Week 15 was a brutal passing week. This was the lowest average ANY/A of the whole season. North Texas’s Austin Aune had a big Friday night and took home the top honors of the week. Jayden Daniels and the ASU offense routed the ‘Zone Wildcats on their way to the second-best passing performance of the week. JT Daniels has started three games for the Dawgs and has two games in the 90 percentile or better so far. Zach Wilson and Sam Howell found their way into the top ten once again.
Both Mac Jones and Kyle Trask had their worst weeks of the season. Both still finished above-average on the week though. Mac Jones still has the edge over Trask for the best score on the season. Graham Mertz rolled in as the second-worst game of the week. He had a truly bad showing. Missing wide open receivers on 4th down in the red zone with the game on the line. He’s struggled since returning from his COVID layoff. Lance LeGendre started over Taulia for Maryland and had the fourth-worst game of the week. Not what I was hoping for in his chance to shine. Will Rogers brought home the worst game of the week. 221 yards on 51 attempts and 2 INTs will do that for you.
2. Under-The-Radar RB Recruit
It’s a big week around the world of college football with the early signing period. So this week’s article will be recruiting heavy.
Byron Cardwell out of San Diego is undecided and is looking at Cal, Oregon, and UCLA as his top schools. He’s currently ranked as 247’s 12th best back in the country. Due to COVID, the state of California isn’t playing high school ball until spring. Cardwell has seen a recent uptick in his recruitment after getting offers from Oregon and Notre Dame. He’s listed at 200lbs and shows good speed and fluidity in his game. He shows good pass-catching ability and his hands will be an asset in college. Despite having good speed, Cardwell is a downhill runner and doesn’t try to bounce the run outside all the time. He shows good patience and vision while plunking through the defense. It wouldn’t surprise if Cardwell ended up inside my top 5 backs in this recruiting class. I think he is much more than say Cemar Wheaton who’s ranked much higher than Cardwell. Cardwell has the potential to be an early impact player.
3. Under-The-Radar WR Recruits
Ketron Jackson resides in Royse City, Texas, and is expected to sign with Arkansas. Jackson hauled in 841 yards on 42 receptions (20.0 YPR) and 11 TDs as an SR in 2020. Listed at 6’2” and 186lbs, Jackson has a good long frame to add weight to. Jackson plays with above-average speed and good lateral movement ability. He has long arms that allow him to pluck the ball away from his defenders. He catches the ball away from his body more times than not. Jackson has a lot of upside in his game. In a few years, we might be talking about him as one of the surprises in this recruiting class.
Lorenzo Styles Jr. at Notre Dame is a future playmaker. He’s a bit smaller than you’d like in a prospect, but he just makes plays. He was a dynamic return man in HS scoring 4 TDs as a SR on returns. I think he could play in the slot or outside for the Irish. He’ll be able to make plays from either position. Styles is a prospect I’ll be a lot higher on than the consensus. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him get into the mix a bit next year, especially on special teams.
4. Tyler Buchner
No QB prospect has me giddier than Buchner in this recruiting class. His upside is through the roof, but his floor could be below the basement. Due to COVID, Buchner won’t have an SR season before enrolling at Notre Dame. He missed his SO year due to an ACL tear in the first game of the season and lit up the world as a JR. As a junior, he completed 267 of 402 passes (66%) for 4,474 yards, 53 touchdowns, and only six interceptions. He also rushed 128 times for 1,610 yards (12.6 YPC) and 28 more scores. His competition was very poor but the talent around Buchner wasn’t much better. The future Irish QB transferred high schools to face better competition in ‘20 but a pandemic had different thoughts. If Buchner hits on his potential he could be a Heisman contender and potential 1st round pick. With having only one full season of playing time under his belt and that was against subpar competition. Buchner is a very risky proposition, but he could pay off big time. I’m willing to take the risk, he’ll be one of my highest ranked Devy QBs for the class of 2024.
5. I Got Five On It
Ohio State (-20): I have a hard time envisioning the Wildcats being able to muster up enough offense to keep this within three scores. While they possess one of the best pass defenses in the nation the lack of playmakers on offense dooms them.
Ole Miss (-2.5): The Tigers are coming off a gigantic upset of the Gators, but Ole Miss is the better team right now. LSU has a bottom-five pass defense while Ole Miss sits just outside the top five on offense. Matt Corral should have a field day with a depletedTiger secondary.
Notre Dame (+10.5): Homer pick? Facing Clemson with Trevor Lawrence and some missing defenders that didn’t play in the original matchup certainly bodes well for the Tigers. Plus the Irish are also down a starter on the OL from the November meeting. Notre Dame is still a really good team with a dominant front seven. Amongst the nations best in Havoc and Stuff Rate. The real issue is the corners on NDs defense. Unfortunately, Lawrence will have a field day with them. I’m not confident the Irish pull off the sweep of Clemson, but they can keep it within the 10.5 points awarded.
Alabama (-17): Mac Jones and this passing attack are just too good to be slowed down by this Gators defense. Getting Kyle Pitts back will be a boost for the UF offense, but it won’t be enough to keep pace with the Tide.
USC (-3): The Trojans have had a horseshoe lodged up their ass all season long. Miracle comebacks with lucky bounces have gifted the Trojans a few wins. When Kedon Slovis is on, this offense is a handful to stop with their group of receivers. Slovis and some more luck help the Trojans prevail over the Ducks.
