WPM'S Rootzoo Player Of The Week: Week 5
Author: wpm5587 at rootzoo.com
Date Created: Oct 3, 2008 - 3:11:40 PM
Well, Week 5 is in the books in college football and we saw some amazing games, some big time blowouts, and, the thing I love the most if it is not happening to my Longhorns, great upsets. First let me get his out of the way and say, “I told you Alabama was going to defeat Georgia.” Now that I have said that, let us look at some of the great performances this week.
Players who played great in a losing cause
This week was marred with players who played great but their teams lost. I will start with Marcus Thigpen. Thigpen did all he could to win the game for Indiana. But in the end, the running back and the Hoosiers fell short to Michigan State. Thigpen, for the game, had 113 yards rushing for 2 touchdowns and he had 2 receptions for 94 yards and a touchdown. Too bad that performance was just not enough. Shonn Greene of Iowa ran hard against Northwestern. And in the process, he pounded out 159 yards on 21 carries and 2 touchdowns. Greene has been show his talents lately but in this game, Iowa fell short of the win 22-17. It also hurts that you are shut out in the second half.
If I told you that TIm Tebow and Percy Harvin had two great days, you would think, “Oh, then Florida won.” Not so fast. Yes, Tim Tebow threw for 319 yards and a touchdown and 2 rushing touchdowns. Yes, Harvin had not only 13 receptions for 133 yards and a touchdown, but he also had 10 rushes for 82 yards and a touchdown. But Ole Miss forced 3 fumbles in the game. And that blocked extra point helped seal the win for the Rebels. I can’t explain this loss. You have Curtis Painter having his way passing the ball for 359 yards and 2 touchdowns against Notre Dame and you lose, well Painter did throw one interception that was taken back by Robert Blanton for a touchdown. Also Armando Allen pounded the Boilermakers defense for 134 yards and a touchdown and Jimmy Clausen looked like a good college quarterback with 3 touchdown passes. And Purdue’s defense giving up 21 points in the 3rd quarter didn’t help either.
Tyrell Fenroy (Louisiana Lafayette) placed his team in the position to upset Kansas State. Fenroy rushed for 183 yards and had 3 touchdowns. He scored two of his touchdowns in the third and forth quarter but Kansas State was able to hold on to win the game 45-37. Now when a quarterback has a day like Nathan Brown, you expect a win but too bad Brown doesn’t play on offense. Brown had 342 yards and 3 touchdown passes. His team scored 34 points and still lost handedly, 62-34. But Tulsa rolled on offense. Now it is time for this week’s nominees. And I must admit that this week was pretty hard to choose from because of some outstanding performances by individual players. But I made my choice and if you disagree, we can talk for sure.
Player of the Week nominees
Chase Clement (Rice) is one underrated quarterback. Maybe that is because he plays for the Rice Owls. He destroyed, and I mean destroyed, North Texas (my poor, poor undergrad alma mater) with 298 yards passing and 5 touchdown passes. He added to this butt whooping of a performance, he adds, 69 yards rushing and 2 rushing touchdowns. He had two 100 yard receivers in the game: Jarrett Dillard, his favorite target had 8 receptions for 114 yards and 4 of those 5 touchdowns, and Toren Dixon who had 4 receptions for 101 yards and 1 touchdowns.
Colin Kaepernick (Nevada) had one amazing day against UNLV. He only threw for 176 yards. For a quarterback, that generally doesn’t cut it. But if you had the 240 yards rushing, you can see why he was nominated. So let’s start over. He was 11-16 for 2 touchdowns. Colin also had 240 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had touchdown passes of 70 yards and 40 yards. He had touchdown runs of 4, 66, and 28 yards. What didn’t he do? He accounted for 416 yards of total offense. Nevada had 620 yards of total offense. He accounted for 67% of Nevada’s total offense.
Antone Smith (Florida State) had his biggest game of the season as he lead the Seminoles to a 39-21 win over Colorado. Smith was awesome as he rushed for 154 yards and 3 touchdowns, including a beautiful 60 yard bolt. Smith constantly placed his team in the right position and kept multiple drives alive. Florida State only passed for 119 yards, but with Smith, you did not need a great passing day from Christian Ponder. You had Antone Smith.
Kendell Hunter (Oklahoma State) has been one of the best backs in college football the past two or three weeks. This week was no exception. Hunter was great as he piled up 169 yards rushing on 24 carries and 2 touchdowns. Troy didn’t know what to do. They couldn’t stop Hunter, and little success stopping Zac Robinson and Dez Bryant who connected for 3 touchdowns themselves. But it was Hunter that set the tone of the day and made that offense roll.
Manuel Johnson (Oklahoma) barely beat out his teammate Sam Bradford for this nomination. But I think this week Johnson deserves it over Bradford and here is why. Though Bradford threw for 411 yards and 4 touchdowns, he his completely rate was down to just 55.9%. Also half of his yards were to Johnson, who on just 5 receptions, managed an amazing 206 yards. And with those 206 yards, Johnson managed 3 of Bradford’s 4 touchdowns. Here is how it went down: Johnson had touchdowns of 73, 55, and 63 yards. So in this case, Manuel Johnson gets the nod over teammate Sam Bradford.
Offense of the week
Tulsa rolled up some amazing offensive numbers. Not only did they have a total of 641 yards of total offense, but they managed to score an amazing 62 points. In the game the Golden Hurricanes had 28 first downs, 329 yards rushing and 312 yards passing. Now that is very balanced. Not one time in the game did they punt the ball. It was they averaged 9.3 yards per play. Imagine what their yards total or their points total would have been if they did not have 2 interceptions in the game.
Defense of the week
Rutgers defense was dominating in their game against Morgan State. Not only was Morgan State shut out, but they only produced 8 first downs and 109 total yards for the day. That would be 32 rushing and 77 passing. They could not produce anything on offense. It was a complete domination for the Scarlet Knights.
Player of the Week
Jacquizz Rodgers (Oregon State) gashed USC for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns on 37 carries in the biggest upset of this young season. It seems that Oregon State is making it a tradition to beat USC in Corvallis, Oregon. The offensive line controlled that Trojan defense all night. Maybe it was hard to see the 5-6 and 186 pound running back. And what makes this performance so great is that he did it without having one really big run. His longest run from scrimmage was 15 yards. So this was hard work, sustaining long drives with his feet. The USC defense only managed one 3 and out. And Rodgers was the main reason why. After doing what he did to the then ranked #1 USC Trojans on arguably the best defense in college football, how can I not select Rodgers the player of the week. Plus he is a fellow Texan. What can I say? We got a lot of talent down here. That’s it for this week. Congratulations to the nominees and winner. See you again next week; same Bat time, same Bat channel.
About the author:
wpm5587 originally published this article at rootzoo.com, an online sports social network. Not only does he write some of the best articles., but he has also created some of rootzoo's best sports polls and earned several sports prizes for it.
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