Top Five All-Big Ten Football Team Errors
by Pete Rossman on Nov 23, 2009 10:04 PM CST
in Michigan State Spartans Football
8 comments
And here are the travesties:
5. Jared Odrick, Coaches' Defensive Player of the Year. There's no doubt that Odrick was one of the top five or six defensive linemen in the conference. However, here were the other All-Big ten first team defensive linemen named by the coaches: Adrian Clayborn, Brandon Graham, and O'Brien Schofield. If I gave you those names, where would you rank Odrick? Third? Fourth? And he's the one the coaches named defensive player of the year?
4. Eric Decker, Coaches' First team Wide Receiver. If Decker had stayed healthy all year, I'd have no problem with this placement. However, he only played two-thirds of the season, and I'm certain that there are least two wide receivers out there - Keith Smith of Purdue and Darrell Johnson-Koulianos of Iowa - who deserved the honor more than Decker.
3. Seriously, Jared Odrick? I mean, Pat Angerer can't get some love? Tyler Sash? If you were asking me, "Name two players on the same team who deserved the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award", those would've been the first two names out of my mouth.
2. Brett Swenson, non-unanimous selection. I promise this is the only section where I'll be a homer. Apparently making 90% of your field goals and being far and away the most consistent kicker in the Big Ten wasn't clear cut enough. Was it that extra point he missed in September? Is it because his kickoffs only made it to the ten? I don't get it.
1. JARED ODRICK? I don't want to bash Odrick, he's been a great player for Penn State all season. I'm happy that Greg Jones got the honor from the media, but I would've understood if he didn't receive the award. After all, I'm pretty sure Graham Zug scored again on a wheel route, and the failures of the MSU secondary drags the whole defense down, fair or unfair. However, I would've named Schofield, Graham, Angerer, Sash, Amari Speivey, Navarro Bowman, or Sean Lee DPOY before Odrick. Once again, Odrick deserved the honors he received as All-Big Ten, but there were several more deserving players this year in the Big Ten to be defensive player of the year.
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I can understand not giving DPOY to Jones – there’s an argument to be made that his tackle numbers are inflated (after all, somebody’s gotta get the tackle, assuming it’s not a touchdown, and it’s not like anyone else on our D is likely to get one). But I do not understand the Odrick pick either. He wouldn’t be my first pick from PSU, let alone from the conference as a whole.
Agree re: Jones
If you’re going to give the award to an outstanding player on a bad defense, Brandon Graham would be the pick IMO (as heretical as that may sound).
I wonder if the votes were just really broadly distributed by the coaches and Odrick somehow came out ahead with a relatively small number.
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by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 23, 2009 10:34 PM CST up reply actions
Cosign on Graham
He was an absolute monster every game. He could have gone pro last year and came back to see things right as a senior. It would have been crazy to imagine just how much worse the Michigan D would have been without him, singlehandedly killing drives, runs, scaring QBs, causing fumbles, blocking punts. 600 yards a game given up? 13,000? At some point a few weeks ago I decided he was my favorite Michigan player ever.
Cosign again
It’s practically a petition now. Graham was monstrous. Remember the hit on Glenn Winston on the short yardage play? Just came completely free into the backfield and decked him a step or two after he got the ball.
by witless chum on Nov 24, 2009 4:00 PM CST up reply actions
Also
One non-travesty: Blair White gets 1st team honors from the coaches and 2nd team honors from the media.
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by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 23, 2009 10:41 PM CST reply actions
Swenson
I have no idea why he isn’t unanimous. Two 52 yard FGs in one game. That is just dumb.
Honestly, the name that sticks out the most to me is Wisniewski, C from Penn State. This is odd because Penn State spent most of the first half of the yearing saying how he had really fallen off after being moved to Center. Joe Paterno even had a comment about that.
I don’t konw who I would name in his place, but I don’t think I’d name him.
Odrick....
The people who did the gameplans understood his impact on the team. He sucked up a double team every play, and helped make the entire defense better. The linebackers ran free, the secondary wasn’t tested as much, and the DEs were able to make more sacks. When a player is able to do that he is the best player. Odrick didn’t get the media hype/exposure, or sexy stats, but I am willing to bet that he was the guy that opposing coaches noticed first, and planned around accordingly.
On another note, I agree with Wisniewski, as a guard he would have been hands down first team, but as a center that was a bit of a reach. This may be a case of no one else is even close. I dunno…But he was one of our best lineman nonetheless.
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by carolinaeasy on Nov 24, 2009 1:54 PM CST reply actions 2 recs
That's all fine and good re: Odrick
But Graham was doubled most plays too as teams quickly figured out that blocking him with one guy usually meant either a blown-up play or holding. Not his fault his free-running linebackers and safeties usually ran freely past the ballcarrier or freely ran the wrong direction or freely failed to get back into their zone drops.
by Yinka Double Dare on Nov 24, 2009 3:16 PM CST up reply actions
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