SB Nation - Daverin Geralds

Rebel Roundup - 9/1/09

The Ghost of Jay Cutler — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:07:26 -0000

Alabama football player Brandon Deaderick shot | The Tuscaloosa News
Last night, Alabama defensive end Brandon Deaderick was shot at Rivermont Apartments in Tuscaloosa. He is in good condition and the wound is, thankfully, not at all life-threatening, but I imagine he is still shaken up pretty badly. Opponent or not, I hate to hear about such a senseless, violent act happening to someone whose only crime was sticking up to a robber. Get well soon, Brandon.

Rebel Captains Named
I don't know how I didn't post this yesterday, but here they are:
Defense - Kendrick Lewis, Patrick Trahan, Marcus Tillman, and Marshay Green
Offense - Daverin Geralds, John Jerry, and Dexter McCluster

Nutt/Snead press conference transcript | RebelSports.net
If you sift through the typical coachspeak, you'll get some tidbits out of this one. Namely, Jesse Grandy will see playing time, Logan Clair is likely to redshirt, Nutt feels Snead is doing everything very well, and a few of our freshman receivers will receive redshirts.

Memphis State hopes you’re happy now, cripples | The Godfrey Show
I'm certain this will go over well with the eMemphis Fans. Godfrey does have a very good point though: Memphis wants a pat on the back for finally making the Liberty Bowl compliant with guidelines set forth by the Americans with Disablilities Act... 19 years after the damn law was passed.

Rebel Roundup - 8/26/09

The Ghost of Jay Cutler — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:20:57 -0000

More photos » by Rogelio V. Solis - AP

Jevan Snead says "seriously, do you idiots want a tie or not? Submit to the contest."

Browse more photos »

Keep Submissions Coming
I know plenty more of you have something in mind for the Southern Proper/RCR contest but have not yet simply elucidated it. Just make sure to get them in soon. If we don't get enough submissions, nobody's getting a tie or a shirt--save for Juco. Tough shit.

Ole Miss stadium expansion pondered | Parrish Alford
With the never-before-seen clusterfuck that is buying an Ole Miss ticket right about now, Pete Boone has actually talked about possibly expanding Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. If we keep experiencing ticket sales like we are now, this is only to be expected. My suggestions would generally involve the removal of those horrible north endzone bleachers, allowing for the east and west sides to wrap around until they reach the PoweTron. Then, under the PoweTron, there could be some seating and a pavillion type thing as to not obstruct the screen.

Players Getting Healthy | David Brandt
Hardy, Lockett, Jason Jones, and Gerald Harris all should be fine in time for Memphis. Hardy, Lockett, and Jones all practiced yesterday.

For the Old-Fashioned Sports Columnist, It's Game Over | The New York Observer
This, along with something similar written by Spencer Hall, looks at the future of the Rick Clevelands of the world. With the omnipresence of the internet and it's incredible accessability, traditional print media is evolving. Some (Tim Brando's loud ass comes to mind) find this threatening, while others (David Brandt) have completely embraced it. As a bloggeur and general bane of the existence of frumpy old media types, I think it is important to delineate the difference between what I do and what the "mainstream media" does. First of all, I'm not a journalist. I have never claimed to be such. I am a fan with an opinion who, along with other folks of a similar ilk, runs a website through which our opinions are expressed. Second of all, all I have done is taken a new media form and used it to publicly broadcast and store my thoughts. Why that is so threatening, I'll never know. To those who are afraid that their media is dying in favor of our rogueish tomfoolery, I'd like to remind you that if people didn't enjoy the blogosphere, they wouldn't visit it. We may write something more on this later.

Assessing Ole Miss' top-10 credentials, point-by-point | Dr. Saturday
I've been looking forward to this piece for a while now. Matt "Dr. Saturday" Hinton has expressed his reservations about Ole Miss' chances this fall on numerous occasions over the last few months, albeit subtly. Finally, he has written a complete piece on what he feels it will take Ole Miss to win big this upcoming season. It is--as with all of his work--well written and fairly well researched. He concludes that Jevan Snead is a badass, Mike Oher will be missed, we'll make-do without Peria Jerry due to a deep defensive line, our defense should somewhat improve upon last season, and that, through our 2008 victory in the Swamp, we have proven that we can beat elite teams. He also concludes that the assumption that "(Ole Miss') overall talent level is higher than it's been in years" is "busted." I have some contention with this. I have always thought that Hinton relies too heavily on Rivals.com recruiting class rankings to ascern the talent level of any given team. I find this to be a highly flawed metric in that he is putting a ton of stock in rankings designed to determine the potential of a high school athlete to do well at the next level while looking very little into what they have actually done since arriving on campus. I know I've linked it before, but in Andy Staples' recruiting class "re-rankings," which are all based entirely on production in college, the Ole Miss 2006 recruiting class was ranked 7th. No, not 7th in the SEC. 7th in the nation. That class had some all-SEC and even all-American caliber guys like Greg Hardy, Dexter McCluster, Shay Hodge, and Daverin Geralds who contributed very little to the class' Rivals.com rankings.

Trust us, Matt. Ole Miss' overall talent level is higher than it's been in years. Don't let a bunch of yellow .gif stars fool you. Other than that difference in opinion, I thought it was an excellent look at our Rebels.

Finally, This'll Arouse You a Little

Previewing Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss: Offensive Line

Seth C — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:00:07 -0000

OFFENSIVE LINE

Player	Ht/Wt	Class	Position
Stephen Hamby	6'3"/292	Sr.	Center
Brandon Carter	6'7"/354	Jr.	Guard
Louis Vasquez	6'6"/335	Sr.	Guard
Marlon Winn	6'6"/325	Jr.	Tackle
Rylan Reed	6'7"/305	Sr.	Tackle
Ryan Hale	6'1"/227	Sr.	Fullback/Tight End
Adam James	6'3"/217	Fr.	Tight End
Daverin Geralds	6'2"/312	Jr.	Center
Maurice Miller	6'4"/343	Sr.	Guard
Darryl Harris	6'3"/300	Sr.	Guard
John Jerry	6'5"/350	Jr.	Tackle
Michael Oher	6'5"/318	Sr.	Tackle
David Traxler	6'6"/255	Sr.	Tight End

Texas Tech

Scary

I was trying to figure out a statistical method of determining the overall play of the offensive lines and although I don't have the mathematical smarts of Rock M Nation I did come up with a few metrics to figure out offensive line play.

Up first, passing stats. Texas Tech gave up 5 sacks for 604 passing attempts, which turns out to be 1 sack for every 120.8 attempts. In terms of a percentage, the Red Raiders are giving up a sack at a 0.83% rate, which is unbelievable. This offensive line has done an unbelievable job of keeping Graham Harrell upright all season long. I wish I had the time to look at offensive lines and how they have historically done as this seems almost unbelievable considering the volume of attempts that Texas Tech has. Granted, most of those throws are short passes, but still, this offensive line is outstanding at protecting it's quarterback.

The running statistics are plainly yards per attempt, where Texas Tech averages 4.71 yards per attempt and to top it off, Texas Tech averages a touchdown for every 10.82 attempts (303 rushing attempts and 28 touchdowns). For comparison purposes, this leads the nation. Again, pretty amazing stats for a team that primarily passes. Nationally, just basing this off of yards per attempt, Texas Tech sits 31st in the nation.

Post-season awards have seen quite a few of Texas Tech's offensive linemen receive accolades. Brandon Carter was named to Phil Steele's 1st team offense and the AFCA coaches' All-America team. Louis Vasquez was named to Steele's 3rd team offense. Rylan Reed was named to the Walter Camp All-American team and ESPN's 1st team all big 12. Bottom line, three of the five offensive linemen have been named on various all-america teams for their play this year (Brandon Carter, Rylan Reed and Louis Vasquez).

Quite frankly, this is an offensive line that folks have noticed and may have missed the most consistent lineman in right tackle, Marlon Winn.

Mississippi

Michael Oher, dominating tackle.

Same stats above apply to grade out Ole Miss' line. Ole Miss gave up 23 sacks in 311 passing attempts, which works out to be one sack for every 13.52 passing attempts. In terms of a percentage, Ole Miss was giving up a sack 7.40% of the time, and as mentioned above, Texas Tech's percentage was 0.83%. These Ole Miss numbers aren't bad, in fact, I think they are pretty good.

As far as rushing statistics, Ole Miss is averaging 4.62 yards per attempt. Nationally, this puts Ole Miss at 36th in the nation in yards per attempt, which is a very good rate. As far as attempts per touchdowns, Ole Miss is scoring 1 touchdown for every 25.05 rushing attempt (476 attempts and 19 touchdowns). This ranks 68th nationally and puts Ole Miss near the top half of punching the ball in the endzone rushing the ball.

Michael Oher is the unquestioned leader of this offensive line and future top 10 pick in the NFL and much like Crabtree, would be silly for me to name every All-American team Oher is on, because it's probably every one. To put it simply, he is absolutely dominating. Michael Oher is to Ole Miss as Michael Crabtree is to Texas Tech.

Tackle John Jerry is on Steele's 2nd All-SEC team , as well as 1st team All-SEC according to the AP, and Ole Miss' other offensive line standout.

Conclusion:

A close matchup again, but a slight edge to Texas Tech. Ole Miss has one absolutely dominating tackle in Oher and Jerry is an All-SEC performer. It bothers me that Ole Miss has given up so many sacks relative to the number of passes. The Texas Tech line does a better job of protecting it's quarterback and is slightly better running the ball on a yards per attempt analysis.

I know that this is looking a little one-sided, but it's not even close to being over. Be patient Ole Miss fans.

Previous Matchups

Quarterbacks :: Running Backs :: Receiver :: Offensive Line :: Defensive Line :: Linebackers :: Secondary :: Special Teams :: Coaching

Matchup	Advantage
Quarterback
Running Back
Receivers
Offensive Line

Poll

Who do you think wins this matchup of offensive lines?

Texas Tech

222 votes

Mississippi

120 votes

342 votes | Poll has closed