SB Nation - Joe Webb

UAB 13 @ Ole Miss 48 - Numbers - EDIT: Drive Chart Added

The Ghost of Jay Cutler — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:30:19 -0000

More photos » by Rogelio V. Solis - AP

Mississippi kick returner Jesse Grandy (10) sprints past UAB defender Jim Mitchell (40) on his way to returning the opening kickoff 88-yards for a touchdown.

Browse more photos »

Y'all know the deal. We're hardly casual Rebels. On Autumn Saturdays we do things like actually go to the games, eat and drink until we regret it, drink some more to shoo the regret away, and party with you fair readers. As such, we're likely never to have information and analysis immediately after the game and, if we were to, it sure as shit wouldn't be lurid.

So Whiskey Wednesday will give his impressions soon. I'll share some numbers and my thoughts thereon.

DISCLAIMER: UAB IS NOT GOOD. DO NOT LET ANY OF THIS EXCITE YOU TOO MUCH.

We were pretty efficient on third downs, going 8 of 13. I am curious as to how that will translate against an Arkansas team which, as our Rebels, is still pretty hard to figure out.
We had a whopping 150 more yards offensively than the Blazers. Much of their yards came off of Joe Webb scrambles as he tallied 121 yards on the ground. Joe Webb, by the way, may be the single most elusive SOB we're going to play all season. He wiggled out of tough situations as if he were dipped in bacon grease before every play.
The Joe Webb show did allow the Blazers to outgain us on the ground, but they did have several more rushing attempts than our Rebels. Furthermore, we did not have as many big running plays as they. We had a few (Bolden's run comes to mind) but hardly what Joe Webb was able to somehow accomplish.
Joe Webb's pick thrown to Jeremy McGee in the Rebel endzone was the game's only turnover.
Jevan Snead looked pretty good, albeit against the nation's worst passing defense. 15-22, 240YDS, 3TD, 0INT is a good line. It could have been better, had some receivers caught balls that hit them, you know, in their hands. I know it was cold and all, but step it up, Rebel wideouts.
Nathan Stanley also looked damn fine, throwing for 98 yards in the fourth quarter and being a dropped Melvin Harris pass away (the throw was good, Harris only got one hand on the ball though) from having thrown two touchdowns. As we at the Cup have said for the past two seasons now, this guy has great touch on deep routes.
Rodney Scott, thank you. You squatty, muscley, fearless freshman you. Not only has your arrival done things like make Cordera Eason and Enrique Davis play harder, but you have now decided to supplement your presence with a couple of touchdowns on 6.3YPC.

Those are the numbers. Whiskey Wednesday with the strategic, emotional, and cultural observations soon.

EDIT: Drive Chart from Rocky Top Talk added. As you can see, our Rebs sarted out slowly, progressing the drives a bit more each time, before scoring on five straight drives.

FULL SCREEN VERSION

UAB Postgame Stat Review

Beergut — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:23:44 -0000

Final - 9.26.2009	1	2	3	4	Total
UAB Blazers	3	3	6	7	19
Texas A&M Aggies	7	21	14	14	56

Complete Coverage >

SB Nation Full Boxscore

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Passing					Rushing
	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	Rush	Yds	Avg	TD
Jerrod Johnson	23	29	80.0	290	3	14	61	4.4	3

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Cyrus Gray	19	99	5.2	1	1	0	0	0

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Receiving
	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Howard Morrow	5	71	14.2	0

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Receiving
	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Jamie McCoy	5	59	11.8	0

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Passing					Receiving
	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	Rec	Yds	Avg	TD
Ryan Tannehill	1	1	100.0	8	0	3	101	33.7	1

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Receiving
	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Ryan Swope	2	12	6.0	1

First fo all, it has to be mentioned that Jerrod has broken set another school record, becoming the first Aggie QB to have three passing and three rushing TDs in the same game. Cyrus Gray stepped up big; Gray and Johnson were the Aggies' running game, combining for 160 of the team's 236 total rushing yards (68% of their production). Jamie McCoy and Howard Morrow were two of Jerrod's favorite targets, with 5 receptions each. Ryan Swope finally broke into the stat column, garnering his first career reception and his first TD catch. Ryan Tannehill was his usual awesome self, but the big thing to me is that Jerrod hit other receivers (McCoy among them) on third down, so he's not just focusing on Tannehill; he is spreading the ball around.

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Tackles			Sacks		Interceptions
	Solo	Ast	Total	Sacks	Yds	Int	Yds	IntTD
Von Miller	3	2	5	2	8	0	0	0

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Tackles			Sacks		Interceptions
	Solo	Ast	Total	Sacks	Yds	Int	Yds	IntTD
Matt Featherston	2	1	3	1	7	0	0	0

vs UAB / 9.26.09	Tackles			Sacks		Interceptions
	Solo	Ast	Total	Sacks	Yds	Int	Yds	IntTD
Eddie Brown	3	2	5	1	5	0	0	0

Von Miller turned in another solid performance, but the big news in his backup, Matt Featherston, getting his first sack of the season. We apparently had both Featherston and Miller on the field at the same time on some downs, an alignment I was hoping for in the offseason. I think they make a fearsome duo in the pass rush.

Eddie Brown had another solid outing, collecting 5 tackles and his first sack of the season. Brown, Featherston, and Miller combined for all four sacks in the game, a nice accomplishment on a dual-threat QB like Joe Webb. We're going to need a good [pass rush next week in the Southwest Classic against Ryan Mallett and Arkansas.

Overall, you have to be happy with the way this game turned out. We got the blowout win we needed, we were able ot get some more players involved in the offense and defense, and we didn't have any significant injuries.

Alabama-Birmingham Statistical Preview

Beergut — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:57:46 -0000

Let's take a look at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers:

The first player you need to know about is senior QB Joe Webb.

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
2009 - Joe Webb	3	73.0	44	77	57.1	561	187	7.3	5	5	57	367	122.3	6.4	3	-	-

Webb is both the team leader in passing and rushing; he is basically their whole offense. The bad news is that he is an effective dual threat QB, averaging 309 yds per game total offense, rushing and passing. The good news is that he hurts his own team as much as he helps it, with his 5 TD passes being offset by his 5 interceptions.

Webb's favorite targets are WR Frantrell Forrest

G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD	KR	YDS	AVG	Lng	TD	PR	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD
	Receiving							Kickoff Returns					Punt Returns
3	10	165	55.0	16.5	3	4	91	22.8	26	0	0	0	0	0	0

and TE Jeffrey Anderson

G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD	KR	YDS	AVG	Lng	TD	PR	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD
	Receiving							Kickoff Returns					Punt Returns
3	9	136	45.3	15.1	2	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Together, they are responsible for 53% of his passing yardage, and all of his TD passes.

When Webb isn't carrying the ball, Dexter Barnett is the one he hands off to.

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
2009 - Dexter Barnett	3	15	58	19.3	3.9	1	3	3	1	1	0

Controlling Webb and Barnett will be the key to shutting down the Blazers running game.

Defensively, the Blazers are pedestrian to poor, giving up an average of 459.7 yds per game total offense (126 rushing, 333.7 passing), and allowing opponents to score 28.7 points per game on them. Defensively, the Blazers are led by CB Terell Springs and S Chase Daniel (apparently Missouri's former QB has been located after he disappeared off the Washington Redskins roster). I've always said when your top two tacklers on defense are members of your secondary, you have some real issues on defense, and UAB has some real issues on their defense.

Offensively, our no-huddle spread attack should be able to move the ball and score on UAB's defense. We should be able to run the ball, and we should be able to go to the air early and often. With Jeff Fuller injured, I expect us to go to Uzoma Nwachukwu, Jamie McCoy, Howard Morrow, and Kenric McNeal often as we work on building depth and try to replace his production.

Defensively, we need to focus on containing Webb, so he isn't able to run wild and move the chains. We need to force the Give read in their option game, so we can target stopping Dexter Barnett. If we can cover Forrest and Anderson in the passing game, we should be able to slow their passing game, and force Webb to go to his other receivers.

Ultimately, I think we'll win this game somewhere along the lines of 42-20.

Comparison: Tennessee versus UAB and WKU

Year2 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:00:37 -0000

Since we only have a week of football under our belts, the only thing we can do right now for comparison's sake is look at what teams did last year versus what they did this year. So with that in mind, let's take a look at how Tennessee did against UAB last year and Western Kentucky this year.

I don't mean to suggest that UAB and WKU are on the same level, because UAB is a better team all around. Tennessee simply didn't play anyone as bad as WKU last year, and the UAB game was Tennessee's best all around. That's why I chose it as the comparison point.

As with previous comparisons, sack yardage has been taken out of the rushing totals.

OFFENSE

CATEGORY	vs. UAB	vs. WKU
Total Yards	557	657
Passing	282	277
Yds. per Pass	8.5	8.7
Rushing	275	380
Yds. Per Rush	6.9	8.6
Turnovers	2	3
Time of Poss.	31:14	32:59
Sacks All.	1 (-9 yards)	0

Tennessee's offense did step it up, gaining a hundred more yards and going without a sack. Anything less against WKU though would have been a disappointment. Now, for all the cheering over Jonathan Crompton's passing versus the Hilltoppers, it was nothing that he (and Nick Stephens) didn't do last year against UAB. The yardage is basically the same, the yards per pass is the same, and he threw two interceptions against both opponents.

Look at Crompton's personal numbers. Against UAB: 19/31, 240 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 7.7 yards per pass. Against WKU: 21/28, 233 yards, 5 TD, 2 INT, 8.3 yards per pass. He had a higher completion percentage, more touchdowns, and a half yard more per pass. That honestly doesn't impress me much because of how bad WKU is even in relation to UAB and because of the tremendous run support.

The real revelation in this game wasn't so much Crompton's play, though it was good to see him not in a perpetual state of confusion, but the rushing game. The zone blocking scheme and the large stable of talented backs made the Vol offense a terror versus WKU. I said this in the preseason and I'll say it again now. Tennessee's best bet for offensive success is to lean on the rushing game.

DEFENSE

CATEGORY	vs. UAB	vs. WKU
Total Yards	282	124
Passing	167	49
Yds. per Pass	4.9	3.1
Rushing	115	75
Yds. Per Rush	4.6	3.1
Turnovers	3	3
Time of Poss.	28:46	27:01
Sacks For	1 (-7 yards)	5 (-41 yards)

There's not really much to say. The defense is still very good, just like everyone thought, and WKU doesn't have anything on offense resembling the quality of UAB's Joe Webb. This side of the game was always going to be ugly, and the numbers bear that out.

Tennessee's performance was exactly as it should have been. The Vols blew out a vastly inferior opponent by a large margin. The improvement in the running game was very evident, but the numbers don't yet support a revolution in the passing game. UCLA isn't a great team, but the Bruins will at least provide a lot stiffer test tomorrow than WKU did last week. I consider Tennessee a cautious "buy" at this point, but a bad game tomorrow might easily put them back as a "hold" for now.

Previous Comparison: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, South Carolina.

Five Reasons Texas Tech Will Win // Rice Owls Edition

Seth C — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:00:34 -0000

This weekly feature considers five reasons why Texas Tech will win and five reasons Texas Tech will lose to each opponent. Related: Five Reasons Texas Tech Will Lose // Rice Owls Edition.

Reason #1 :: Correctable Mistakes: It makes little sense for me to give one of the reasons that Texas Tech will lose and somehow have a related reason why Texas Tech will win. Well, the nice thing about quite a few of those mistakes is that they are correctable. From Leach's post-game comments the aggressive defensive play doesn't seem to bother him much, but the one thing that Texas Tech can control are the 3 false start and 2 illegal formation penalties. Those are correctable mistakes with nothing more than a little concentration. The Potts interceptions are also mistakes that can be fixed, or at the very least limited. Potts first interception occurred on UND own 13 yardline and the second interception on the UND 15 yard line. There's two places that a quarterback doesn't want to throw an interception. Inside his own 20 yard line and inside the opponent 20 yard line. Becoming efficient in this offense doesn't happen overnight and we're all reminded by the fact that Graham Harrell completed 19 of 46 passes against Nevada in his second game of the 2008 campaign (Leach mentioned this earlier in the week). All was forgotten because of what happened the rest of the year, but the key is that quarterbacks in this offense can and will have bad games, but it's all about limiting your mistakes.

Reason #2 :: Defensive Front Seven: Universally, this was by far the best producing unit of the day on Saturday and I'm expecting nothing but improvement from this group each and every game. As this group gets more and more time, especially some of the backups, the more comfortable I become. Aside from a very long UND drive, the defensive front held up their part of the bargain on Saturday. Whether it was the outstanding linebacker play or the defensive tackles who didn't make a bunch of plays or the defensive ends who brought pressure most of the day. I'm hoping that we can look forward to more of this the entire season. There's talent there, and there's even talent there that's not starting.

Reason #3 :: Running Opportunity: 295 yards. That's the total number of yards that Rice gave up on the ground last week against UAB. Of those 295 yards, 194 was done by the talented UAB quarterback Joe Webb. Of course you're asking if this can really be a reason why Texas Tech can win considering the paltry performance last week against UND. This isn't just a reason why Texas Tech can win, it is the reason Texas Tech must win. It's absolutely imperative that the running game get on some sort of track, especially before the Longhorns come calling. Rember that it wasn't too long ago that the Red Raiders ran for a meager 79.31 yards a game which was good for only 8 wins in 2006. That can not and should not happen again.

Reason #4 :: Varied Receiving Threats: Leach mentioned during his Monday press briefing and said that the true definition of a balanced offense isn't necessarily a run vs. pass ratio, but how many offensive players can get their hands on the ball with the ability to do something. Last week against UND, the Red Raiders had 10 receivers catch at least one pass. That's what Leach ultimately wants, is an offense where the defense has no idea where the ball is going to go and that each receiver is a true threat to catch the ball.

Reason #5 :: Improved Special Teams: There was a lot of good with the special teams (please forget the fake punt) against UND and credit goes to new special teams coach Eric Russell who decided on CB Jamar Wall, 1 punt return for 17 yards, and IR Austin Zouzalik, 3 punt returns for 33 yards, for a very effective punt return duo. Exclusively used WR Edward Britton returning kickoffs to the tune of 4 for 115 yards, an average of 28.75 yards a return. Kicker Matthew Williams was 5 for 5 on extra points, plus a field goal good for 32 yard field goal. And to top it all off, the guy that took the most heat last year, K/P Donnie Carona had one punt, good for 40 yards, and kicked off 7 different times and 4 touchbacks. For those of you who don't do math in your head (i.e., me) that's a 57.14% rate, which by far leads the Big 12. That is a huge weapon and I'm tickled that Russell is getting tremendous use out of a guy who struggled to find a place on this team last year due to his field goal woes.

Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe :: 09.10.09

Seth C — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:28:53 -0000

Odds and Ends

SB Nation Relaunch: Please, please, please head on over to SBNation.com where you'll find a lively new place to get all of your sports news. This has been a huge problem for me lately as I would subscribe to every SB Nation college blog and within the last month, due to the tremendous growth of SBNation.com, I couldn't keep up with all of the incredible posts from thoughts from bloggers in the network and just yesterday unsubscribed to a majority of those blogs and have now subscribed to the new SBNation.com, figuring that I needed a collector of news rather than trying to do that myself. Check out the welcome post and what SBNation.com hopes to accomplish as well as coverage in the Washington Post.

Texas Tech Football

I Am Offended by this Old Caricature: I can't believe the gall of the Rice athletic department to portray the Red Raider as a happy-go-lucky masked bandit (hat-tip The Rice Football Webletter for the cool old cartoon):

via ricefootball.net

Rice Looking to Show Skillz: LAJ's Adam Zuvanich writes that the Rice Owls are looking to show their skills as Rice defensive coordinator had this to say:

"It’ll sound crazy, but we probably have a little better chance of slowing Tech down," said Rice defensive coordinator Chuck Driesbach, whose unit allowed Webb to rush for 194 yards, a Conference USA record for a quarterback. "We thought we had a chance to slow Joe Webb down, but he proved us wrong. He was more athletic than us."

Yes, that does sound crazy. Stopping a quality offense, no matter the form of attack, is difficult if the defense is awful, and from all accounts, the Rice defense this year (102nd in total defense) and last year (111th in total defense) was and is awful.

Running Game Rebound: DT's Alex Ybarra writes that the Texas Tech running game looks to make a huge improvement over last week's performance (more on this in this afternoon's Five Reasons Texas Tech Will Win):

Tech averaged more than 100 yards per game on the ground last season. There were only two games in which it didn’t reach that mark.

It was a different story against North Dakota.

The Red Raiders averaged 2.1 yards per carry. They maxed out at 40 rushing yards — Baron Batch had 30 on nine carries while Harrison Jeffers had 16 yards on a measly two carries.

Even with less chances, Jeffers showed some of his explosion, prompting Tech coach Mike Leach to acknowledge he should have received more touches.

Texas Tech Team Report: RRS.com's team report has lots of notes and quotes including this key to the game:

Keys To The Game: Rice is coming off a 10-3 season capped by a win in the Texas Bowl, but the Owls were forced to reload, which was evident in a 44-24 season-opening loss against Conference-USA rival Alabama-Birmingham. Gone are QB Chase Clement, TE James Casey and WR Jarett Dillard. Defensively, the Owls allowed 412 total yards to UAB QB Joe Webb. WR Toren Dixon caught a career-high nine passes to lead the Owls.

Neglected Audio and Video: KAMC with a report on the new Rice quarterback and receiver options.

Smart Football Gets Its Own Subject Line: Smart Football's Chris Brown had an interesting look at how the BYU Cougars offense was able to beat the Oklahoma Sooners and give credit to former Texas Tech coach Robert Anae, who is BYU's current offensive coordinator. Also, EDSBS asks Brown what makes an offense terrible.

National and Big 12 Links: The most recent BlogPoll was released yesterday and the Red Raiders still sit outside the top 25 . . . FWST's Jimmy Burch wonders if the Oklahoma St. Cowboys are ready for act II, which is the Houston Cougars . . . The Daily Texas notes that Big 12 teams are now focusing on defense rather than offense and has their own power rankings . . .

Position Matchups :: Rice vs. Texas Tech

Seth C — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:00:18 -0000

Check out the fancy table after the jump.

		MATCHUP
QB/WR: It seems unlikely after so much hoopla about the depth of the receiving corp and the stronger arm of Taylor Potts, but as with most things, the transition from first-time-starter to well-oiled machine takes time. For a first game, it's not all bad (70.83% completion rate and 8.44 yards per attempt), and in fact I think the thing that I take away from Saturday's win is that the mistakes that Potts made are correctable. Interceptions in your own territory and not converting on 4th down inside your opponent's own 5 yard line are things that can (hopefully) be corrected. I do like the fact that IR Detron Lewis averaged 18.3 YPC, which is surprising, especially considering he had so many yards after catch. Potts did spread the ball around to 10 different receivers and besides Lewis, Lyle Leong had a good day as did Alexander Torres and Adam James.		QB/WR vs. DB		DB: The leader of this group is S Andrew Sendejo, however, and he could certainly cause concern for Potts throwing over the middle. However, the entire Rice secondary may be in some serious need of re-tooling in the second week of the season. UAB QB Joe Webb was an efficient 12-15 for 221 yards and 2 TD's last week, although there's certainly something to be said for having to also guard against Webb's ability to scramble, for 198 yards to be exact, an incredible figure. The Rice secondary won't have to guard against that with Potts so the Red Raiders may see an entirely different effort. Even then, it can't be good that 2 UAB receivers averaged over 20 yards a catch on Saturday.
RB: What was supposed to be a strength turned out to be a pretty big dud on Saturday. The Texas Tech running attack was non-existent on Saturday although I don't know how to much blame to put on the runners or the guys up front. Let's just assume that Baron Batch may not have been fully healthy and if that's the case, then there's room for improvement. The running backs had a total of 11 carries between Batch (9), Harrison Jeffers (2) and Eric Stephens (1). One of two things needs to happen: Potts needs to check down to the running game more often or Leach needs to make it more of a priority this week against a susceptible Rice rushing defense.		RB vs. LB		LB: The Rice linebackers didn't do much to stop the run against UAB. Starters Terrance Garmon (7 tackles, all assists) and Justin Hill (3) tackles weren't overly active on the defensive front while the UAB offense ran for 295 yards on 39 carries. That's over 7.5 yards per carry. Granted, almost 200 of those yards came from the UAB quarterback, but even then, you'd have to think that the linebackers would do a better job stopping the run.
OL: There's quite an opportunity here for the Texas Tech offensive line. It should be pointed out that the offensive line did give up 1 sack, although I think expectations should have been that no sacks should have been given up. With the injury to Marlon Winn and the shuffling of the offensive line, there may have been some consistency issues. Most Red Raider fans would like to see a nastier group this week and I think that Matt Moore has built up enough credibility to either make a change or motivate some players to step up their game.	PUSH	OL vs. DL	PUSH	DL: Still cannot get over the fact that UAB rushed for almost 300 yards. As bad as the Texas Tech rushing offense, the Rice defensive front may have been worse. Even though there was 39 rushing attempts, the Owls only managed 3 tackles for a loss, one of which was a sack. The defensive front for Rice hardly touched a UAB defender as Cheta Ozougwau (2 tackles), John Gioffre (1 tackle), Scott Solomon (4 tackles) and Kramer Lucio (2 tackles) hardly made an impact, with only one of those tackles, a Solomon sack, was for a loss.
DL: This effort was expected as the defensive line did dominate. Not to inflate the statistics because of the opponent, but the Texas Tech defense only allowed 73 yards rushing on 29 attempts, good for a 2.51 yards per attempt average. The biggest disappointment from this group was the two personal foul penalties that kept a UND drive alive for much longer than needed. Rajon Henley really made some nice plays as he had 5 tackles, including 1 sack and fellow defensive end Daniel Howard also had a sack, although I understand he was close to having multiple sacks. Texas Tech gets a slight edge, but I'm interested what Rice can do on Saturday.		DL vs. OL		OL: The Rice offensive line did open up some holes for the Owl rushing attack and a pretty decent 4.58 yards per attempt isn't half bad. Not to mention, UAB only managed 1 sack for the day and you're talking about a fairly solid effort. I don't think that you can pin the Rice offensive woes on the O-line. In fact, Rice's first three possessions were either turned over because of a fumble or a missed field goal. Again, not necessarily the offensive line. However, the offense did sputter for 4 of Rice's 12 offensive drives.
LB: This was certainly a game where the Texas Tech linebackers played well. The defense was led by Marlon Williams (10 tackles, 2 TFL), who said that the defensive line allowed the linebackers to make plays all night. Bront Bird (4 tackles) made the hit of the night while Brian Duncan (4 tackles) had a relatively quiet night. Again, being part of a defense that allowed only 73 net yards rushing is pretty good.		LB vs. RB		RB: The Rice running backs didn't have a stellar day, although Charles Ross was tremendous on his very limited 5 carries for 37 yards. Tyler Smith was solid in his starting debut, but only had 11 carries for 47 yards for the entire game. You would think that the Rice offense would have relied a little more on their runners since they were starting a new quarterback (sound familiar?). It was also somewhat strange to see 5 Rice running backs receive carries on Saturday. You would think that you'd try to limit to two or three at the most.
DB: Somewhat hard to gauge as the Texas Tech secondary allowed UND to complete 20 passes for the night, but only allowed 6.7 yards per attempt. Not too bad, but there's room for improvement. There's no doubt that Rice will attempt the same type of passing attack against Texas Tech, and defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill typically will play off of receivers in this type of game, a game the offense could win single-handedly, and you'd like for this group to make some plays, whether they be interceptions or otherwise. Another indication that the defense played off of UND was the fact that freshman S Will Ford had the only pass break-up of the night.		DB vs. QB/WR		QB/WR: The QB combination of J.T. Shepherd and Nick Fanuzzi wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't an abject failure either. I do think that Fanuzzi will get the call on Saturday and although he did fumble, he was the better passer of the two. Receivers Toren Dixon the main target with 9 cathes while Luke Willson, a tight end, had a 52 yard reception for a touchdown. With Fanuzzi at QB, I'd expect the recievers to be much more involved and I think these are capable players, especially since the Texas Tech defense is probably going to play off the line of scrimmage.

BlogPoll Calling: Week One Ballot Submitted

Todd — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:09:55 -0000

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Florida
2	Texas
3	Alabama
4	Southern Cal	1
5	Ohio State	2
6	LSU
7	California	2
8	Georgia Tech
9	Mississippi	1
10	Penn State	2
11	Oklahoma State	3
12	Brigham Young	7
13	Oklahoma	9
14	TCU	1
15	Boise State
16	North Carolina	1
17	Virginia Tech	6
18	Cincinnati
19	Michigan State	3
20	Arkansas	3
21	Miami (Florida)
22	Texas Tech	1
23	Nebraska
24	Iowa	6
25	UAB
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Oregon (#16), Georgia (#20), West Virginia (#24).

Explanations, etc.:

Cincinnati makes it's debut in the Top 25 after completely dismantling Rutgers yesterday. I was tempted to put them in to begin on the strength of Brian Kelly's coaching alone, but with only 1 starter back on defense I just wasn't too sure about the Bearcats. They have my attention now.
By that same token, West Virginia is out after struggling with Liberty and being included in the first place behind the oh so solid reasoning "someone has to win the Big East, right?" Yes, someone does, and judging by this weekend's results they are the Bearcats
Oregon is out of the poll for obvious reasons.
Nebraska makes their debut as well on the strength of needing someone to replace Oregon and their so called football team.
It may seem weird to move Ohio State up after they scraped by Navy, but considering how difficult it is to defend that offense when you never see it and can't duplicate in practice I have to give them some credit for finding a way to win.
LSU got jumped because they had far too much trouble with Washington, and what should have been an improved defense for them gave up more yardage than it did in any game last year, including against Florida, to a team that didn't win a single game last year.
I expected the Miami/FSU game to be the usual craptacular display that it's become, but that was a great game and both teams looked solid on both sides of the ball. I said I would rank whoever won, so here are the 'Canes at #21.
Iowa is still ranked for some reason, though I've flopped them back to the bottom of the poll and put Michigan State back higher.
UAB stays at 25 'til they lose. Go Blazers.

Joe Webb, your CUSA Offensive Player of the Week after racking up 415 yards of total offense and four total TDs.

Brandt takes a look at senior quarterbacks

Mocking Dan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:52:34 -0000

Gil Brandt of NFL.com has been in the draft game just as long as anyone. Each week for the next couple of months he'll be previewing the best seniors at a position.

The first position he tackles is quarterback. Here's how he ranks them:

1. Tim Tebow, Florida
2. Colt McCoy, Texas
3. Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan
4. Jarrett Brown, West Virginia
5. Tim Hiller, Western Michigan
6. Zac Robinson, Oklahoma State
7. Tony Pike, Cincinnati
8. Isiah Williams, Illinois
9. John Skelton, Fordham
10. Max Hall, BYU
11. Rusty Smith, Florida Atlantic
12. Joe Webb, Alabama-Birmingham

Looking over this quickly, most of these guys run a spread offense and several of them are running quarterbacks. Brandt has little blurbs about each, so check it out.

I won't be listing my quarterback rankings for a while, so let's talk about these guys a little bit. Out of these 12, which really strike you as possible starting quarterbacks at the next level? In my opinion that list includes McCoy and Hiller. The others are a real crapshoot.

The only name that caught my eye is Skelton. I've never seen a Fordham game. If you have, I encourage you to share some thoughts on him and whether or not he's a player worth digging some stuff up on.

Also: Brandt's cohort Bucky Brooks gives his top 16 overall players. First among them is Oklahoma State offensive tackle Russell Okung. No real eye poppers on Brooks' list.

SB Nation - Joe Webb

UAB 13 @ Ole Miss 48 - Numbers - EDIT: Drive Chart Added

UAB Postgame Stat Review

Alabama-Birmingham Statistical Preview

Comparison: Tennessee versus UAB and WKU

Five Reasons Texas Tech Will Win // Rice Owls Edition

Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe :: 09.10.09

Odds and Ends

Texas Tech Football

Position Matchups :: Rice vs. Texas Tech

MATCHUP

QB/WR vs. DB

RB vs. LB

PUSH

OL vs. DL

PUSH

DL vs. OL

LB vs. RB

DB vs. QB/WR

BlogPoll Calling: Week One Ballot Submitted

Brandt takes a look at senior quarterbacks