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The MAC has announced its 2009 post-season awards:

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BG players honored:

Freddie Barnes, 1st team
Jimmy Schiedler, 2nd team
Tyler Sheehan, 3rd team
Shane Steffy, 3rd team

2009 MAC Specialty Award Winners

Vern Smith Leadership Award Winner: Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan

Coach of the Year: Al Golden, Temple

Offensive Player of the Year: Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan

Defensive Player of the Year: Adrian Robinson, Temple

Special Teams Player of the Year: Antonio Brown, Central Michigan

Freshman of the Year: Bernard Pierce, Temple

I realize LeFevour had the MVP/First Team awards wrapped up in May (and he went out and earned it, don't get me wrong), but I didn't realize they gave lifetime achievement awards for the second team. The lovefest that continued all season for Tim Hiller and WMU as they stunk it up each week confuses me. Tyler got hosed.

But congrats to all on their well-deserved selections!

Freddie got hosed.

Who votes on these awards? Media, coaches, athletic directprs?

I think seeing Freddie and Tyler get short changed just goes to show the bias against spread offense productive players. They rationale I've heard is "Yeah, they put up big numbers, but who wouldn't when you throw the ball on every down?"

If those in our own conference, or those covering us through the local media, buy into that, why woudl we expect the national media to?

TG1996 wrote:I realize LeFevour had the MVP/First Team awards wrapped up in May (and he went out and earned it, don't get me wrong), but I didn't realize they gave lifetime achievement awards for the second team. The lovefest that continued all season for Tim Hiller and WMU as they stunk it up each week confuses me. Tyler got hosed.

But congrats to all on their well-deserved selections!

Agreed, Tyler threw for more yards and had a high QB ranking than Hiller. They both threw for 23 TD, Tyler threw 7 less interceptions. The team record is in favor of Tyler as well.

Yeah, Tyler deserved to be above Hiller, no doubt. But whatever, BG gets hosed AGAIN in the MAC awards. Remember our defensive backs last year getting hosed in the MAC awards? Our entire secondary deserved first team, but Miami had all kinds of MAC all teamers, the Miami team that finished bottom of the MAC or close to it in pass defense.

But congrats Freddie! 1st team all MAC receiver now, 1st team All American soon!

MarkL wrote:Our entire secondary deserved first team,

Uh, no.

[/quote]But congrats Freddie! 1st team all MAC receiver now, 1st team All American soon![/quote]

Yes.

MarkL wrote:Yeah, Tyler deserved to be above Hiller, no doubt. But whatever, BG gets hosed AGAIN in the MAC awards. Remember our defensive backs last year getting hosed in the MAC awards? Our entire secondary deserved first team, but Miami had all kinds of MAC all teamers, the Miami team that finished bottom of the MAC or close to it in pass defense.

But congrats Freddie! 1st team all MAC receiver now, 1st team All American soon!

Saying that our "entire d-backfield " last year deserved 1st team all conf. is really STRETCHING it a bit... I could see either PJ OR Brown making it...but certainly not all four guys.... And I was going to post about Hiller over Tyler too, but several of you beat me to it...of course, I just watched Hiller "implode" last week...only time I saw him play this year. But his Numbers don't match up with Tyler's.

LeFevour is an outstanding QB, and had another great year. I knew he'd walk away with the OPOY, but I still think Freddie's season is more impressive. Barnes is having a historic year at the WR position, and he's doing it without really any other offensive threats around him on the field. Of course LeFevour had a great year, as well and is doing it at the far more important position (not to mention on a more successful team). I suppose it's tough to really argue with LeFevour getting the award, but it's a tough pill to swallow not seeing Barnes take that award with the year he's put together.

Hiller played horribly all year and his team has been lousy. There is absolutely no conceivable way that he should be ahead of Sheehan for the award. That's ridiculous, makes me wonder if the voting was done in August.

Either way, congrats to all the honorees.

hammb wrote:LeFevour is an outstanding QB, and had another great year. I knew he'd walk away with the OPOY, but I still think Freddie's season is more impressive. Barnes is having a historic year at the WR position, and he's doing it without really any other offensive threats around him on the field. Of course LeFevour had a great year, as well and is doing it at the far more important position (not to mention on a more successful team). I suppose it's tough to really argue with LeFevour getting the award, but it's a tough pill to swallow not seeing Barnes take that award with the year he's put together.

Hiller played horribly all year and his team has been lousy. There is absolutely no conceivable way that he should be ahead of Sheehan for the award. That's ridiculous, makes me wonder if the voting was done in August.

Either way, congrats to all the honorees.

When WMU took that Ball State juggernaut to the limit a couple weeks ago the announcers spent a lot of time talking about Hiller being the top ranked QB in the MAC by draft prognosticators and projected in the third round or something. Says more about draft prognosticators than it says about Hiller, I think.

H2O,
What the announcer's said, prior to the game or very early in it, was that Hiller was allegedly ranked as the #6 QB available in the draft.. Like I said in the previous post, I only saw him play once and he looked awful (4 picks I think)... and WMU had a much WORSE season than was expected, so his selection over Tyler made even less sense to me.

Class of 61 wrote:H2O,
What the announcer's said, prior to the game or very early in it, was that Hiller was allegedly ranked as the #6 QB available in the draft.. Like I said in the previous post, I only saw him play once and he looked awful (4 picks I think)... and WMU had a much WORSE season than was expected, so his selection over Tyler made even less sense to me.

Sheehan, LeFevour (of course) and I think Opelt, when healthy, all showed much more than Hiller this year. MAybe his support group was overrated and he certainly has the tangibles-size and a big arm, but no way is he second team.

The only way I could see Hiller getting picked over Sheehan is that such a high percent of Sheehan's completions went to Barnes. I'd still put Sheehan far above, though.

And H2o - I saw Opelt when healthy at Purdue. True, he was in a very high percentage passing offense, but he looked brilliant. He completely outplayed Purdue's QB Elliot. Every read was so quick that the Purdue defensive line did not have the time to even get to the backfield before a receiver caught the ball. Saw him on TV later against Colorado and he looked better. He was better second time around because he didn't just throw to a receiver five yards away from him. He took a lot of shots downfield. So yes - Opelt when healthy is far better than Hiller. I'd put the QBs at Lefevour, Sheehan, Opelt, Hiller. I may even put Ohio's QB above Hiller, he had a very underrated season. Next season, watch out for Spencer Keith of Kent and Pat Nicely of Akron to have excellent seasons.

The number don't lie either, Sheehan was better in EVERY CONCEIVABLE QB statistic but TD's where they tied at 23:

Wins
Completions
Yards
Yards Per Attempt
Fewer Interceptions
Completion Percentage
QB Rating
Rushing TD's
300 Yard Games

h2oville rocket wrote:

hammb wrote:LeFevour is an outstanding QB, and had another great year. I knew he'd walk away with the OPOY, but I still think Freddie's season is more impressive. Barnes is having a historic year at the WR position, and he's doing it without really any other offensive threats around him on the field. Of course LeFevour had a great year, as well and is doing it at the far more important position (not to mention on a more successful team). I suppose it's tough to really argue with LeFevour getting the award, but it's a tough pill to swallow not seeing Barnes take that award with the year he's put together.

Hiller played horribly all year and his team has been lousy. There is absolutely no conceivable way that he should be ahead of Sheehan for the award. That's ridiculous, makes me wonder if the voting was done in August.

Either way, congrats to all the honorees.

When WMU took that Ball State juggernaut to the limit a couple weeks ago the announcers spent a lot of time talking about Hiller being the top ranked QB in the MAC by draft prognosticators and projected in the third round or something. Says more about draft prognosticators than it says about Hiller, I think.

I doubt very seriously if Hiller will be the #6 QB once all the underclassmen start declaring, but we shall see.

It doesn't surprise me that he's the best prospect in the MAC, but that has nothing to do with who is the better collegiate player. Hiller has the things the pros look for in a QB: size, arm strength, not sure about his accuracy. LeFevour has a noodle arm, he's not much of a prospect. I don't see Sheehan as a prospect either, but that is no reflection on how they played this season. Hiller may be more draftable than Sheehan but doesn't belong in the conversation when it comes to college awards.

Oh well, I can't say I'm really surprised.