USA Today MAC preview

[jpfalcon09]

If anyone follows Paul Myerberg on Twitter you'll know he does a bang up job at covering college football.

His MAC preview was released today through USA Today if anyone is interested in checking it out.

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... U9kKCyp.nw" target="_blank

[Schadenfreude]

Very, very nicely done -- but my jaw dropped when he suggested that a school other than Bowling Green has the best receiving corps. No way. That's a very big misfire on his part.

He oversells NIU's supposed dominance and undersells BGSU, in my mind.

[Class of 61]

Among other things, doesn't OU play AT our place? He says no.

Not to mention we have a former 5* WR not even in our 2 deep WR's.

[Falcon137]

Among other things, doesn't OU play AT our place? He says no.

Not to mention we have a former 5* WR not even in our 2 deep WR's.

Yea.....not knowing OU plays AT BG kind of ruins it for me. Phil Steele is the only preseason guy I bother reading, anymore.

[Beaker]

Very, very nicely done -- but my jaw dropped when he suggested that a school other than Bowling Green has the best receiving corps. No way. That's a very big misfire on his part.

He oversells NIU's supposed dominance and undersells BGSU, in my mind.

Agree, I don't see how anyone could make a rational argument that anyone has a deeper and more talented WR group than us. He was grouping WR and TE together in that category, so maybe that's what led to his pick?

Obviously, the WMU receiver Corey Davis is outstanding, but if Freddie Barnes didn't win the Biletnikoff with that monster season he had, then they'll never give that award to a MAC receiver, no matter how deserving he may be.

[jpfalcon09]

Very, very nicely done -- but my jaw dropped when he suggested that a school other than Bowling Green has the best receiving corps. No way. That's a very big misfire on his part.

He oversells NIU's supposed dominance and undersells BGSU, in my mind.

Agreed. In fact, I felt like he spent a majority of the article focusing on the West. While we can all accept it's the better half of the conference I still felt like the East was slighted.

Agree on the WR depth, however outside of the projected four starters (Moore, Dieter, Lewis, Burbrink) not many guys have seen much action. Redding has only played a handful of snaps, Rhodes is yet to see any game action and Gallon hasn't played in a game in over 18 months.

[Schadenfreude]

Obviously, the WMU receiver Corey Davis is outstanding, but if Freddie Barnes didn't win the Biletnikoff with that monster season he had, then they'll never give that award to a MAC receiver, no matter how deserving he may be.

Randy Moss won it in 1997. So it can happen.

[Beaker]

Obviously, the WMU receiver Corey Davis is outstanding, but if Freddie Barnes didn't win the Biletnikoff with that monster season he had, then they'll never give that award to a MAC receiver, no matter how deserving he may be.

Randy Moss won it in 1997. So it can happen.

I had forgotten about Moss, thanks for setting me straight. I do think that was a unique situation there with all of the publicity surrounding Moss being so highly touted out of high school, the trouble he got into, signing with Notre Dame, then going to Florida State. By the time he landed at Marshall he already had a ton of name recognition out there and in the eyes of the folks that hand out those awards, I think he was seen as a national top shelf guy before he ever stepped on the field at Marshall, rather than most players (like Barnes) who get recruited to play at a MAC school and have to earn their stripes playing in the conference . On top of that there was the added factor of it being Marshall's first season jumping to Div 1-A and the success they had that year generated a lot more pub than a MAC school might normally see.

Myerburg's writeup says: "As much as any national award, the Biletnikoff embraces overall production instead of focusing entirely on quality of competition."

If the award was truly about production, then Barnes would have won it in a landslide.

I would be shocked if we ever see a MAC guy win that award again, but it would be great if Davis did do it. Better yet, I'd much prefer it be someone in a BG uniform that did it.

[Schadenfreude]

Obviously, the WMU receiver Corey Davis is outstanding, but if Freddie Barnes didn't win the Biletnikoff with that monster season he had, then they'll never give that award to a MAC receiver, no matter how deserving he may be.

Randy Moss won it in 1997. So it can happen.

I had forgotten about Moss, thanks for setting me straight. I do think that was a unique situation there with all of the publicity surrounding Moss being so highly touted out of high school, the trouble he got into, signing with Notre Dame, then going to Florida State.

...

I would be shocked if we ever see a MAC guy win that award again, but it would be great if Davis did do it. Better yet, I'd much prefer it be someone in a BG uniform that did it.

Roger Lewis and Robbie Rhodes were both so highly-sought after before arriving here that I wonder if they have a chance if they get it done on the field here in the MAC. Neither got the kind of national attention Moss did. On the other hand, by recruiting these young men, Baylor and Ohio State have validated that these are exceptionally talented athletes. That would help in making the case for an award if they perform.

Looking at the list of past winners: I see that students from Wyoming and Louisiana Tech have also won the award. It isn't crazy to think a MAC player could win it again. But, yeah, everything would have break just right.

[jpfalcon09]

Obviously, the WMU receiver Corey Davis is outstanding, but if Freddie Barnes didn't win the Biletnikoff with that monster season he had, then they'll never give that award to a MAC receiver, no matter how deserving he may be.

Randy Moss won it in 1997. So it can happen.

I had forgotten about Moss, thanks for setting me straight. I do think that was a unique situation there with all of the publicity surrounding Moss being so highly touted out of high school, the trouble he got into, signing with Notre Dame, then going to Florida State.

...

I would be shocked if we ever see a MAC guy win that award again, but it would be great if Davis did do it. Better yet, I'd much prefer it be someone in a BG uniform that did it.

Roger Lewis and Robbie Rhodes were both so highly-sought after before arriving here that I wonder if they have a chance if they get it done on the field here in the MAC. Neither got the kind of national attention Moss did. On the other hand, by recruiting these young men, Baylor and Ohio State have validated that these are exceptionally talented athletes. That would help in making the case for an award if they perform.

Looking at the list of past winners: I see that students from Wyoming and Louisiana Tech have also won the award. It isn't crazy to think a MAC player could win it again. But, yeah, everything would have break just right.

They'd likely need to have the type of season Barnes had to get their name through into the hat. Lewis was on pace for those type of numbers last year before he had a few games in the middle of the year where he ended up getting doubled a lot and had trouble maintaining that success.

It's certain plausible in Babers' offense they could be named finalists, especially if they impress in the OOC slate.

[hammb]

Roger Lewis has every opportunity to make his name into the finalists for that award. Winning it from the MAC, or any other non BCS type team, is largely dependent on having a dominant season in a year where nobody else does. Didn't Randy's team also finish undefeated or nearly so? It will help immensely if he put up monster numbers on a team that becomes a national story the way Marshall was back then.

It's still going to come down to putting up monster numbers in a year that no high profile major school guy puts up big numbers. It can be done, but not likely.

That said, I don't really care. I expect him to put up huge numbers here for the next couple years and if he keeps his nose clean and keeps working he's got a better shot to be on an NFL roster on Sundays than anybody we've had here in a LONG while. Moore has the athleticism that jumps out at you of an NFL player, but Lewis has that AND the size.

[Falcon137]

Moss in 97 was arguably one of the most dominate WRs ever. He also finished 4th in the Heisman voting.

[bgsufalcon24]

Very, very nicely done -- but my jaw dropped when he suggested that a school other than Bowling Green has the best receiving corps. No way. That's a very big misfire on his part.

He oversells NIU's supposed dominance and undersells BGSU, in my mind.

Agree, I don't see how anyone could make a rational argument that anyone has a deeper and more talented WR group than us. He was grouping WR and TE together in that category, so maybe that's what led to his pick?

Obviously, the WMU receiver Corey Davis is outstanding, but if Freddie Barnes didn't win the Biletnikoff with that monster season he had, then they'll never give that award to a MAC receiver, no matter how deserving he may be.

THIS. Freddie Barnes was robbed. He was the top receiver in the country in terms of production that season (If memory serves only a guy from Hawaii was even close to him), and not only that, but he won several games virtually on his own with ridiculous plays at key moments. The Kent State game where we came back and won 36-35 comes to mind...he evaded about 4 guys and dragged 2 others to the end zone with him on the penultimate touchdown.

The fact that fricking Golden Tate won that award over Freddie Barnes still pisses me off to this day.

[jpfalcon09]

Very, very nicely done -- but my jaw dropped when he suggested that a school other than Bowling Green has the best receiving corps. No way. That's a very big misfire on his part.

He oversells NIU's supposed dominance and undersells BGSU, in my mind.

Agree, I don't see how anyone could make a rational argument that anyone has a deeper and more talented WR group than us. He was grouping WR and TE together in that category, so maybe that's what led to his pick?

Obviously, the WMU receiver Corey Davis is outstanding, but if Freddie Barnes didn't win the Biletnikoff with that monster season he had, then they'll never give that award to a MAC receiver, no matter how deserving he may be.

THIS. Freddie Barnes was robbed. He was the top receiver in the country in terms of production that season (If memory serves only a guy from Hawaii was even close to him), and not only that, but he won several games virtually on his own with ridiculous plays at key moments. The Kent State game where we came back and won 36-35 comes to mind...he evaded about 4 guys and dragged 2 others to the end zone with him on the penultimate touchdown.

The fact that fricking Golden Tate won that award over Freddie Barnes still pisses me off to this day.

I don't think anyone was surprised Tate won...he played against better competition on arguably the most well-known college football program in the world. I think many voters saw Barnes' nomination as essentially doing enough to recognizing him for the season he had because I'm betting a majority of those voters never saw him play until the Humanitarian Bowl that year. Either way, it worked out for the voters as Tate is in the NFL and unfortunately Freddie never really got a fair chance to prove what he could do at the next level.

[mscarn]

IMO it should have been an award recognizing their accomplishments for that season in college rather than a projection of how well they'd translate to the NFL. Freddie did better.