Monday, April 04, 2011

Monday--April 4, 2011

A couple of reports from the UMass website on spring practice.

Last year the coaching staff started awarding a different colored practice jersey for the player who had the best practice in the previous session. Football practices are a grind and coaching staffs are always looking for something to keep interest up.

Stephane Milhim and Brandon Potvin were honored for the first practice.

Chad Hunte was the MVP of the second practice.

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One method of evaluating defensive linemen the the NFL draft uses is to figure out the player's impact in the games they played.

That method is most effective if we knew the player's total playing time by snaps. Since we don't have access to that information, a crude estimate can be made by dividing the player's stats by number of games played.

I did that for the 2010 UMass defensive line. The following would be much better presented in a grid, but Blogger does not have a table feature, unless you code html directly.

The following gives  games played-games started, TFL, sacks, pass BkUP, Forced Fumbles. I awarded one point for tackles, 1.5 points for TFL, sacks and Pass breakups. I made forced fumbles, which cause a change in possession, three points.

Player GP-GS TT Sacks Pass BKUP FF Total Points Points/game

C. Thompson 7-3 games 32TT 2 TFL 1 sack 3 Pass BKUP 1 FF 45 Total points 4.09 Points/game

B. Flanagan 11-11 games 30 TT 2 pass BKUP 33 Total Points 2.72 points/game

T. Agnew 11-6 games 30 TT 1 TFL 2 Pass BKUP 1 FF 37.5 Total Points 3.40 points/game

B. Potvin 11-10 23 TT 1.5 TFL 1 sack 27.25 Total Points 2.50 points/game

C. Jackson 8-4 21 TT 2.5 TFL 2 sacks 1 FF 27.5 Total Points 3.43 points/game

K. Burne 6-4 18 TT 3.5 TFL 23.25 Total Points 3.87 points/game

G. Clemons 9-1 12 TT 0.5 TFL 12.75 Total Points 1.41 points/game

B. McLaughlin 8-3 5 TT 5 Total Points 0.62 points/game

Sorting by points/game gives:
  1. C. Thompson 4.09
  2. K. Byrne 3.87
  3. C. Jackson 3.43
  4. T. Agnew 3.40
  5. B. Flanagan 2.72
  6. B. Potvin 2.50
  7. G. Clemons 1.41
  8. B. McLaughlin 0.62