Saturday, December 08, 2007

Dan Connor Got Screwed

Ohio State's Laurinaitis won the 2007 Butkus award for College Footballs most outstanding Linebacker. In my opinion DC-40 got absolutely hosed in the voting*. The following stats will show that Dan Connor was a better linebacker in 2007 than Jimmy Laurinaitis.

Dan Connor had 136 tackles this year, Laurinaitis had 103. Not even close, DC-40 Dominates.
Dan Connor had 14 TFL, Laurinaitis had 8.5. DC-40 is better in this regard, it is a fact. Look it up.
Dan Connor had 6.5 sacks, Laurinaitis had 5. Last time I checked, 6.5 is more than 5.
Dan Connor had 6 passes broken up, Laurinaitis had 1.
To be fair, Laurinaitis did have 2 Interceptions this year to Dan's 1.

Wow. It is quite clear that Laurinaitis deserved this award. I just have to call bullshit on this. There is absolutely no statistical justification to say that Laurinaitis is a better LB than Connor. Unless the Butkus award has become some sort of competition over who has slightly more interceptions rather than deciding who was the best Linebacker.

GO STATE! BEAT THE AGGIES!

* Just so we're clear, this is not an argument that PSU was better than Ohio St. this year. Ohio St. had the better record and beat PSU on the field. This is merely an illustration that big #40 was the best linebacker in the country.

Become a fan of another team for a day. Try online sports betting to spice up an otherwise boring matchup.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're going to get more tackles if you're ALWAYS on the field.

JIMPSU said...

Laurinaitis was the 4th best LB in the CONFERENCE! Behind Connor, Lehman, and Lee. What a sham.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'll give you that. But it's no worse than when A.J. Hawk got screwed 2 years ago when they gave it to Poz. At least they got the Heismann right.

JB said...

I respectfully disagree. I haven't looked at the stats from the 2005 Butkus race so I can't really tell you you are wrong. For the Heisman, I completely agree. Without Tebow the Gators are 6-6 (maybe worse) this year.

Anonymous said...

Hawk, A.J...... OSU SR games-12 LB solo-69 assist-52 total-121 ave-10.1 sacks-9.5 tfl-16.5
5.

Posluszny, Paul PSU JR games-12 solo-64 assist-52 total-116 ave-9.7 sacks-3.0 tfl-11.5

Quit bitching you second class big ten citizens. You should be happy "Poz" stole his. Try beating Michigan for a change. And play Pitt while you are at it.

JB said...

Second class big ten citizens? Zing. I'll be weeping tonight.

drozz said...

anonomous-let's look at when poz and hawk were on the same field as starters.

what were hawk's stats?
what were poz's?
that's as about as level of a playing field one could get.

was poz better than hawk? still debateable. please do note that at least poz and hawk had comperable stats for the year. whereas laurinitis really wasn't that close, only winning out in Int's.

Anonymous said...

For the record, I won't argue too hard that the Little Animal is a bit overrated, especially when I remember AJ and the rest of our LB's in 05. Nonetheless, I think you're overlooking Jeff's point that one reason the stats are so disparate is that your D never got off the field. I have some Domer friends who point out that Trevor Laws has a zillion more tackles than any other D-lineman in the country...does that mean he's really the best, or merely a reflection of the sheer awfulness of their offense? Well anyway, I suppose it doesn't matter in the end since all parties involved are gonna be filthy rich in a year...

SubwayDomer26 said...

Conner got screwed. That took a lot coming from me. The "little animal" should bow down.
Fuck OSU.

Anonymous said...

"Laurinaitis was the 4th best LB in the CONFERENCE! Behind Connor, Lehman, and Lee. What a sham."

Heck, Laurinitus might not even be the best linebacker on his team. Marcus Freeman was more impressive most games this season. It's just that Musberger doesn't crap his pants every time Freeman makes a tackle.

Anonymous said...

OSU sucks! Sure the buckeyes can win a third rate conference year after year but they can't win the big one (National Cahmpionship!) to save thier lives. They got spanked last year and they'll get spanked by the LSU Tigers again this year as well. The Big 10 is way overrated! It is now more more than a mid level conference at best. SEC, Big East, Big 12, Pac 10, and then maybe the Big 10. Wathcning Big 10 football is like watching football from the 40s. Boring and like watching a bunch of thrownback teams in leather uniforms running in mud. OSU would probably finish toward the top of the middle of the pack if they played a full SEC season. Big 10 football = Boring!

Anonymous said...

At least Penn State manages to beat their SEC bowl opponent most every year.....