Thread: AGS Top 25 - How They Fared - Week 7, Spring 2021

[Preferred Walk-On]

Spring week 7 is in the books, and I think this probably best describes it:

https://64.media.tumblr.com/92eeede7e98651886fd838c409c4e074/b9dc48d4e107cd58-93/s540x810/60b6b6f27b52e036abd9c8d135a41e805bf56362.gifv

Just a few other noteworthy items:

- Weber State needed a Hail Mary to defeat Northern Arizona (were losing by 1 pt prior)
- Missouri State is 4-1 in the MVFC...and 3-1 against the AGS Top 25
- 30/44 games ended up being played - ~1/3 were postponed/canceled
- Did not distinguish between canceled/postponed/bye in the HTF - just listed these as IDLE
- 4/6 teams AGS ranked between #7-#12 lost (and one of those was IDLE) - otherwise pretty ho-hum in the top 25

As always, if you see any errors, please let me know. Best of luck, and here you go:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nEFAbzP0OUyPnV5FVw-EAhgvsrkpIKcJ0XN6ZntkWQ4/edit?usp=sharing

[kdinva]

thank you for the chart

[Professor Chaos]

I'm really thinking Central Arkansas deserves a look given how little it takes to get into the bottom of the poll this spring. They have some wins from the fall that are looking better and better (Missouri St x2, Austin Peay). It's just such a mess trying to figure out how to rank a team that hasn't played in 4.5 months... I really feel like I'm being unfair to them but who knows how much better they would or wouldn't be if they were playing now like MSU and APSU are???

EDIT: I guess AGSPoll says don't vote for any teams that aren't playing spring ball but damn.... I think Missouri St is going to get a pretty decent ranking this week and UCA beat them twice in the fall.

[Chalupa Batman]

How are we supposed to treat Chattanooga going forward? Vote assuming their starters are going back in next week, or vote assuming we’re going to see more of what we saw against Mercer? Not sure what to do with them.

[BEAR]

I'm really thinking Central Arkansas deserves a look given how little it takes to get into the bottom of the poll this spring. They have some wins from the fall that are looking better and better (Missouri St x2, Austin Peay). It's just such a mess trying to figure out how to rank a team that hasn't played in 4.5 months... I really feel like I'm being unfair to them but who knows how much better they would or wouldn't be if they were playing now like MSU and APSU are???

EDIT: I guess AGSPoll says don't vote for any teams that aren't playing spring ball but damn.... I think Missouri St is going to get a pretty decent ranking this week and UCA beat them twice in the fall.

Eh. Don’t worry about UCA in this. We opted out of the spring season in trade for a heck of a performance against NDSU, prime tv reps which will pay off in benjis for recruiting, it made the transition to another conference easier, and spring practices are going great. Fans and players have moved past it pretty easy. I’m the rare freak that is enjoying spring ball overall. 😂

[Professor Chaos]

How are we supposed to treat Chattanooga going forward? Vote assuming their starters are going back in next week, or vote assuming we’re going to see more of what we saw against Mercer? Not sure what to do with them.
I hammered them pretty hard. Not sure whether to rank their first team or their second team so I tried to split the difference.

[Chalupa Batman]

I hammered them pretty hard. Not sure whether to rank their first team or their second team so I tried to split the difference.

That’s kind of what I’m thinking. If I knew the second team was playing going forward they’d be out of my poll. Giving it one week and if the second team plays again next week then I’ll drop them.

[Katfan]

I'm really thinking Central Arkansas deserves a look given how little it takes to get into the bottom of the poll this spring. They have some wins from the fall that are looking better and better (Missouri St x2, Austin Peay). It's just such a mess trying to figure out how to rank a team that hasn't played in 4.5 months... I really feel like I'm being unfair to them but who knows how much better they would or wouldn't be if they were playing now like MSU and APSU are???

EDIT: I guess AGSPoll says don't vote for any teams that aren't playing spring ball but damn.... I think Missouri St is going to get a pretty decent ranking this week and UCA beat them twice in the fall.
And they played NDSU tough when they had a qb. Wish they were playing. I think UCA and Sam would be a great Gme for the Southland

[jsualumnus]

Jax State looked like complete dog **** today.

[MSUDuo]

I'm really thinking Central Arkansas deserves a look given how little it takes to get into the bottom of the poll this spring. They have some wins from the fall that are looking better and better (Missouri St x2, Austin Peay). It's just such a mess trying to figure out how to rank a team that hasn't played in 4.5 months... I really feel like I'm being unfair to them but who knows how much better they would or wouldn't be if they were playing now like MSU and APSU are???

EDIT: I guess AGSPoll says don't vote for any teams that aren't playing spring ball but damn.... I think Missouri St is going to get a pretty decent ranking this week and UCA beat them twice in the fall.

The team they beat in the fall ain't the same team now. There wasn't a team on the planet that the spring season was going to benefit more than MO State and it's showing

[Cocky]

It was established yesterday JSU does not have the QB to be competitive at a high level. JSU is a 10-20 team according to who is playing or even playing starters it appears.

[Mocs123]

How are we supposed to treat Chattanooga going forward? Vote assuming their starters are going back in next week, or vote assuming we’re going to see more of what we saw against Mercer? Not sure what to do with them.

I could be wrong, but I don't think you'll see the first team the rest of the spring. From what I hear they are hitting the weight room to prepare for the fall.

[Professor Chaos]

I could be wrong, but I don't think you'll see the first team the rest of the spring. From what I hear they are hitting the weight room to prepare for the fall.
Well, it is better than Spacking out I guess.

But the logic doesn't really check out... if they're so worried about starters getting injured and being unavailable for the fall wouldn't they be worried about backups getting injured and being unavailable for the fall? Because the injuries aren't going to stop in the fall. If that's their logic they really should be playing 3rd/4th/5th string wherever possible... "whoever is the worst gets to play!" can be their new spring rallying cry.

[Mocs123]

Well, it is better than Spacking out I guess.

But the logic doesn't really check out... if they're so worried about starters getting injured and being unavailable for the fall wouldn't they be worried about backups getting injured and being unavailable for the fall? Because the injuries aren't going to stop in the fall. If that's their logic they really should be playing 3rd/4th/5th string wherever possible... "whoever is the worst gets to play!" can be their new spring rallying cry.

While not getting the starters hurt is obviously one objective, I think the main objective is to get the young guys some reps and experience sort of like they would in a normal spring. We started 13 true freshman on Saturday and were especially young on offense starting five freshmen linemen (4 getting their first real college snaps), a freshman RB that had never played a college snap, two freshman wideouts, and a freshman TE who was a DE in the fall. Actually on offense, I think we started all freshmen except for the QB. On defense we were a little older but played a lot of Sophomores and Juniors that hadn't seen many snaps and started a few walkons that were Jr's and Sr's (my guess is they graduate in May and won't be back in the fall)

Some of the guys we started were certainly not 2nd string. The RB that had 137 yards was a 4th string guy but the three guys ahead of him have gotten some reps and he hadn't. The TE was the 5th string guy, and the wideouts were all 3rd sting guys, with the 2nd string guys all seeing snaps this spring already. On the defensive line one of the DE's was a freshman 3rd string guy but hadn't gotten many snaps, and at DT two guys that got most of the snaps were a 3rd string freshman and a 4th string WO senior that had played in 3 games in his entire career. I think both safeties that started were 3rd sting guys who've not gotten a lot of snaps due to older guys in front of them, and we saw some 3rd, 4th , and even 5th sting guys get snaps at the outside linebacker spot.

Coach Wright was playing guys that hadn't gotten a lot of snaps - pretty much all of those guys are freshman, on defense we have a few older guys that haven't played much.

As for the QB's we played SR Dray Arnold and JR Cole Copeland and didn't see our freshman QB. I think Dray and Cole are in competition for the starting spot so they played both.


And I'm not saying it was the right decision or the wrong decision, but just that that was CRW's logic and he feels like it's the best thing for the program to get those guys experience this spring. That his been his stance since the fall and he's been quite honest about it including his opinion that the fall season matters more than the spring season (again not saying he's right or wrong)

[Professor Chaos]

While not getting the starters hurt is obviously one objective, I think the main objective is to get the young guys some reps and experience sort of like they would in a normal spring. We started 13 true freshman on Saturday and were especially young on offense starting five freshmen linemen (4 getting their first real college snaps), a freshman RB that had never played a college snap, two freshman wideouts, and a freshman TE who was a DE in the fall. Actually on offense, I think we started all freshmen except for the QB. On defense we were a little older but played a lot of Sophomores and Juniors that hadn't seen many snaps and started a few walkons that were Jr's and Sr's (my guess is they graduate in May and won't be back in the fall)

Some of the guys we started were certainly not 2nd string. The RB that had 137 yards was a 4th string guy but the three guys ahead of him have gotten some reps and he hadn't. The TE was the 5th string guy, and the wideouts were all 3rd sting guys, with the 2nd string guys all seeing snaps this spring already. On the defensive line one of the DE's was a freshman 3rd string guy but hadn't gotten many snaps, and at DT two guys that got most of the snaps were a 3rd string freshman and a 4th string WO senior that had played in 3 games in his entire career. I think both safeties that started were 3rd sting guys who've not gotten a lot of snaps due to older guys in front of them, and we saw some 3rd, 4th , and even 5th sting guys get snaps at the outside linebacker spot.

Coach Wright was playing guys that hadn't gotten a lot of snaps - pretty much all of those guys are freshman, on defense we have a few older guys that haven't played much.

As for the QB's we played SR Dray Arnold and JR Cole Copeland and didn't see our freshman QB. I think Dray and Cole are in competition for the starting spot so they played both.


And I'm not saying it was the right decision or the wrong decision, but just that that was CRW's logic and he feels like it's the best thing for the program to get those guys experience this spring. That his been his stance since the fall and he's been quite honest about it including his opinion that the fall season matters more than the spring season (again not saying he's right or wrong)
Fair enough... I know it's a tough spot coaches are in this spring so tough decisions have to be made. I think if you'd get an honest opinion from coaches the vast majority of them would say they would've preferred to get in what games they could in the fall and skip these spring games altogether. Hindsight is 20/20 though but hopefully this is something coaches and administrators can learn from going forward.

[Mocs123]

And while think think Chattanooga is a top 10 team, since I don't think we'll play our first team again this spring - I probably wouldn't put them in my top-25 poll again until the pre-season fall poll.

[Bisonator]

This is such a mess with so many idle teams, so many different number of games being played, no non-conference matchups, etc. Not sure how the hell to rank anyone in my poll to be honest.

[FUBeAR]

While not getting the starters hurt is obviously one objective, I think the main objective is to get the young guys some reps and experience sort of like they would in a normal spring. We started 13 true freshman on Saturday and were especially young on offense starting five freshmen linemen (4 getting their first real college snaps), a freshman RB that had never played a college snap, two freshman wideouts, and a freshman TE who was a DE in the fall. Actually on offense, I think we started all freshmen except for the QB. On defense we were a little older but played a lot of Sophomores and Juniors that hadn't seen many snaps and started a few walkons that were Jr's and Sr's (my guess is they graduate in May and won't be back in the fall)

Some of the guys we started were certainly not 2nd string. The RB that had 137 yards was a 4th string guy but the three guys ahead of him have gotten some reps and he hadn't. The TE was the 5th string guy, and the wideouts were all 3rd sting guys, with the 2nd string guys all seeing snaps this spring already. On the defensive line one of the DE's was a freshman 3rd string guy but hadn't gotten many snaps, and at DT two guys that got most of the snaps were a 3rd string freshman and a 4th string WO senior that had played in 3 games in his entire career. I think both safeties that started were 3rd sting guys who've not gotten a lot of snaps due to older guys in front of them, and we saw some 3rd, 4th , and even 5th sting guys get snaps at the outside linebacker spot.

Coach Wright was playing guys that hadn't gotten a lot of snaps - pretty much all of those guys are freshman, on defense we have a few older guys that haven't played much.

As for the QB's we played SR Dray Arnold and JR Cole Copeland and didn't see our freshman QB. I think Dray and Cole are in competition for the starting spot so they played both.


And I'm not saying it was the right decision or the wrong decision, but just that that was CRW's logic and he feels like it's the best thing for the program to get those guys experience this spring. That his been his stance since the fall and he's been quite honest about it including his opinion that the fall season matters more than the spring season (again not saying he's right or wrong)
Is Zay Brown 5th string, a True Freshman, or both?

Defensive



[*=center]MERCER (https://gomocs.com/sports/football/stats/2020/mercer/boxscore/11916#defense-away)
[*=center]CHATTANOOGA (https://gomocs.com/sports/football/stats/2020/mercer/boxscore/11916#defense-home)



Player
Solo
Ast
Tot


Brown,Zay (https://gomocs.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=7084)
6
4
10

[Mocs123]

Zay Brown is our 3rd string SS behind All-SoCon Brandon Dowdell (Sr) and DJ Jackson (Sr) - those two have combined for 38 starts between the two of them. Zay Brown has played in 16 games and started 2 games after the game this Saturday (the first was in 2019 due to injuries in the secondary). Zay is the expected starter at SS in 2022.

BTW our 4th string SS is freshman walkon Alex Boruff did not play in the game for whatever reason per the participation chart but did play against Furman on special teams.

[Mocs123]

Interesting however that the stats are incorrect. They have #4 Deonte Woods starting at DB - Deonte was a walkon Sr RB that graduated in December and is not playing this spring, and was instead #4 Romeo Wykle. They also show #20 Kayne Roberts playing and Kayne was a reserve LB that isn't on the roster for 2020 and we have no #20 currently on the roster. They also have #32 Ailym Ford as participating and he hasn't played all spring.

[FUBeAR]

Zay Brown is our 3rd string SS behind All-SoCon Brandon Dowdell (Sr) and DJ Jackson (Sr) - those two have combined for 38 starts between the two of them. Zay Brown has played in 16 games and started 2 games after the game this Saturday (the first was in 2019 due to injuries in the secondary). Zay is the expected starter at SS in 2022.

BTW our 4th string SS is freshman walkon Alex Boruff did not play in the game for whatever reason per the participation chart but did play against Furman on special teams.
Oh...so he’s a Jr. FBS P5 Transfer, who played in all 12 games in 2019 & started 2...and had 10 tackles vs. Mercer.

I didn’t see any of that mentioned in the narrative you are vividly creating.

[Mocs123]

Yes, Zay is a South Carolina transfer but he never played a snap for them, so it's not like he was a ringer when we brought him in. He did play in all 12 games in 2019 mostly on special teams - He had 17 tackles on the year - 8 of which were against WCU in a game he started due to injuries in the secondary (UTC had more injuries in 2019 then I remember the past decade - similar to the rash of injuries Furman had in the 2013-2014 timeframe). He's a good player that is just stuck behind two really good players on our roster. Like I said, he's the expected starter in 2022. Our other starters in the secondary were two freshmen Jet Lee and Jordan Walker, and Sophomore Kam Brown. Kam Brown has plays quite a bit for us and is the 2nd team corner. Walk-on freshmen TJ Taylor did play some at the corner too, but to be honest we didn't have a lot of other guys availabile with Plummer out with an minor injury. (We signed 5 this class but they aren't here yet).

The real guy that had a great game was LB- Christian Snyder a walk on Jr who until this spring had only played special teams. He had 20 tackles against Mercer and had 16 career tackles coming into the game.

Congrats on the win for Mercer. I really do think Drew Cronic will build a good program there - he was a great hire for the Bears.

[KPSUL]

And while think think Chattanooga is a top 10 team, since I don't think we'll play our first team again this spring - I probably wouldn't put them in my top-25 poll again until the pre-season fall poll.

Thanks! That's really all the analysis I need to make my decision.

[KPSUL]

Well, it is better than Spacking out I guess.

But the logic doesn't really check out... if they're so worried about starters getting injured and being unavailable for the fall wouldn't they be worried about backups getting injured and being unavailable for the fall? Because the injuries aren't going to stop in the fall. If that's their logic they really should be playing 3rd/4th/5th string wherever possible... "whoever is the worst gets to play!" can be their new spring rallying cry.

Looks like the SoCon just got Spacked!

[Chalupa Batman]

Looks like the SoCon just got Spacked!

You got Spacked reminds me of councilman Jamm on Parks And Rec.

https://media0.giphy.com/media/4PvP4zij51Lyw/giphy.gif


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