The Most Integral Player countdown, as somewhat explained in my previous blog post, is officially underway. The goal? Simple. To rank the players on Auburn's roster in terms of their importance to the team's success this year.Now to explain my methodology. I ranked Auburn's players in five different categories on a scale of 1 to 5. (You just knew I'd go back to the categories, didn't you?) They are: skill level, production history, position importance, backup competence (a high score meaning there are major concerns about potential replacements) and leadership. I totaled things up and ranked the players. Ties are broken in this order: position importance, then backup competence, then leadership.
It was pretty tight in most cases. Here are a few players who were close but didn't make the cut of the top 10 (actually 11, because of one unbreakable tie) for various reasons: RB Eric Smith (production history and leadership were low), WR Terrell Zachery (even scores across the board but none stood out), Daren Bates (same as Zachery), Mike Berry (position importance, leadership not great), Aairon Savage (production history was his biggest question mark) and Antoine Carter (another player with even marks but none that stood out too much).
Now, I'm sure I'll get plenty of disagreements on these, so feel free to post in the comments section why you think I'm right, wrong or an idiot. I can take it. And be sure to follow the blog on Twitter to see the latest countdown post as soon as it's up.
Now to break down Wes Byrum, Auburn's 10th-most Most Integral Player for 2010:
- Skill level: 4. After a sophomore slump, Byrum regained his freshman form last year. He's accurate (93.8 percent) and long (made one from 49 yards last year and was 5-for-6 from 40-49 yards). As far as kicker attributes go, you can;t ask for much more.
- Production history: 4. Byrum has been a mainstay the last couple years. He was 15-for-16 last year 17-for-23 as a freshman. He's made 43 career field goals at a 74 percent clip, and that includes a disastrous sophomore season. That's a long, solid history of production.
- Position importance: 2. Kickers generally aren't noticed until your team has a very bad one, as Byrum found out in 2009, so there is a level of importance to this spot. But on the whole, kickers don't rank too high on the football position spectrum, simply based on how little they're on the field. I realize they can score points, but I couldn't rank this higher than a two.
- Backup competence: 5. Cody Parkey, one of the top kicking recruits in the country, is coming in this year, but it's hard to trust a true freshman kicker, especially one who struggled so mightily at an all-star showcase last spring. It takes time to develop nerves as a kicker (or maintain them, as Byrum has shown), which makes Byrum all the more valuable on a roster with no proven backup.
- Leadership: 1. Not Byrum's fault here. It just goes back to that football axiom: kickers speak when spoken to. If you can play your position with a single-bar facemask, you can't rank high in this category.
- Total: 16. A good solid score, and I'm glad a kicker of Byrum's quality made it into the rankings. Like I said before, good kickers are generally taken for granted until a bad one comes along and shows everyone how fortunate they had been. Byrum is going to break or come close to breaking many records at Auburn before he's done. He should be appreciated for his contributions, even if he doesn't make many tackles or get into the end zone.
11 comments:
Can't call you an idiot on this one. I just hope the new kid can handle kickoffs and consistently get the ball beyond the goal line. And Wes certainly needs to play like he did as a FR or JR, and not repeat that sophomore slump.
Byrum's goal this year is to do kickoffs too (adding to his value if he wins that job). I'm sure the coaches wouldn't mind redshirting Parkey if they could.
.....If Parkey is a bust, there is Chandler Brooks to turn to. (He of the yellow shoes!). Brooks was getting high praise in the 2008 fall camp, before getting some sort of "day to day" injury.
has Byrum added at least 10 yards to his kickoffs? I hope our kickoff coverage is a lot better this year, but to be on the safe side, I'd prefer touchbacks. I still miss Matt Clark's 77% touchback rate on kickoffs in 2006.
Good point on Brooks. He completely slipped my mind. I think it's because he had such a quiet spring. I'm not completely sold that he's a viable option, but he is definitely another person who could get a shot.
"As far as kicker attributes go, you can ask for much more."
I'm guessin u meant "can't"??
Touchback ratings like Clark's are hard to come by these days, what with the newish rules on the spot for kickoffs :(
Yes, I meant "can't ask for much more." What a stupid I am.
not stupid, just a simple mistake
that's a good point, anonymous. Kickoffs were moved from the 35 to the 30 the year after Clark left. However, a significant portion of his touchbacks were balls he kicked on the fly through the end zone. So if we could just find someone with that much leg, we'd be kicking it 5 yards deep in the end zone. I'd be happy with that. I don't know the stats, but I wouldn't be surprised if less than 10% of our kickoffs made it to the goal line last year.
80 kickoffs last year, 6 touchbacks. That's 7.5 percent. Ouch.
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