Hooley's B10 Wrapup

[TraderLee]

Another echo. Of course, listening to Hooley on the radio you often wonder what he is smoking.

 

[OilerBuck]

Hardy caught 13 more balls for 40 more yards and the same amount of TDs. He was awol in the OSU, Minny and Purdue games down the stretch.

Again, I will preface this by saying I think Santonio is the most talented receiver in the Big Ten...but I am trying to prove that the choices of Avant and Hardy aren't quite the crimes against humanity that many loyal buckeye fans want to believe.

First of all, argue talent and what they meant to their team, and Santonio has an edge. Josh came at this with the wrong argument...stats. That is the area where Holmes suffers, and probably why he wasn't chosen in this particular article.

Hardy had one fewer game than Holmes. Santonio averaged 4.36 receptions for 77.55 yards per game. James averaged 6.10 for 89.30. That is 29% more receptions per game and 13% more yards. To put this into context, take Steve Smith in the NFL. He is having a career year, with 82 catches. Knock 29% off that and you come up with about 58 receptions...two receptions short of Chris Chambers of the Dolphins. I'd say that is pretty significant. Avant averages even more than Hardy.

...In case you were wondering, Santonio is 9th in the Big Ten in receptions per game and 4th in yards per game. In both of those categories, he trails Hardy and Avant.

Some people are stat people, some are intangable people. It's like the Manning vs Brady argument from last year. It wasn't ridiculous to take either side...unless of course you were a Colts or Pats fan. I'm an intangible guy myself, which is why I side with Holmes. To say that it's without valid argument, however, involves heavily bathing in scarlet and gray kool-aid.

 

[jwinslow]

I guess I hold it against him that he was a no show in a lot of their losses. I think Brian Calhoun was a great RB for a while, but he did not make my award list b/c he did not show up down the stretch.

When did Holmes "not show up?" SDSU (huge PR), Illinois, Northwestern. We didn't need him in those games.
To be fair, he only had 4 catches for 41 yds vs. PSU, but that's still better than each of Hardy's performances in the OSU/Minny/Purdue losses.

 

[OilerBuck]

I think you've got the right idea. It's the Manning vs brady argument (from last year). Manning had better overall stats, but choked when it came down to the big games. I still don't think that anyone would have batted an eye if he would have been named first team, all-NFL last year.

I'm definately not trying to prove you wrong, because I'd take Santonio over either Avant or Hardy...and I think you and I are on the same page. I guess I'm just trying to let everyone else in on the fact that 10 other teams are in our conference and every team has good players. We could have 8 guys on the list, and everyone would just be harping about how they missed one.

I guess I need to get off my anti-homer pedestal now. I've been harping on it for days. I'm just not convinced that choosing Hardy over Holmes, alone, makes a guy an idiot. I realize Hooley has other bad qualities, but I think we would be saying the same thing about ...Insert Sports Writer here...<INSERT here writer sports>, had they came up with the same team.

I guess the media is out to get us again.

I guess I hold it against him that he was a no show in a lot of their losses. I think Brian Calhoun was a great RB for a while, but he did not make my award list b/c he did not show up down the stretch.

When did Holmes "not show up?" SDSU (huge PR), Illinois, Northwestern. We didn't need him in those games.
To be fair, he only had 4 catches for 41 yds vs. PSU, but that's still better than each of Hardy's performances in the OSU/Minny/Purdue losses.

 

[GoBucks89]

I think stats are deceptive when you're talking about wide receivers, especially in the college game with all the different types of offenses. When judging WR's I think you need to watch them play. Again, Calvin Johnson is another one that does not hold up statistically but I still think he's better than most, which is why he's on my BP Award list, and it's why Jason Avant is not. I'm not saying Hooley is an idiot, but he's clearly doing a reverse-homer by choosing Avant and Hardy over Holmes.

 

[NightmaresDad]

Let me echo the obvious fact that everyone else has mentioned: it is a CRIME to not have Holmes on the All-Big 10 team. He's the best receiver in the conference and the number of catches does not tell the story. I have always assumed that these guys actually watch the games but now I'm not sure.

I'm sure he watches the games. His opinion just attests to how little he knows about what he is watching.

I personally don't have a problem with Avant being on the list, but to leave off Holmes is proof that the guy does not know much if anything about football.
Any idiot can look at a stat sheet and use that to form an opinion - but his list was for best at their position in the Big 10, not "best stats in the Big 10"

soon, we will have people arguing that so-and-so is better than what's-his-name because "he kicks ass on my fantasy team".

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

To be fair, he only had 4 catches for 41 yds vs. PSU, but that's still better than each of Hardy's performances in the OSU/Minny/Purdue losses.

To be fair to Hardy, he was suffering from several nagging injuries later on in the season. I would still take Holmes over Hardy, just for the record.

 

[buckeyeboy]

I don't understand Hooley. On his radio show, he's all about talking us up and trashing our opponents--the week before the UT game, he was all over them, and last week he was all over ND. Then you read his columns on espn.com, and you'd think that he thinks we belong in Div I-AA.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Hardy had one fewer game than Holmes. Santonio averaged 4.36 receptions for 77.55 yards per game. James averaged 6.10 for 89.30. That is 29% more receptions per game and 13% more yards.

...In case you were wondering, Santonio is 9th in the Big Ten in receptions per game and 4th in yards per game. In both of those categories, he trails Hardy and Avant.

Hardy got half of his catches (30) and half his yardage (443) against such defense juggernaughts as Nichols St., Illinois, and Iowa. Against us, he had 2 catches for 27 yards. Yeah, he had better overall stats, but seeing as he was the only one rsemsbling a WR on their team, it's not a shock.

Avant was far more consistent, having at least 5 catches in every game. Against Notre Dame and Big Ten teams, however, he had only 5 TDs total.

Holmes was also more consisent than Hardy, having at either 4 or 5 catches in the first eight games. He had only 3 catches in the Illinois game and 3 catches in the Northwestern game, but those games were out of hand by the second half and we all but quit throwing the ball. He then had 6 catches at Michigan. Holmes also had as many TDs as Hardy (10) and averaged over 3 ypc more (17.77 ypc). In fact, according to the NCAA stats page, he led the Big Ten in yards per catch.

Although Holmes didn't get quite as many catches per game, he was far more productive.