Conference Review: BIG 12
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With college football in full swing, we’ll be bringing you a review of the “Big Five” conferences each and every week. These recaps will feature sections for “Premier Conference Performer,” “Rising Players,” “Falling Players,” and a special Freshman spotlight. These weekly reviews will keep you up-to-date on all the happenings in devy leagues and allow you to keep tabs on future dynasty league assets. By the time the NFL Draft rolls around, you won’t see too many strangers.
Premier Conference Performer
Kevin White, WR West Virginia
13 receptions, 211 yards, one touchdown vs. Maryland
I’m not sure if it’s legal to have the same premier conference performer back to back, but I have no choice. White is simply dominating right now and has 32 receptions for 460 yards two touchdowns through three games. In a very close game on Saturday, he showed impressive jump ball skills and came down with contested catches. He also showed impressive burst and vision after this catch: http://youtu.be/BM4ZDARz_Mg?t=1m20s One defender even held one of his arms on a pass near the sideline, but White still caught the pass. He continues to impress week after week this season and is second in the FBS in receiving yardage.
Rising
KD Cannon, WR Baylor
Six receptions, 189 yards, one touchdown vs. Buffalo
Only a freshman, but Cannon is leading the FBS with 471 receiving yards and an unbelievable 33.6 yards per reception. He kept up his blistering pace on Saturday against Buffalo with six receptions for 189 yards and a touchdown. His main weapon is speed and sometimes looks like he’s shot out of a cannon. Previously, I stated that I compared Cannon’s game to Paul Richardson. Both are smaller framed players with lots of explosive plays. The one thing that would make me hesitate is Baylor’s offense makes players look great because of its spread attack and being very efficient. Either way, leading the FBS in receiving yardage three games into his freshman season is one heck of an accomplishment!
Jonathan Gray and Malcolm Brown, RBs Texas
Gray: Seven carries, 49 yards, two receptions, six yards
Brown: 14 carries, 69 yards, three receptions, eight yards
While Gray and Brown haven’t lived up to the hype of being five star recruits, they played well vs UCLA, who has had a very good defense in recent seasons.
Bryce Petty, QB Baylor and Clint Trickett, QB West Virginia
Petty: 23/34, 416 yards, four touchdowns vs. Buffalo
Trickett: 37/49, 511 yards, four touchdowns, one interception vs. Maryland
Both quarterbacks were lights out on Saturday leading their teams to victory. The reason neither is the premier performer is because their offenses are quarterback friendly, allowing them to often put up huge numbers. However, both players should be firmly supplanted in the 2015 NFL Draft talk. Trickett has completed over 75% of his passes on the season for 1224 yards. Petty has completed over 63% of his passes for 577 yards and both players have thrown six or more touchdowns with one or less interceptions. Efficient quarterbacks that don’t turn the ball over are highly sought after at the next level.
Desmond Roland, RB Oklahoma State
21 carries, 95 yards, two touchdowns vs. UTSA
[inlinead]It was great to see Roland 100% after sitting out a week due to injured ribs sustained in the first game. Roland came out with a purpose and scored a touchdown on the opening drive. His teammate, Tyreek Hill, gets most of the hype because he’s flashy. Well that’s not Roland, who’s more of tough runner that is versatile enough to do most anything. Late in the game, wearing out the defense paid dividends for Roland as he sealed the win with another touchdown run.
Josh Doctson, WR TCU
Six receptions, 64 yards, two touchdowns vs. Minnesota
The first game of the season was a blowout of Samford and TCU didn’t need to pass often, but it was a different story Saturday against Minnesota. Doctson had 64 yards receiving with two touchdowns, which is a solid day. Most wouldn’t consider that a huge game and he hasn’t been a big part of the TCU offense in the past few seasons. But then I watched this: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2197684-tcus-josh-doctson-soars-sky-high-to-make-1-handed-td-catch-vs-minnesota Now, he’s on my radar because of that leaping ability and that fact that he is 6’4”.
Falling
Rushel Shell, RB West Virginia
27 carries, 98 yards, one touchdown, three receptions, seven yards vs. Maryland
I’ve been impressed with how hard Shell runs the football and can break tackles. However, he only ran for 3.6 yards per carry on Saturday against Maryland. Combine that with his 3.8 yards per carry against Alabama and maybe Shell is only going to be a power running back in a committee in the NFL.
Tyreek Hill, RB Oklahoma State
Seven carries, 29 yards, two receptions, 12 yards vs. Texas-San Antonio
I’m sure some will want me to give Hill a break here because they were playing Texas-San Antonio and he only had nine touches in the game. But I can’t do that because he’s too talented of a player to only gain 41 yards versus a creampuff team. Nine touches last week netted him 64 yards and 14 touches in week one netted him 126 yards. Hill had a down game versus a bad team and in no way is that a good thing for his NFL prospects. Are defenses figuring him out? The next couple of weeks will be telling to see if he was a mirage or just had a down game.
Keith Ford, RB Oklahoma
15 carries, 56 yards, one touchdown, two receptions, 35 yards, one touchdown vs. Tennessee
At first glance, it appears that Ford had a good day against an SEC defense with two touchdowns. But he only averaged 3.7 yards per carry and his touchdown reception was cake. It makes me wonder if Ford’s good start was due to soft opponents. He also suffered a foot injury that will force him to miss multiple weeks. We’ll see if he improves moving forward, but this performance knocks his value down.
Freshman Spotlight
Allen Lazard, WR Iowa State
Five receptions, 53 yards vs. Iowa
If you didn’t know already, I prefer my wide receivers to be tall because I believe it’s the new wave of the NFL and helps in fantasy football. Lazard is 6’5 and has already made an impact at Iowa State as a true freshman with nine receptions for 143 yards and one touchdown this year. He’s not a quick twitch athlete at all and will need to be more fundamentally sound to be productive at the NFL level. Lazard came up big on Saturday, converting a third down and catching a pass in traffic late in the fourth quarter to set up the winning score.
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Nick can be found on Twitter at @_NickWhalen
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