| 16 November 2011
(Creative Commons - John Martinez Pavliga)
On Monday, the 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the top college receiver in the country, were announced. Since the beginning of the season, I have been accumulating stats for the top receivers, beginning with an article I wrote about just how good Robert Woods had been through the first five games.
I've added a receiver every week or two when they've jumped toward the top of the national leaderboards for the primary receiving stat categories of receptions, yards and touchdowns. Going beyond those three categories, I culled through stat sheets and the play-by-play records of each game to see how many times these receivers had the ball thrown to them, aka targeted.
After looking at all the data, here's my current ranking of the 10 Biletnikoff semifinalists (in ascending order with their candicacy pros and cons):
9. Keenan Allen (Cal)
| Targets | Rec | Yds | TD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresno St. | 13 | 8 | 112 | 0 |
| Colorado | 12 | 6 | 104 | 1 |
| Prysbyterian | 9 | 6 | 85 | 1 |
| Washington | 19 | 10 | 197 | 1 |
| Oregon | 15 | 9 | 170 | 1 |
| USC | 17 | 13 | 160 | 0 |
| Utah | 10 | 8 | 78 | 1 |
| UCLA | 10 | 7 | 83 | 0 |
| Washington St. | 12 | 8 | 85 | 0 |
| Oregon St. | 5 | 3 | 29 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 122 | 78 | 1103 | 5 |
Reception % - 63.93
Yards per Target - 9.04
CONFERENCE TOTALS: 88 targets, 58 receptions, 802 yards, 3 touchdowns
Reception % - 65.91
Yards per Target - 9.11
Candicacy: Against USC, Keenan Allen had a career-high 13 catches and eclipsed 100 yards receiving for the fifth time in Cal's first six games. Since then Allen hasn't broke the 100-yard mark.
He did average 82 yards receiving in the three games following the USC Thursday night matchup, but he produced a dud last weekend when he only caught three passes for 29 yards. He was also targeted a season-low five times.
Though Allen hasn't produced as well, his production has been an inverse of the team's performance. Cal is 3-1 in the last four games after losing the three games Allen produced his best numbers.
That possibly could be attributed to his quarterback/half-brother Zach Maynard relying too heavily on Allen against Cal's toughest competition so far this season (Washington, Oregon, USC). If that's the case, expect Allen to have a "Big Game" against Stanford this weekend that could possibly push the sophomore back up the rankings.
Shotgun Spratling
