| 16 November 2011
(Photo by Shotgun Spratling)
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):
8. Michael Floyd (Notre Dame)
| Targets | Rec | Yds | TD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Florida | 15 | 12 | 154 | 2 |
| Michigan | 16 | 13 | 159 | 0 |
| Michigan St | 8 | 6 | 84 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh | 5 | 4 | 27 | 0 |
| Purdue | 17 | 12 | 137 | 1 |
| Air Force | 10 | 6 | 78 | 1 |
| USC | 10 | 4 | 28 | 0 |
| Navy | 6 | 6 | 121 | 1 |
| Wake Forest | 8 | 5 | 44 | 1 |
| Maryland | 14 | 9 | 90 | 1 |
| TOTALS | 109 | 77 | 922 | 7 |
Reception % - 70.64
Yards per Target - 8.46
Candicacy: Like the rest of the golden domers, Michael Floyd hasn't necessarily lived up to the expectations this season.
A team that many people expected to be in a BCS bowl is only 7-3 with a trip to Stanford still on the schedule. Similarly, many people expected the team's biggest playmaker, the physical Floyd to break out this season after having four 100+ yard games last season and getting a second chance after some off-the-field issues.
Floyd jumped out of the gates with back-to-back 150+ yard performances to begin the season, but he's had only two 100+ yard games since. He also has been held under 50 yards three times -- the only Biletnikoff semifinalist to do so. He is also the only Biletnikoff semifinalist that doesn't have 1000 yards yet or averaging more than 100 yards per game.
Floyd is also one of only three Biletnikoff semifinalists that doesn't have a 200+ yard game this season (and Keenan Allen is actually very close with a 197-yard performance).
So what keeps Floyd from being even farther down the Biletnikoff rankings? Floyd is actually the only non-Big-12 receiver that is hauling in 70 percent of the passes thrown his way.
He just needs the ball to be thrown his way more. For example, in the Pittsburgh game, Floyd had three receptions on the opening possession. He had another pass thrown his way late in the first quarter and then only saw one pass thrown his way in the final three quarters of a tightly-contested ballgame.
Floyd also has touchdown catches in each of the last three games. Look for him to have a huge game against faux-rival and defensively-challenged Boston College this weekend.
Shotgun Spratling
