| 21 November 2011
(Creative Commons - Kaleb Fulgham)
Last Monday, the 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the top college receiver in the country, were announced. This week, the three semifinalists were announced (which I believe are incorrect).
Since the beginning of the season, I've 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, I continue my rankings of the 10 Biletnikoff semifinalists (in ascending order with their candicacy pros and cons):
6. Patrick Edwards (Houston)
| Targets | Rec | Yds | TD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UCLA | 6 | 2 | 21 | 0 |
| North Texas | 13 | 8 | 187 | 2 |
| Louisiana Tech | 6 | 3 | 81 | 3 |
| Georgia St. | 5 | 4 | 76 | 0 |
| UTEP | 12 | 8 | 144 | 0 |
| East Carolina | 13 | 12 | 133 | 2 |
| Marshall | 8 | 7 | 109 | 1 |
| Rice | 14 | 7 | 318 | 5 |
| UAB | 7 | 5 | 79 | 0 |
| Tulane | 6 | 5 | 129 | 3 |
| SMU | 11 | 5 | 38 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 101 | 61 | 1315 | 16 |
Reception % - 65.35
Yards per Target - 13.02
CONFERENCE TOTALS: 71 targets, 49 receptions, 850 yards, 11 touchdowns
Reception % - 69.01
Yards per Target - 13.38
Candicacy: Patrick Edwards is second in the nation in receiving yards. He's averaging 13.02 yards every time he's thrown the ball, when none of the other Biletnikoff semifinalists are even at 11 yards per.
So how come he's not a top five Biletnikoff contender? Consistency and the great disappearing act.
Edwards is in a pass happy offense with a great quarterback in Case Keenum slinging it around. As Houston's top receiver, he's expected to put up huge numbers. He's done that...at times.
He had probably the most impressive game of the season by a receiver when he hauled in five touchdowns on a 7-catch, 318-yard night against Rice. The game propelled him onto the Biletnikoff scene. However, the next week, he had only 79 yards on five catches, pushing him to the back of the Biletnikoff list.
He rebounded with a three-touchdown performance last week against Tulane...only to fall flat this weekend against SMU. With all eyes on the Cougars with ESPN College GameDay coming to visit, Edwards managed just five catches for 38 yards on 11 targets. It was his second worst performance and the second disappearing act. Just like in the Cougars other biggest game of the year, when they took down BCS-conference foe UCLA in the opener, Edwards disappeared. Against UCLA, he had only two catches on six targets.
In the two games with a potential national audience, Edwards finished with 59 combined yards and no touchdowns. The UCLA and SMU games were also the only two he's had a reception percentage of less than 50 percent when the ball was thrown his way.
Edwards is the only semifinalist in the top 65 of yards per catch at 19.9, but he also has the fewest receptions of any semifinalists. He's a home run threat, but not necessarily the well-rounded wideout deserving of the Biletnikoff.
Shotgun Spratling
