Joe is on pace for 100 tackles on the year as a freshman, and I think he could exceed even that number now that he's getting more playing time and every game is more experience.
He's not rotating any more, so that means he has more opportunities. I believe I read he's averaging 9 tackles a game since becoming the starter. That's amazing. He's definitely Freshman All-American material, and a lock for Freshman All-Big XII. The question is: Does he get All-Big XII recognition?
He's 8th in tackles in the Big XII (linebackers), averaging 7.9 per game. But if he continues to average 9 per contest, that number will jump to more than 8/game, which could take him to 5th.
Looking only at conference statistics, Pawelek is 6th on the list, averaging 9.7 per contest.
The main problem is that guys like Rufus Alexander and Bo Ruud are going to get a spot on the list just by having their name being pumped. Both those guys are tied for 20th in tackles/game among linebackers, and 36th overall (Pawelek is 6th on both the overall and linebackers list). They are averaging 3.7 tackles per game LESS than JoePa.
I'd love to see JoePa get 15-18 tackles in the game against Kansas, earned DPOY and get the publicity ball really moving. If he could move up to third or fourth in the Big XII in tackles it'd be hard to leave him off the post-season list (only 1 tackle/game separates him from 3rd).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment