We have reached the midway point of the season and we have a bye week so I figured this would be the perfect time to revisit our top 10 list that we voted on during fall camp. The list is below
Tier 1
1) Tahj Brooks - RB - Super Senior
We got this one right, he's been awesome. In 5 games he has 124 carries and 679 yards which both lead the conference. 5.5 ypc which is slightly above last years 5.3. He also has 7 TDs compared to last season's 10. Stud, and it would take force majeure to keep that man away from 1st team All-Big XII
Tier 2
2) Josh Kelly - WR - Super Senior
44 catches, 514 yards, 11.7 y/rec, 3 TDs. His yards/game is up from last year (85.7 compared to 76.9) but his yards per catch is down quite a bit (15.1 to 11.7 this year), I think this is primarily due to his role in the slot in this offense. He's been very good and if he ends the season over 1,000 yards and we win as much as it looks like we're going to win then it's going to be hard to keep him off of the postseason lists.
3) Jacob Rodriguez - LB - RS Junior
I'm not 100% sure if we would have agreed that he should be 3rd on this list through 5 games but he might be too low after the dominant Arizona performance where he was the highest graded LB in the country on PFF. 54 tackles (31 solo), 1 sack, 5 TFL, 2 FF, 1 FR. Great player, grateful to have him.
4) Ben Roberts - LB - RS Soph
45 tackles (22 solo), 4 TFL, 3 FF (leads FBS). He's not tackling quite as prolifically as last season but I think part of that is J-Rod is right next to him unlike last season. Our LBs have been a mixed bag in pass coverage but they bring the ruckus on run D.
5) Behren Morton - QB - RS Junior
139/221 (62.9%) 1,640 yards, 14 TD, 2 INT, 273 ypg, 28.8 expected points added (6th in Big XII for QBs, he is 4th in Big XII in passing only EPA). Morton averaged 6.0 yards/attempt last season (bad), this year he averages 7.4 yards/attempt (10th in big xii among QBs with over 100 attempts, he might be a little higher in a different offense that didn't have as many horizontal passes). Morton was maybe the most controversial pick on this board but I think his play has mostly warranted this spot
6) Bralyn Lux - CB - Super Senior
He has earned this spot by how much we have missed him when he was gone, 3 games, 8 tackles, 1 INT, 1 TD
7) C.J. Baskerville - S - Senior
35 tackles (20 solo), 2 INTs. He's been solid but he'll have to keep those INT numbers up if he's going to sniff an all-conference position. He's been a bit of a mixed bag, which is common in our rough but improving secondary
8) Jalin Conyers - TE - Super Senior
14 catches, 122 yards, 8.7 yards/catch, 2 TDs, 5 rushes, 28 yards, 1 TD. He's been more fun than he has been incredible this season if that makes sense. A gadget player who seems to be getting fewer snaps every week as our other TEs seem to be trusted more in the run game.
9) Vinny Sciury - OG - Super Senior
Injured vs Washington State, there's a good chance he'll be in this exact spot on the list for next year's team as well.
10) Micah Hudson - WR - True Freshman
He's averaging about 3 snaps/game so we can go ahead and say that it was probably a little early for Micah to be on the list. With that said, we'll know how we feel about Micah in house next offseason if we don't go after any transfer receivers. Kelly, McCray and Brown are all gone after the season and Micah seems like a readymade replacement at slot receiver with sky high potential.
Let me know what you think and post your personal top 10 lists for the halfway point through the season!