UD had a cupcake OOC regular season (no I-A and a Div II) vs W&M's (a I-A no Div II) which skewed those stats some. Didn't Pierce rush for something like 500+ in those 3 OOC games?GannonFan wrote:Why Grimes as first team yet no mention of UD's Pierce at all? I understand Grimes is a senior and he returns kicks, so those are in his favor over a sophomore who doesn't return kicks, but for just the RB position it seems odd. They both had similar receiving numbers last year and Pierce rushed for almost 40 more yards per game than Grimes. If you're already listing kickoff returners separately, then how much do kick returns factor into running backs?
Looking at CAA games only (as already has been mentioned, Grimes sat out most of Maine game):
RUSHING Team Cl G Att Yds Avg TD Long Yds/G
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Jonathan Hernandez.. UMAS JR 8 159 697 4.4 4 32 87.1
2. Andrew Pierce....... DELA FR 8 179 665 3.7 8 38 83.1
3. Jamal Sullivan...... JMU SR 7 128 581 4.5 4 53 83.0
4. Pushaun Brown....... MAIN JR 8 121 576 4.8 5 40 72.0
5. Jonathan Grimes..... W&M JR 8 145 569 3.9 4 25 71.1
6. John Griffin........ UMAS SR 8 110 540 4.9 3 59 67.5
7. Steve Probst........ URI JR 8 122 491 4.0 4 58 61.4
8. Dontra Peters....... UNH SO 7 84 379 4.5 4 51 54.1
9. Chris Whitney....... VU SR 8 105 408 3.9 10 45 51.0
10.Aaron Ball.......... VU SR 8 93 390 4.2 3 57 48.8
http://www.nmnathletics.com/fls/8500/St ... nfonly.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Pierce rushed for 12 more yards per game than Grimes, but Grimes had a higher ypc at 3.9 to Pierce's 3.7. Plus, UD had a better o line than W&M. UDs o-line was 2nd only to Nova's)
I saw UD 6x on TV and once in person, and saw W&M 3x on TV and once in person (plus what I saw of Grimes in 08' and 09'). If I had to pick a RB out of the CAA I would still take Grimes, then Hernandez then Pierce. Hernandez was impressive considering he was splitting time with Griffin, and the UMass o-line wasn't as good as UD's either.
That being said I think if all 3 backs stay healthy Pierce will lead the CAA in rushing since UD barring injuries will have the best OL in the CAA, and UD will probably be a little more run oriented without Devlin.
