Yep. He is on pace to be the all time kickoff return leader in school history.
Get rid of him.
I think most people's issue with DY lies in this indisputable fact: taking a knee 5-7 yds deep in your endzone nets you 25 yds without the risk of ball security. He would have to average 30-32 yds/return to get the same result instead of the 23.38 he currently averages.
If he were a threat to house one every time he touched it, people would be more lenient, but he just isn't that threat. He runs until first contact and goes down. Most often, that is at or behind our own 20 yd line when taking a knee would have put the ball at our own 25 without the risk of a fumble.
How stupid! His average per kickoff return is exactly the same as Gault and Scott. As one poster said, if he had the same number of returns as Willie Gault, based on his current average, they would be 36 yards apart. He will become the best in Tennessee history!Thanks to a combination of a change in rules, our abomination of defenses, and quick-striking offenses (both ours and others), Devrin has had many more opportunities to return kicks. The higher amount of returns automatically creates a higher total yardage. That's like determining the best Vols kicker ever based solely on the amount of points he scored. Hall leads the Vols in points scored by a hefty margin, but Wilhoit had better field goal and extra point percentages. Hall, however, kicked 44 more extra points.
What that REALLY means is during the Dooley era, he has had more total opportunities to pad his total since his average is mediocre at best. His total return yardage is a testament to our opponents scoring, not due to any greatness in our ko return game ...please:crazy:Yep. He is on pace to be the all time kickoff return leader in school history.
Get rid of him.
Good point, but then I guess the opposite side of that coin is why is DY not returning punts? If he is the dynamic threat some would have us to believe, if he is the most trusted to catch the ball, then why is HE not back there on punt returns?
How stupid! His average per kickoff return is exactly the same as Gault and Scott. As one poster said, if he had the same number of returns as Willie Gault, based on his current average, they would be 36 yards apart. He will become the best in Tennessee history!
If you'd like to read my evaluation taking that into account, maybe you'll learn a little. They got that average when it was more difficult to return. Returning kickoffs has been made easier due to the rule change, which was the first mention in the post you replied to.
Devrin Young has outstanding high speed agility. He always attacks the defense at full throttle and never lets off the pedal while hitting every crease his blockers produce. Unfortunately, his blockers haven't produced any creases this year and Devrin is meeting a mob of unblocked defenders at the 15 yard line.
I think Devrin's so confident that, with a couple of blocks, he can outmaneuver the first wave of defenders, that he just takes off running rather than downing the ball. I think he would win that bet if he got those blocks. The video evidence from his past exploits support that too. The kid runs like a rabbit.
I laughed b/c it is true. Kind of bullheaded isn't it?
But he tries and he has stuck with this team and he is a VFL. He's just trying to make something good happen for his team.
But I agree with others.....give someone else a chance.
Blocking has to get twice as better as well.
If you'd like to read my evaluation taking that into account, maybe you'll learn a little. They got that average when it was more difficult to return. Returning kickoffs has been made easier due to the rule change, which was the first mention in the post you replied to.
Those rules went into effect in 2012, correct? So DY's average for the 2011 season would be applicable under the old rules, yes? If so then his 27 returns came back as 23.26 under the old rules. I don't think that really helps your rules observation much.
So even if we aren't comparing "then to now" in the greater sense we can still compare "now to now", right? Obviously CP was the man in 2012 so we'll have to skip to last year. Couple observations up front that mess with some perceptions...DY did NOT have a bunch of returns last year to pad his stats. In fact he had 8 fewer returns than in 2011. Did everybody forget the broken hand that kept him from playing in 5 games? So he comes back and averages basically 26 (25.95) on his 19 KORs. So, where would that rank (apples to apples) with everyone else in the SEC that had at least 19 returns? That'd be 5th in the league.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...DY is not some incredible kick returner that strikes fear in opponents. He has damn sure vetted himself more than a lot of people on here, for whatever reason, care to admit.
If he averaged 30 yards a return, we would average starting at the 30 yard line.