A statistical response to BlueSeoul's critique of Martavious Odoms

That first sentence was so full of win.... I don't even know. Kudos to you, sir (the OP.)

Mike Hart fumbled 2 punts in his last game. A crucial bowl game. He was bad that year. Plain. Simple. What a tool. No fundamentals.

"His receiving skills are TBD because the QB play was so horrendous and they couldn't put a bubble screen within five yards of the receiver.

Yet he repeatedly caught them and this was praised and noted in the UFRs.

Yeah, because leading the team in receptions as a true freshman and averaging 9 yards a catch (14 if you only consider the plays that were actually well thrown and blocked) is a disaster because he fumbled his first time playing in cold weather. Never mind the fact that most players have a year or two to get acclimated to the weather before they are given enough touches to fumble as many times as Odoms did.

You sir have earned my first thumbs down vote.

I don't see it as making excuses but understanding the context. I agree with the sentiment that the fumbles were disappointing but he was also often put into tough situations with a lot of expectations.

I think he has a lot of potential and I hope he has a great year.

The punt against Purdue - yeah, suck.

The fumble against Minnesota - he got throttled because of a Stonum missed block.

The fumbles against Northwestern - were you at that game? I was - see my avatar? It took my clothes 3 days to dry out. I could barely stand upright, let alone catch a punt.

The fumble against Ohio State - he ran forward 20 yards and tried to catch a ball he shouldn't have.

His receiving was better than a C. When the team functioned even moderately adequately, he averaged 14 yards a catch. As a point of reference, Braylon Edwards averaged 13 and change per catch in 2004 (I know, Braylon had twice as many catches, more TDs, but still, Odoms was operating in pretty impressive company AS A TRUE FRESHMAN). That average is also better than Adrian Arrington's career average per catch.

If Odoms keeps this pace up, he will graduate the #2 receptions leader in Michigan history. I'd say that's better than average.

Again, Odoms shouldn't even have been on the field last year. If this were 2010, he wouldn't have been because the depth would be there (imagine next year if all our slots were gone and Drew Dileo was the only true slot receiver on the roster. Now stop, it won't happen). Someone had to play the slot, and he was the best. As a true freshman. You should be concerned about a receiver like Stonum, who has proven little and needs to step up.

He struggled on some returns. He had a lot of company in this regard. As I recall one of the subtitles for the year could have been "Can anyone hold on to a kick?" Blame the coach if you want (I didn't see RR drop any) but I think he was more frustrated than anyone on this board with the inability to find a player who could field a kick.

However, I can not see how anyone could call Odom's freshman year a disaster. He set the freshman record for catches, and although there are some problems with any stat, whether he averaged 9 or less YPC, the kid made some chicken salad out of chicken shit without a QB that could hit him in stride or a wideout that could spring a block consistently.

He may not end up being Braylon, Breaston, Avant, etc. but few end up at that level. I'll let his time here play out.

There were few bright spots last year: Minor's running when healthy, Mesko's punting, the play of Brandon Graham. I could be missing one. Oh yeah, a promising year for a freshman slot receiver named Martavious who needs a little work holding on to the ball.

what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you negative points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

"I'm not saying that there's no reason to be optimistic about his future. What I am saying is that his freshman year was a disaster (and he had a lot of company).

3-9 is not acceptable (under any circumstances)."

I kept reading your comment hoping that I would find a glimpse of satire. Instead I found a really bitter guy. A horrible freshman year? Really? You're serious?

to Godwin's law on here, so I just decided to make my own law. Poole1dan's law states that if a thread goes on long enough, someone is bound to act like poole1dan and complain and bitch about everything in site. Thankfully, on this site, you can easily get docked a bunch of points and banned before good posters get annoyed and kill themselves.

Yeah - I agree, Odoms was impressive and has the potential to be one of the greats.

How many times have you seen a punt returner field a punt inside of their own 10? Everyone knows that they are told not to but, they are playmakers and sometimes playmakers take chances.

Brian agrees, enough said

Well at least we know he's not a virgin.. you know, because he's a "fucking freshman."

I'd actually quibble with that. Blue Seoul's point was disproved because jg could show that on a preponderance of Odoms' catches, the ball was either poorly thrown, the play poorly blocked, or some combination of the two. If you accept that those disprove the example of Odoms, then how are they accounted for in Blue Seoul's stat? All "yards per thrown at" does is add drops into the denominator of the division problem. Sure, it helps, but it's a really marginal change and doesn't address the larger problem that jg has laid bare.

The issue with receiver stats specifically, and many football stats in general is that they're difficult to use in order to attribute credit or blame to specific individuals. It's hard, without play-by-play information, to seperate Odoms' performance from that of the QB's and his blocking. It's hard to evaluate Minor's performance from the offensive's lines and vice versa.