Actual Conway Jr. Stats

Submitted by backusduo on
Rivals reports a lot different stats then those mentioned in the Mgoblog article posted recently, and with that begins to make a case for why this kid could be something more than we initially thought with a name drop of Florida starting to check into him. As a junior, Conway played several roles on offense, defense and special teams for Seaholm. He caught 76 passes for close to 900 yards and ten touchdowns on offense and added three interceptions and 500 combined yards from punt and kick returns.
MGoBoard
Shawn Conway

Drake

February 21st, 2010 at 6:59 PM ^

Scout has 79 receptions for 800 yards and ten touchdowns as a junior. Also had 500 return yards and two interceptions on defense.

Joined: 07/30/2009

MGoPoints: 15

Fat Mike

February 21st, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^

I was gonna say something didn't seem right with only 200 yards. Unless his film was every single catch he made, he had close to that with just those plays

Joined: 11/10/2009

MGoPoints: 443

aaamichfan

February 21st, 2010 at 7:22 PM ^

Eureka! After hearing about the Florida interest, I re-watched the highlight tape and was way more impressed. Future All-American!

Joined: 10/23/2009

MGoPoints: 14362

Jackie Chiles

February 21st, 2010 at 7:23 PM ^

I go to school with Shawn, and let me tell you he's an absolute stud. Our team is well, terrible so he does just about everything, offense, defense, special teams, etc. His stats IMO could be even better if he had a quarterback to support him. The current one is dreadful, and has a rag for an arm.

Joined: 02/20/2010

MGoPoints: 5

El Jeffe

February 21st, 2010 at 8:21 PM ^

Attention Mejunglechop: This is a good test case for our semi-ongoing discussion regarding the proper way to react to non-4*+ commitments. You have in the past crapped on the "trust the coaches" mantra in favor of the "trust the ratings services" method, if I'm not mistaken. And I'm honestly not trying to misrepresent your position here; I'm genuinely curious. Here is what we know: 1. Yesterday-ish we received word via MGoBlog that an unrated recruit with sketchy stats and no other offers accepted a UM offer. 2. This set off a shitstorm of e-handwringing, followed by admonitions to "trust the coaches," and various and sundry handlejackings and negbangings. 3. Now we find out that Conway actually had quite good Jr. year stats, perhaps has the eye of UF, and, it stands to reason, will be rated just fine in the next 11.5 fucking months before Signing Day 2011. As a member of the "trust the coaches" guild, I react to all of this with equanimity, nodding and smiling, because it retroactively validates the position I held, even in the absence of all of this "new" information (i.e., I bet the coaches knew his stats, right?). How do you react? Does the new information matter? Are you more satisfied? In other words, is it more your position that until we have hard evidence that a player is good, we should neither trust nor doubt the coaches? Or that, absent hard evidence that a player is "good," we should assume he is "bad," a UM offer notwithstanding? Or something else?

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 27329

jmblue

February 21st, 2010 at 9:52 PM ^

Besides being a complete non-sequitor, that's a myth. The many West Africans - who, as far as we know, aren't descended from slaves - currently starring in soccer and other sports today (Eto'o, Adebayour, Mensah, et al.) refutes this claim.

Joined: 11/07/2008

MGoPoints: 102720

jmblue

February 22nd, 2010 at 12:03 AM ^

Given that virtually all African Americans are of West African ancestry, and that the people currently living in West Africa - who aren't descended from slaves - excel in the same types of physical activities (specifically those that involve sprinting, lateral movement and jumping), it makes little sense to assume that something happened during slavery to make African Americans better at sports.

Joined: 11/07/2008

MGoPoints: 102720

sbblue

February 22nd, 2010 at 12:26 AM ^

I understood your point. I was simply saying that the fact some West Africans excel in the same types of physical activities does nothing to show that West Africans are, on average, as athletically gifted as African Americans. It does show that it is possible for a West African to be a world class athlete, but this could be shown for nearly any people group. I do agree that it's a questionable (at best) assumption that something happened during slavery.

Joined: 10/12/2008

MGoPoints: 66

david from wyoming

February 21st, 2010 at 9:00 PM ^

One small correction. Sadly there was no handlejackings. MichMike just had such an awesome meltdown that when he woke up today he found out he was banned. In order to save e-cred he made the rest of the story up...something like feeding his roommate chunky milk and going out to the bar, only to find his account hacked by said roommate. This now ends the correction, we resume the El Jeffe vs Mejunglechop slap fight.

Joined: 03/15/2009

MGoPoints: 2981

mejunglechop

February 22nd, 2010 at 6:25 AM ^

As an evaluative method "trusting the ratings services" is way too narrow. When making an evaluation I think you also have to look at who offered the recruit and factors like whether he was offered in a camp setting and how hard the coaches recruited him. When news broke of Conway's commitment the only information available to us was that he had no other reported offers and his highlight video. So yes, all this new information does matter to me. In fact, it forms almost the entire basis for my (still limited) opinion. I have no critique of the "trust the coaches" mantra per se. I think this is a misunderstanding. Generally I think people use it to mean "relax about recruiting, the coaches know what they're doing, we'll be fine." Honestly, I envy people with that attitude. I wish I didn't get bent out of shape about recruiting. I'm sure that mantra served you well in, say, Carvin Johnson's recruitment. The problem, though, comes when people confuse the slogan for some sort of trump card analysis. It can't be analysis because it's inherently self-validating. Perhaps most frustrating for its pervasivenenss is the "I trust Rodriguez more than dudes on the internet who don't coach football" which completely misses the point. Unlike all the heuristics mentioned above, it does nothing to answer the question "what should we expect from this sleeper?"

Joined: 07/09/2008

MGoPoints: 6618

chitownblue2

February 22nd, 2010 at 8:26 AM ^

I'm just curious though - Conway, like many people in the 2011 class at this point, hadn't even been evaluated by the services yet. But still, you expressed confusion as to why he was offered, etc. So, we were mostly in a state of ignorance - we had no stats, no "evaluation" done by anyone other than Michigan - just a youtube video. It's not as if we were looking at a 2* ranking and trying to convince ourselves he was good. Rather than be optimistic or, merely, open-minded, some people decided to complain, doubt, and even rage. People who, I may add, have no qualification whatsoever to judge potential based on a highlight video. So rather than being in a rush to get "Our Take" on the record as quickly as possible like a caller into Jim Rome, why can't some people (and yes, I do include you as one who at least mildly expressed concern) just hold off until they even KNOW something. Look - I know recruiting rankings have value. I've probably written 4 screeds at WLA to that effect. But this kid didn't even HAVE a ranking. Nobody was rationalizing him as a "sleeper" because we don't even know if he IS one. He may get 5-stars slapped on him when Rivals takes a look - who knows?

Joined: 06/03/2009

MGoPoints: 7178

El Jeffe

February 22nd, 2010 at 10:34 AM ^

This is reasonable. I think I understand what's going on now. There are basically two questions being asked in these sorts of exchanges: 1. Should I worry that Recruit X is un- or lowly-rated? 2. How awesome is un- or lowly-rated Recruit X likely to be? I think your argument is that there is nothing wrong with answering question 1 with "trust the coaches," in the sense that it is simply a way of shrugging one's shoulders and saying, "why worry? In the absence of information, I will assume the coaches know what they are doing." As for question 2 on the other hand, it is less defensible to say, "I know Recruit X will be awesome because RR knows his shit." As you say, as an evaluative method, "trust the coaches" doesn't make sense. I wonder then, whether much of the e-slapfighting that goes on derives from people asking and answering different questions.

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 27329

Magnus

February 21st, 2010 at 9:38 PM ^

Statistically, this makes Conway the best receiver Michigan has recruited in the last few years. Nobody in the 2008-2010 classes had this many yards and touchdowns as a junior.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 166004