Monday Mailbag: special Tuesday edition

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

This week’s Monday Mailbag, a day late due to the Labor Day holiday, features a question about Saturday’s Ohio State vs. Texas game, the Midwest Athletic Conference, and a comment and explanation of high school football statistics.

Q: What’s your opinion – was it Ohio State’s defense or is Arch Manning wildly overrated? Name withheld upon request.

A: It was probably a little of both. Ohio State’s defense looked very impressive on Saturday and Manning looked downright overwhelmed at times.

He did show flashes, but those were offset by quite a number of bad passes – underthrown, passes that sailed, were behind receivers, etc. Plus, there were a couple of drops that didn’t help matters for him.

By the end of the game, I almost felt bad for Manning. Here he was, hyped as the pre-season Heisman Trophy favorite, the potential No. 1 pick in next year’s NFL draft, etc. and he looked…not good. Obviously, his last name and his family tree has a lot to do with the hype. If it was anyone else, he probably would have spent at least some of the second half watching another quarterback taking snaps, but there’s no way Texas could have done that. The expectations were/are crazy high for him.

Personally, I never understood the hype. If he was truly that good, why couldn’t he beat out Quinn Ewers, who turned out to be average to slightly above average while at Texas? This is not to say he’s not good or can’t be good – he very well may turn out to be a star someday but at least for now, expectations need to be tempered.

Q: What’s going on in the MAC? It seems like there were some surprises Friday night. Name withheld upon request.

A: The MAC went 6-4 in Week No. 2 but there were perhaps a couple of surprises. I’m surprised Minster lost by four touchdowns to Minster – didn’t see that coming. I thought Parkway would defeat Delphos Jefferson, but I’m not shocked the Wildcats won. Lima Central Catholic was a tough matchup for Delphos St. John’s and I’m not sure that’s really considered an upset. As far as the other game – Coldwater vs. Clinton-Massie – I’m not shocked. While I thought Coldwater would win, Clinton-Massie has a rock solid program. They’ve made the playoffs every single year since 2002 (not a misprint) and they’ve won three state championships (2012, 2013 and 2021) and finished as the runner-up in 2017. Ever see them play? They line up in the two tight end wishbone and slug it out. It’s definitely old school football. Friday’s game was a showcase between two powerhouses.

The MAC still has six undefeated teams, including of course Marion Local, who has now won 66 consecutive games.

C: It might be a good idea for you to explain how football stats are kept — the unofficial ones that may appear in various news publications and the official ones — why they may vary and the publication timing factor of each. Name withheld upon request

A: No problem. At the local high school level, each football team has an official stat keeper. It may be someone who has that title and logs the numbers after each play, or it might be done by an assistant coach or the head coach while watching video of the game after its conclusion. At the local level, sportswriters and sports broadcasters might keep their own stats for use in a story and/or on the air. I guarantee if you put 10 of all of us in a press box during a game, we’re going to come out with 10 different sets of numbers. Most of the time, the numbers will be close or very similar, but everyone sees the game a little differently. Sometimes the yardage may be off because, for example, the ball is placed just inside the 40-yard line. Is it counted as the 40 or 39? Those little differences can add up. Other times, if it’s tough to read the numbers and teams are in the hurry-up offense, was it No. 20 or No. 28 that carried the ball?

In the end, the person designated as the stat keeper has the final say. Those are the numbers that are submitted to the WBL and the NWC for weekly statistical leaders reports.

Often times, the official numbers are available shortly after the game or the next morning. At higher levels of football – college and pro – they’re available immediately, but that’s a whole different ballgame, no pun intended.

Here are a couple of funny stories on stats, experiences from my time covering sports. I’m not going to name names, but these are true stories.

One school, not from here, but in north central Ohio, had a program that struggled for many years. One particular season, the defense was being gashed week in and week out. I remember games where opponents would rush for 400+ yards as a team. My stats reflected that, as did others covering the game. When the official stats came out, those numbers were cut in half. Also, the offensive numbers of this particular team were “enhanced.” Instead of 4-of-10 passing for 44 yards, it would come out 6-of-9 for 62 yards. In other words, there was some stat padding taking place on both sides of the ball.

Here’s another one. A conference in north central Ohio once had a commissioner who refused to count quarterback rushing yards in the official stats. We literally had a verbal argument about it. “Quarterbacks don’t get rushing yards,” he said. I asked him how he counted it, if on a quarterback keeper, the QB ran 60 yards for a touchdown. His response: “team yards.” I told him he was dead wrong, but he wouldn’t budge. Here’s the kicker – in addition to being the conference commissioner, he was also a sportswrite, and the main team he covered ran the wishbone offense. The rest of us (along with the coach) had the quarterback down for just over 1,000 yards rushing for the season, but it never showed up in the official conference stats.

Thankfully, we don’t have issues like those around here.

If you have a question or comment for the next Monday Mailbag, please email it to sports@thevwindependent.com.