Friday, December 13, 2013

Top Returning Rushers

While waiting for the full eight-player Dartmouth early decision class to be revealed I thought to dig up a list of the top 10 returning rushers in the Ivy League next year. It proved to be a little tricky for a few reasons.

The Ivy League "statistics leaders"go only 10 deep in rushing and with the top two rushers graduating, I had to go searching for the next two. Sounds easy enough but then I discovered . . .

Yale's Tyler Varga didn't even show up on the list because he hadn't played in enough games to "qualify." That despite the fact that for total yards he is the second-leading returnee. (That's a huge problem in the way the stats are compiled because he's clearly one of the top two runners back and doesn't even show up on the stats.)

Going back to the individual stats for each team on the Ivy League website was helpful, but they don't list what year players are, so that required cross-checking against the rosters, a time-consuming headache. (Yeah, I'm whining.)

All that said, here's the list with apologies to anyone I missed because they didn't play in enough games to qualify

TOP RETURNING IVY LEAGUE RUSHERS FOR 2014
1. Paul Stanton, Harvard 936 yards, 93.6 ypg, 5.8 ypc, 15 TDs
2. Tyler Varga, Yale 627 yards, 104.5 ypg, 5.0 ypc, 1 TD
3. Quinn Epperly, Princeton 570 yards, 57.0 ypg, 5.0 ypc, 18 TDs
4. Dalyn Williams, Dartmouth 563 yards, 56.3 ypg, 3.7 ypc, 5 TDs
5. DiAndre Atwater, Princeton 457 yards, 50.8 ypg, 4.7 ypc, 2 TDs
6. Kyle Wilcox, Penn, 493 yards, 49.3 ypg, 4.8 ypc, 2 TDs
7. Spencer Kulcsar, Penn, 433 yards, 48.1 ypg, 3.9 ypc, 3 TDs
8. Candler Rich, Yale, 444 yards, 44.4 ypg, 4.9 ypc, 3 TDs
9. Kahlil Keys, Yale, 352 yards, 39.1 ypg, 6.3 ypc, 1 TDs
10. Kyle Bramble, Dartmouth, 337 yards, 33.7 ypg, 6.1 ypc, 2 TDs
Missed this earlier. The Columbia Spectator had a story right after the Lions finished their winless season in which head coach Pete Mangurian took aim at some of his critics with this quote:
“I’d be less than honest if I said it isn’t more difficult than I thought it would be, and it’s because of all the people out there that want to tear the program down for whatever reason. Unfortunately some of them are our own. And that is really disappointing.”
For a terrific explanation of the spread offense and what they are doing down in Philadelphia, check out this video interview with Eagles' head coach Chip Kelly. (Thanks for the link.)
Speaking of interviews, Princeton quarterback Quinn Epperly was a guest on a Tennessee radio program and tells the story about how he ended up with the Tigers instead of at Texas A&M. Find the interview here. (Thanks for the link.)