The Butkus

Dick Butkus is of course best known for his acting in sitcoms like 'My Two Dads' and 'Blue Thunder' but prior to his acting career he played a game called football and some think that he did a fairly good job at linebacker. Those that don't think Butkus did a "fairly good job" tend to instead insist that he was one of the best linebackers to ever play the game, and they went and named the award for "best linebacker in college football" after him.

Here are the 2012 semi-finalists for the Butkus Award.

Player	School		Player	School
Steve Beauharnais	Rutgers		Arthur Brown	Kansas State
Jonathan Brown	Illinois		Max Bullough	Michigan State
Gerald Hodges	Penn State		Jarvis Jones	Georgia
Dion Jordan	Oregon		Michael Mauti	Penn State
Kevin Minter	LSU		C.J. Mosley	Alabama
Trent Murphy	Stanford		Manti Te'o	Notre Dame

The first question we have to ask is "what statistics are available for individual defensive players?" The second is "which statistics are the most important?"

Tackles, Sacks, Tackles For Loss, Interceptions, Passes Defended, Fumbles Forced, Kick/Punts Blocked and Kickoffs are the defense statistical categories available from cfbstats.com. I think we can all agree that the last 2 categories probably do not have much to do with playing linebacker. I looked at the top 100 players for each category and selected the first 10 linebackers in the list including those tied for 10th.

Tackles so far in 2012:

Player	School		Solo	Assisted	Total	Total/G
Dan Molls	Toledo		60	56	116	12.89
Marvin Burdette	UAB		57	47	104	13.00
Travis Freeman	Ball State		36	60	96	10.67
Avery Williamson	Kentucky		49	46	95	10.56
Nick Clancy	BC		53	40	93	11.63
Mike Taylor	Wisconsin		47	45	92	10.22
Anthony Hitchens	Iowa		37	55	92	11.5
John Lotulelei	UNLV		48	41	89	9.89
A.J. Johnson	Tenessee		35	53	88	11
Geoffrey Bacon	Army		41	46	87	10.88
Damien Proby	N'western		56	30	86	9.56
Chris Wade	Miami (OH)		53	33	86	10.75
Albert Rosette	Nevada		40	46	86	9.5

That can't be right can it? The 13 leading tacklers in the country aren't on the list for the best linebacker despite every single one of them being linebackers. Interesting. So how do the linebackers on the semi-finalist list rank in tackles?

Player	Rank		Solo	Assisted	Total	Total/G
Steve Beauharnais			17	26	43	5.38
Arthur Brown			35	25	60	7.5
Jonathan Brown			26	29	55	6.88
Max Bullough	34		40	36	76	9.5
Gerald Hodges	71		23	45	68	8.5
Jarvis Jones			32	17	49	8.17
Dion Jordan			20	13	33	4.13
Michael Mauti	30		43	35	78	9.75
Kevin Minter	38		36	39	75	9.38
C.J. Mosley	89		39	26	65	8.13
Trent Murphy			23	16	39	4.88
Manti Te'o	25		39	41	80	10.00

That can't be right? Can it? Half of the Butkus Award Semi-finalists are not even in the top 100 for total tackles.

How about Tackles for loss, are the semi-finalists better in this area?

Player	School		TFL	Yards	TFL/G	Rank
Phillip Steward	Houston		14.0	80	2.25	6
Jarvis Jones	Georgia		14.0	84	2.33	6
Derrick Mathews	Houston		13.5	53	1.69	11
Deaundre Brown	Tulsa		13.0	72	1.63	13
Khalil Mack	Buffalo		13.0	54	1.86	13
Yawin Smallwood	U Conn		13.0	52	1.63	13
Kyle Van Noy	BYU		12.5	69	1.39	16
Kevin Reddick	N Carolina		12.0	53	1.33	20
Trent Murphy	Stanford		11.5	66	1.44	24
Anthony Barr	UCLA		11.5	55	1.44	24
Carl Bradford	Ariz St		11.5	46	1.44	24

The nominees:

Player	Rank		TFL	Yards	TFL/G	Games
Steve Beauharnais			4	14	.5	8
Arthur Brown			6	17	.75	8
Jonathan Brown			8.5	35	1.06	8
Max Bullough			9	39	1.00	9
Gerald Hodges			3.5	17	.44	8
Jarvis Jones	6		14	84	2.33	6
Dion Jordan			7.5	27	.94	8
Michael Mauti			3.5	30	.44	8
Kevin Minter			9.5	36	1.19	8
C.J. Mosley			3.5	29	.44	8
Trent Murphy	24		11.5	66	1.44	8
Manti Te'o			4.5	14	.56	8

A little better, at least 2 of the Butkus nominees are in the top 25 players in the country for TFL. And for sacks?

Player	School		Sacks	Yards	Sacks/G	Rank
Jarvis Jones	Georgia		8.5	69	1.42	5
Phillip Steward	Houston		8.0	76	1.0	8
Anthony Barr	UCLA		8.0	48	1.00	8
Kyle Van Noy	BYU		7.5	52	.83	14
DeAundre Brown	Tulsa		7.0	58	.88	17
Jake Fely	SDSU		7.0	46	.78	17
Travis Long	Wash St		6.5	60	.81	24
Trent Murphy	Stanford		6.5	43	.81	24
Cory James	CSU		6.5	40	.81	24
Carl Bradford	Ariz St		6.5	39	.81	24

The nominees:

Player	Rank		Sacks	Yards	Sacks/G
Steve Beauharnais			.5	3	.06
Arthur Brown			1	8	.13
Jonathan Brown			3.5	25	.44
Max Bullough			2	14	.22
Gerald Hodges			1	10	.13
Jarvis Jones	5		8.5	69	1.42
Dion Jordan			5	23	.63
Michael Mauti			2.5	25	.31
Kevin Minter			3.0	23	.38
C.J. Mosley			2.5	23	.31
Trent Murphy	24		6.5	43	.81
Manti Te'o			1.0	9	.13

Interesting that the 2 top nominees are again in the top 25 for sacks, but TFL are about the same as sacks, so not surprising.

Passes defended.

Player	School		Passes Defended	Passes Broken UP	Rank
Alex Means	Air Force		9	7	41
Ryan Shazier	Ohio State		8	1	41
Manti Te'o	Notre Dame		8	3	64

Only 3 linebackers in the top 100 players defending passes.

Player	Rank		Passes Broken Up	QB Hurries	Fumbles Forced
Steve Beauharnais					0
Arthur Brown			3	1	0
Jonathan Brown			1		1
Max Bullough			4	2	1
Gerald Hodges			4		1
Jarvis Jones			2	9	5
Dion Jordan			1	1	2
Michael Mauti			2		2
Kevin Minter			4	3	1
C.J. Mosley			1	2	1
Trent Murphy			2	4	1
Manti Te'o	64		3	4	0

And finally for interceptions

Player	School		Interceptions	Yards	TD	Rank
Manti Te'o	Notre Dame		5	35	0	2
Dion Bailey	USC		4	4	0	5
Michael Mauti	Penn State		3	125	0	23
Randall Joyner	SMU		3	23	0	23
Matt Warrick	Navy		3	12	1	23
DaCorris Ford	La-Monroe		3	10	0	23
Carlos Mendoza	Ariz State		2	18	0	61
Kiko Alonso	Oregon		2	57	0	61
Brandon Magee	Ariz St		2	45	1	61
Greg Blair	Cincinnati		2	13	0	61
Alex Means	Air Force		2	86	1	61

Player	Rank		Interceptions	Yards	TD's
Steve Beauharnais
Arthur Brown	61		2	37	1
Jonathan Brown
Max Bullough			1
Gerald Hodges			1
Jarvis Jones			1	21
Dion Jordan
Michael Mauti	23		3	125
Kevin Minter			1	4
C.J. Mosley	61		2	16	1
Trent Murphy			1	40	1
Manti Te'o	2		5	35	0

This is interesting; the best pass defending linebacker is also the linebacker with the most interceptions, which like the TFL/Sacks statistics isn't surprising.

Which is more important to a team, pass defense or run defense? Can you really determine the best linebacker when it appears that there are certain skill sets that certain teams use while another team might use players other than linebackers to accomplish the same task?

There is one player nominated from each of the undefeated schools. Each school has a different philosophy on offense, with Oregon's being the most radical as they sit players for the second half. Notre Dame has 7 players with over 30 tackles, Alabama four, and Oregon and K-State have seven each. Oregon is the most balanced with two players having over 40 tackles and five in the thirties. K-State has one player with 60, two with 49 and five in the thirties. Notre Dame has one with 80, one in the 40's and five in the 30's. Alabama has one over 60 and three in the thirties.

Within the four teams, Arthur Brown is third with 60 tackles, C.J. Mosley of Alabama is second with 65 tackles and Manti Te'o is first with 80 tackles.

Within the nominees, Manti Te'o, Michael Mauti and Max Bollough are the three leading tacklers.

Te'o also leads in interceptions and passes defended, but there is not much numerical difference as Mauti has three interceptions followed by C.J. Mosley and Arthur Brown with two apiece. If the passes defended stat is correct, Manti Te'o either breaks up the pass or intercepts it, the receiver doesn't catch it.

Jarvis Jones and Trent Murphy lead in tackles for loss and sacks with Kevin Minter (TFL) and Dion Jordan (sacks) following them.

After looking at all of these numbers my surprising choice for the Butkus at this time is Max Bollough of Michigan State. He doesn't have a lot of interceptions but he is near the top for the other categories. He might not be the top in each category, but as seen with the other nominees no one linebacker is going to have great numbers in all categories.

Arthur Brown is in my opinion the defense MVP at K-State. His abilities allow other players to make plays that they would not attempt without Arthur Brown backing them up (this hurts Brown's numbers, but it is about the team). I'm starting to be sold on the defense, but the Cats still have 4 solid teams left to play.

(hat tip to JonMorse for the player links)