Jon "D-Train" Dwyer??

Jonathan Dwyer took part in a live chat today over on RamblinWreck.com. If you were like me and missed it, I have copied the chat from the original page for your viewing pleasure.

Timmy (Norcross): How do you compare yourself with Tashard Choice?

Jonathan: Good morning everyone! Our energy level is similar. Tashard is more of an elusive back. I learned a lot from Tashard and I'm glad he's doing well.

Derek Bloodworth Milledgeville Ga.: CONGRATULATIONS on last season and ACC PLAYER of the YEAR !! D-TRAIN ? DIESEL ? What is your NICKNAME ?

Jonathan: I like "D-Train". I know they used "Diesel" in the media guide, but I like "D-Train" better.

allen robinson (Atlanta): I know it is a while away, but haev you thought about the NFL and when do you plan to enter?

Jonathan: I think everyone who plays college football dreams of playing in the NFL one day. And I know this sounds cliche', but I am really just focused on this season and helping the team in 2009.

Ed, Atlanta: where is your weight and speed compared to end of regular season '08?

Jonathan: Right now I weigh 227. I probably weighed around 230, in the low 230s, at the end of last season. My speed has improved from last season.

Eric, Macon: JD, The sports media outlets are saying our Offensive Line has a lot of question marks, but Coach Johnson says its one of the most improved areas of our team. How do you think the OL will play this year compared to last year?

Jonathan: By being in the system for a second year, they have better knowledge of what's going on. I saw some real improvement this past spring.

JT (Charlottesville VA): Jon, do you or the other backs ever take your O-Line out for dinner? Feed the guys who open holes for you kind of thing? Good luck this fall. (And please win on Oct 24 up here)

Jonathan: I took them out to dinner once last season and they almost burned a hole in my pocket. I took out Claytor and Gilbert. They ate a tremendous amount of food.

K-Dogg: Hey Jonathan! Counting down the days until toe meets leather! What player who redshirted last year do you expect to make the biggest impact in 2009?

Jonathan: I would say its between Jerrard Tarrant and Richard Watson. Richard gives us another talented back who will really help us out, make us more versatile in the backfield.

Shubs Virk: Yo Jon as your friend since your senior of high school can I have your game worn jersey? PLEASE :) lol

Jonathan: No! (laughing) I think that might be an NCAA violation.

Allen (Atlanta): Jon, what are your personal goals this season? I know the team wants to win championships, but I am interested if you had any numbers, awards, or accomplishments that you had your eyes on.

Jonathan: To become a better leader and to be the best player that I can be; to help us win an ACC Championship.

Kevin (Smyrna): Hey JD! Following last year's ACC Player of the Year season, obviously expectations are higher for both you and the team. How are you guys dealing with the added pressure of being one of the preseason favorites in the ACC?

Jonathan: Honestly, we haven't thought too much about any pressure. We are just working hard to reach our goals this fall.

Scott (Atlanta): With so many options at A-Back and B-Back this year, what combination of personnel in the backfield are you excited about taking the field with -or- what combination do you see really causing problems for defenses and why? Really looking forward to watching y'all this season and good luck!

Jonathan: I don't think it matters what combination we have on the field, with the talent we have, any of those combinations can cause problems for the opponent.

Ben (Atlanta): So D-Train, what game has you most worried right now?

Jonathan: Not worried about any one game in particular, just excited. Excited about all the games, but especially our ACC opponents.

Drew (Loganville): What is your favorite memory from the past couple of seasons?

Jonathan: Probably our running back meetings from my freshman year. Why? We had Tashard Choice in those meetings. Enough said. Mike Cox was also in there. On the field, probably beating Georgia this past season.

John(lake lanier): Anything fans don't know about you that they should?

Jonathan: I sleep with my eyes open. Roddy (Jones) came and talked to me in my room one time and talked to me for 30 minutes, not realizing I was alseep. I've got time for one more question.

Jamie Wheeler Louisville GA: Is it true that we only saw about 40% of the playbook last year?

Jonathan: Yes. We'll see more of it this year, but I'm not sure how much. OK, one last question. For real.

Tom, Roswell: Great season last year, and I'm looking forward to 2009. Has anyone asked you what the good word is yet? :-)

Jonathan: To hell with Georgia! THANKS to everyone who sent in a question today. You guys really asked great questions -- better than we get from the media sometimes :) I hope to see everyone in BDS September 5th when we open the season.

Jon Dwyer vs. Darren Evans

2:53 PM Major apologies for the Formatting FAIL this morning. Didn't see it until this afternoon.

HT to F4H at Gobber Country for initializing this:

Is Jonathan Dwyer an engineer's dream athlete?

F4H wanted to look at the efficiency yards of Jon Dwyer vs. Darren Evans and see who seemed to be the most efficient running back for his respective teams. Efficiency stats were taken strictly from the conference games. OOC games are outliers and are tossed out.

F4H will highlight Evans' load of work being completed in the Red Zone while the majority of Dwyer's runs, carries, and touchdowns come from beyond the 20-yard line. Evans scored all 11 of his touchdowns from the Red Zone while Dwyer only scored 2 of his 12 touchdowns within the same boundaries. But as all Tech fans know, the Jackets strike quick and fast. They get long touchdown runs from the open field and very few Red Zone attempts, while the Hokies had the most conference Red Zone attempts (34). So this discussion is open to some subjective conclusions.

To calculate a player's efficiency simply take your opponent's yards-per-carry (YPC) without sacks and multiply by number of carries against that specific opponent. These are your Expected Yards. Then divide the player's actual yards in the game by the expected yards and you have your efficiency.

When it comes to efficiency against conference opponents, Dwyer dominates.

Evans vs. Dwyer: ACC Efficiency

Name	OppYPC	Rush	ExYds	Yards	Eff
Evans	4.3	184	796.4	852	1.070
Dwyer	4.3	134	580.1	905	1.560

Granted, efficiency stats are not 100% solid to look at, especially when you are using them for football simply because there are so many outside factors that you can't take into account such as injuries both directly and indirectly affecting other players. Plus, numbers can be skewed in various directions when comparing to Georgia Tech simply because of the unique offense we run that runs so many backs (Evans ran the ball 50 more times in conference compared to Dwyer) But they can be a good discussion point. Diesel was held under his expected yards 1 time while Evans was held under his expected yards 3 times.

I'll let F4H conclude:

Dwyer's efficiency is astronomical. My guess is you'd be hard-pressed to find a running back from a BCS school who did better against his conference opponents than Dwyer did. Evans is a good back who fits into Virginia Tech's offense as well as Dwyer fits into Georgia Tech's. However, I give the edge to Dwyer for the conference's best running back.

If you like more of theses statistical viewpoints, later this week we'll take a look at GT's defensive efficiencies.

Dwyer's Case for the H-Man Trophy Part II

I like completely objective statistics. Like total touchdowns or total yardage per game. Things like that. So here're some interesting stats broken down for Dwyer across last season that should show he's gonna be a force to reckon with. I took Dwyer's rushing/receiving stats off each box score and broke down some critical info for your perusal.

Workhorse: Averaging 7.8 yards per play on offense is not as important as actually accumulating first downs as the GT b-back. Dwyer is capable of the big run but also runs for 4 yards or more 43.4% of the time (3 carries of 4 yards = first down). His consistency is undeniable averaging less than 5 yards per play in only one game last year (VT in which he was injured).

Big Plays: Dwyer racked up 23 plays over 20 yards or more not to mention that over 18.0% of his plays are equal to or greater than 10 yards. 6.3% of his total plays resulted in touchdowns, which seems like very little but is quite efficient for a big ol' runningback.

Career Stats/Records: According to Jon Dwyer's ramblinwreck.com profile, he will need 2,235 rushing yards to tie Robert Lavette's record set in 1984. He will also need 23 rushing TD's to tie Lavette's career TD record. If he were to tie or break these career records, he'd be beating single season records as well as no Tech player has ever eclipsed 2,000 all-purpose yards in a single season. Currently, Jon is 7th all-time at Tech for career rushing TD's and 10th all-time for rushing yardage. Meeting or surpassing these records WOULD BE HUGE. Mentioning these records is huge optimism on my part but Hell we've got 99 days 'til someone kicks a football off the tee so I'm allowed to be optimistic.

Dwyer for 09 Heisman

Thanks to Mash on the Gas for starting the blog snowball effect. Also, thanks to UNC blog Tar Heel Fan for showing me the link to Obamaicon.ME. I'm hopin' for a Dwyer Heisman. Here's a breakdown of the Modern Era* runningbacks' Heisman and pre-Heisman years:


So Dwyer is well on his way at 1419 yards in his sophomore season. A net increase of 900 yards from Dwyer's pre-Heisman year to actual Heisman year seems insurmountable. Reaching the average Heisman rushing yardage in the Modern Era* would require Dwyer increase his rushing total by 637 yards, which appears to be another daunting task... We shall see.

^{* - Note, my Modern Era of college football begins in 1983 or 26 seasons ago.}