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In keeping with our practice of identifying an Offensive and Defensive MVP for each game, we asked each of our staff of analysts and writers, Joe Iacono, A.M. Allan, and yours truly, Gordon Larson, to pick the three top contributors on offense and defense in the first four games this season. In this article, we’ll reveal our picks for the three top offensive players and will follow up with our choices of the three top defenders.
We’ll also include the names of the offensive players with the three highest ratings by Pro Football Focus (PFF) as of this date.
Video Credit: Crossan Illustrated/GBK
Joe Iacono’s MVP Picks on Offense
1) Isaiah Alston - while mostly being held in check in Army’s two losses, Alston turned in a career day against Delaware State with 3 catches for 135 yards and 2 TD’s. He added two catches for 68 yards including a 55-yard reception on the double pass from Markel Johnson against UTSA. Alston is Army’s best big-play weapon and he needs more targets and touches in our opinion.
2) Noah Short - The sophomore converted DB turned slot WR has turned into a super pleasant surprise and a huge weapon for Bryson Daily in the first four games. Short has 11 receptions for 192 yards and 2 TD’s including an 80-yard bomb for a TD late in the Syracuse game. Short made a circus catch to keep a drive alive against UTSA and then scored a TD after Alston’s 55-yard reception on the double pass. Short has good speed and great hands and will only improve with more reps.
3) Bryson Daily - Daily has had an up-and-down first 4 games of his career as the starting QB of The Black Knights, but we have seen improvement since opening night against ULM. Daily is a better runner than passer and with his 215-pound. His frame is more like another RB back there. He will punish anyone who gets in his way and is the first Army QB since Kelvin Hopkins who falls forward and gains yards after contact. Daily will need to take better care of the ball going forward, especially in the passing game where he’s thrown 4 INT’s so far this season.
As pointed out above, how weird is it that the Black Knights' best two offensive weapons are receivers? This doesn’t even count the TE’s; Slot WR Ay’Juan Marshall and others. Drew Thatcher’s offense has shown the ability to get receivers open downfield. Daily just needs to connect on more of those throws and improve his accuracy to loosen up defenses and keep teams like Syracuse from selling out to stop the run as they did in the second half. Daily’s stat line for the season is 29/60 for 592 yards with 5 TD’s and 4 INT’s for a 145.38 QBR. On the ground, Daily has 275 yards on 76 attempts for a 3.6 YPC AVG, with 3 rushing TD’s and a long of 23 yards. Daily won’t win any speed contests but he runs “angry” and is hard to bring down. He is Army’s leading rusher so far. Daily had a career day against Delaware State when he threw 3 TD’s and ran for 2 more, mostly before halftime.
A.M. Allan’s MVP Picks on Offense
1) I probably speak for many of the Army football fanbase when I say that offensive coordinator Drew Thatcher has to do a better job in getting wide receiver Isaiah Alston more involved in the offense. As it stands right now, he is not the leading receiver on the squad and that title belongs to up-and-coming receiver, Noah Short, who has 11 receptions to 9 by Alston. DID YOU HEAR ME? Nine by Alston.
However, what does stand out and what allows me to feel comfortable with having #11 as one of my offensive MVPs for the first portion of the season is that his ability to make every defensive coordinator aware of his presence on the field opens up other facets of Army’s offense and that is evident by the fact that Alston is No. 1 in the nation in the category of Yards Per Catch (29.56).
2) Wide Receiver Noah Short makes my list as well. Fun to watch play and develop right in front of our eyes. In the four games played this season, he has 11 receptions for 192 yards, 2 touchdowns, one for a long of 80 yards. He has demonstrated that he is not afraid of physical contact and will eagerly battle defensive backs for the ball.
3) Finally, I will have to add quarterback Bryson Daily. Don’t get me wrong … this is not an easy choice and it could easily be argued that he has been inconsistent, to say the least, and I would have to agree.
Perhaps I am driven by his comeback performances against Delaware State and more so UTSA, after a complete season opener meltdown versus ULM. Either way, that’s saying something, because his commitment and confidence also ignited the offense, while also providing leadership.
Gordon’s Picks
As the senior analyst and author of this article, I have the advantage of picking last, which allowed me to read Joe and AM’s comments before making my own choices. Both of my colleagues make excellent arguments for their selections, and I wouldn’t take exception to any of them. I also have the benefit of reading the technical analyses provided by PFF to inform my opinions.
1) My top pick on offense is Bryson Daily. As Joe and AM note, Daily has had his ups and downs as the field general of the offense, but his performance has generally dictated the results of each contest. When he’s on, the offense has performed well; but when he’s off the offense has performed poorly. That’s true, not only from game to game, but also from quarter to quarter within each game. He hasn’t always been the best performer, but he is the most important performer on the offense. AM’s comments about getting the ball to Alston more often apply to Daily as well as to Thatcher. Designing plays to get Alston open more often is Thatcher’s job, but getting the ball to where Alston can beat out the defenders for the catch is Daily’s responsibility.
2) I’m going to go with Noah Short as my #2 pick, in large part because he’s come out of nowhere to lead the team in Receptions with 11 and is likely to give Alston a run for his money as the top receiver this year. Before the season started, I was concerned that we lacked depth at WR, and Short has come on strong to complement the known capabilities of Alston and Ay’ Juan Marshall. My eyeball evaluation tells me that Short is the faster of the two.
3) I’ll concede to the wisdom of my colleagues in picking Isaiah Alston as my third choice on offense. We don’t always get a chance to see the coverage on Army’s receivers, and Joe and AM are probably right in their assessment that Alston is getting more attention from defensive coordinators than the other receivers. That’s a logical argument for listing him on top, and I think he probably has the most talent among the receivers; so I echo AM’s plea to encourage Thatcher and Daily to find ways to get the ball to him. A quick look at the game stats shows that Alston’s best game came against a weak Delaware State defense with 3 catches for 135 yards. He also led the team in catches at ULM with another 3, He and Short tied for top receiving yardage with 68 against UTSA and Short became the go to guy against Syracuse, while Alston was held to one catch for 16 yards. Presumably, Syracuse had better DBs than any of the other opponents, and they put their focus on stopping Alston, which opened the door for Short to take up the slack.
I leave you with one final thought and that’s that if Tyrell Robinson makes it back to the field soon, it will be an interesting race among Alston, Short, Marshall, and Robinson for Daily’s favorite passing target. It’s quite possible we could see all four of them on the field at the same time, which would complicate the job of opponent DCs.
PFF’s Top Rated Offensive Players based on Overall Rating
PFF rates offensive players on 4 separate aspects of their performance which are then factored into an overall rating for each game and the season to date. Quite often a player with a small number of snaps will get a top rating from PFF; so we’re limiting the field to players with 75 or more snaps on offense. We don’’t know what is graded in each category, and some of the ratings are a bit of a mystery.
Team high ratings for each separate category are indicated in bold.
• Jakobi Buchanan (79 Snaps): Overall Rating = 75.9; Pass = NA; Pass Blocking = 74.1; Run = 69.4: Run Blocking = 79.7 (best rating among players with 75+ snaps)
• Noah Short (138 snaps) Overall Rating 72.4; Pass = 70.8; Pass Blocking = NA; Run = 61.0; Run Blocking = 72.9
• Isaiah Alston (161 snaps): Overall Rating = 71.3; Pass = 69.5; No ratings for Pass Blocking or Run; Run Blocking = 74.3
• Highest Rating (75+ Snaps) for Pass Blocking was Sam Barczak with an 83.0
• Highest Rating for Run was Bryson Daily with a 70.7
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