October 31st, 2000 12:00am
The Harlon Hill regional nominee list was released on Wednesday. So what was the first topic of conversation about the list? The fact that South Dakota State running back Josh Ranek was not on it.
Currently the 24th all-time Division II rusher with just shy of 5000 career yards, Ranek also holds three North Central Conference records and eight South Dakota State rushing marks.
With this record it is no surprise that Ranek's absence from the honor roll list of regional Harlon Hill candidates surprised many people.
Ranek's name was originally submitted as a candidate for the Harlon Hill Award but was later withdrawn by South Dakota State's sports information director, Ron Lenz. Lenz recognized that the severity of an injury suffered in the Morningside game likely would not permit Josh to have the kind of record this season normally associated with the winner of the Award. Rather than keep Ranek's name under consideration, Lenz
decided that he, "didn't want to keep someone else from getting in."
Despite his injury Ranek did see limited action after the Morningside game, but his hobbled condition did not allow him perform up to his normal standards. "He's a tough kid that just doesn't know when to quit," said Lenz.
Fortunately if he takes care of himself he will not have to - at least for one more year. Ranek is a junior and probably the 2001 top candidate for the Harlon Hill award.
But this year's list minus Ranek is a good one - one that will make casting a vote difficult for the SID's around the nation who must make their final regional selections by November 13 and their final national selections by November 27 (note that the top three national vote getters make up the finalist list from which the Harlon Hill committee will select the ultimate winner). It was heartening to see that the list was not totally typical positions. Although there is an overabundance of quarterbacks in the initial list, Tony Miles and Robert Garza pop off the page as two deserving candidates who do not fit the normal mold of Harlon Hill candidates,
Miles has made his mark on special teams although he certainly is a credible receiver, too. Garza got attention as a freshman. He had all the makings of a top-notch D-II offensive lineman and a probable NFL candidate. He was so impressive as a sophomore that he was my choice for offensive lineman of the year when I did the D-II column for CBS-Sportsline.
The really interesting aspect of the Harlon Hill award is the process used to make the selection. The award is voted on exclusively by sports information directors. In reality many of the votes are cast after SID's have "consultations" with their own teams' coaches, but not always. A common method is to look through statistics and cast a vote based upon who has the best stats. This works against defensive players since the NCAA does not keep defensive statistics, and it also ignores many intangibles some players bring to their team.
Take the East, for example.
The nominee list includes three quarterbacks, a wide receiver and a defensive lineman. Of the five, quarterback Drew Folmar at Millersville and wide receiver Brian Dolph at Saginaw would appear to have the upper hands. They are the only two represented in the NCAA's list of the top statistical leaders at their positions, although neither is ranked all that highly. Dolph's best is number 16 in receiving yards per game. Formar's top listing finds him only 19th in total offense.
But at least these two are represented in the stats, the basis most SID's use to cast votes. So I suppose this means Jason Barnett QB at New Haven, Todd DeVree defensive end at Hillsdale and Slippery Rock quarterback Randy McKavish can say thanks to their schools for their nominations, but they can forget any chance of making it to the national ballot. If so, the Northeast Regional will be making a major mistake.
DeVree suffers from his absence from any easily obtainable statistical listing. Not being an offensive player also works against him. Only one defensive player, Ronald McKinnon from North Alabama, has ever won the award.
Barnett also is out of the stats lists, partly because he was injured early in the season and had a two game deficit compared to everyone else.
Speaking only of the quarterbacks, however, you have to ask what makes a good quarterback. Is it the ability to pass effectively? To those who base their votes exclusively on statistics this would be the most important characteristic.
How about a good runner - should the Q also be a guy who can carry the ball? For teams running the option or the veer, this is a huge factor in the effectiveness of the quarterback, but from a stats standpoint it is a rare day when a Q, even a running Q, makes it into the top rushing stats.
So how do you measure a quarterback in the context of this award?
Contrary to most other positions a quarterback in my opinion has to be considered using a multitude of criteria. He needs to he able to throw, run, think on his feet and be a strong leader. Nothing new here is there? But there is one other criteria that is the most difficult to quantify, but the stats oddly enough for this criteria are readily available - win-loss ratio and team scoring.
Essentially a quarterback candidate for this award should be judged on one item only. Is the candidate a winner? Does he do all the things necessary, running, passing, audibles, reading defenses, etc. that allow his team to win consistently.
Stated another way, you could ask the theoretical question of what would his team's fortunes have been had he not been the quarterback?
For the sake of not prejudicing the voting process in the East Region I will forgo mentioning who in my opinion best fits these criteria, but if the SID's voting on the Harlon Hill do their homework one candidate in this list of five should jump off the page. It will be very interesting to see if that's the way the final votes come out.
Some of the other regions have a much more difficult decision. The West and Midwest particularly have a tough call to make. Several candidates in these regions are particularly worthy award candidates. Too bad the Harlon Hill process does not list the runners up in each region. Some of the players from these two regions deserve recognition that their absence from the final group will not permit.
Despite the aforementioned deserving names on this year's list, as easy as it is to find an East Region top nominee, the final winner of the award also seems to be just as easy to determine. But, here, too, for the sake of fairness, this writer's judgement will be withheld.
The big award, however - the D-II national title - remains up for grabs. Several games this weekend will have a hand in determining which teams can take one more step toward Florence.
Topping the list is Slippery Rock's visit to Millersville, which coincidentally pits two regional Harlon Hill nominees against each other.
For Millersville this game could be a do or die situation. With two loses already, the most recent at the hands of regional contender Bloomsburg, Millersville probably can not afford a loss and expect to be playing late this month.
Slippery Rock has some jeopardy in this game, too, but probably not to the degree Millersville does.
If this is a won-or-done game, I suspect Slippery Rock will be the "won" to come out ahead while Millersville might be done.
North Dakota State University hosting Northern Colorado is an important game in the Midwest. This is must win for NDSU, but despite UNC's record, this will not be a cakewalk win, but a win it will be for the Bison.
Kutztown hosting Bloomsburg will be an interesting contest with playoff implications as well as being the PSAC East Division championship. Bloom wins this one but not easily.
The game of the week in the Midwest probably is the Augustana visit to Nebraska, Omaha. UNO can't lose this one. It should not, but this one could be a lot tougher battle than you might suspect. This game is one of those too-tough-to-call games (or maybe it's too-much- of-a-potential-embarrassment to call).
And then there will be the titanic struggle when Northwest Missouri State hosts Missouri, Rolla. The Titanic connection in this one will be to see how fast and deep NWMS sinks Rolla. In some circles this type of contest might be called a scrimmage. It is also parents' pride day - the day when all the folks who have been warming the bench at Northwest get some playing time. It's also a program builder.
Division II's playoff setup is far enough from being settled to make the season's closing week contests important in several regions. Particularly contested could be the fourth regional tournament berths in the Northeast, West and the South.