Earl Thomas a Thorpe Award semi-finalist

HJ,

I haven’t watched much of Tennessee this year, but won’t it be really hard for Earl to unseat Berry? Or has Berry been invisible this year?

Berry is a freak. Earl benefits from playing on a team that has a real shot at playing for it all. If Berry played Tebow every week, he’d win it.

“If Berry played Tebow every week, he’d win it.”

I’m not so sure about that. Berry might get to him the first two games, but I’d be willing to bet Tebow would be be practically immortal by the third game.

Berry is playing very well, and he is likely to get it again. He is a great player abd deserves it. That said, it will belong to Earl for the next year or hopefully two if he sticks around.

Berry is in a new defense, and his stats are not as good. He’s still a great player, but he went from seven interceptions as a sophomore to one this year. He’s playing much closer to the LOS this year from the little I’ve watched Tennessee.

Last year’s Eric Berry is this year’s Earl Thomas.

That collision those two had earlier in the year was severe. This sort of play being repeated accompanied by the groans of Verne Lundquist and the libidinous mutterings of Gary Danielson would make him a shoe in.

I’m sure Kiffin Sr took a look at the SEC passing games and decided he wasn’t going to waste his best defensive player in coverage.

Just to be clear, in one of the worst tragic award selections in the past decade (on par with Pollack over DJ, Bush over Vince), Malcolm Jenkins won the Thorpe award last year over Eric Berry. That shows that it can be a career award or just give it to the best senior award and therefore screw Earl over. I love Berry but Earl has been the best DB in the country this year.

But Taylor Mays plays for USC!

Soes anyone have the complete list?

I don’t know if he’ll be a finalist or not. He should be. But this kind of thing is always so ridiculous about expectations coming into a season that I find it hard to discount the concept of Berry or Mays winning it on name more than anything.

I’ve seen Berry a lot this year and he continues to change games. He’s ridiculous. He is being asked to do different things this year, however.

Berry is an unbelievable college football player—think Michale Huff, 2005, with a worse supporting class. It is his award to lose and he would get my vote even over one of my favorite Longhorns.

However…

Earl Thomas with 10 interceptions? a la Dre Bly?

Now that would be a tough stat to ignore. Wonder how close he gets?

http://www.jimthorpeassoc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=202:jim-thorpe-award-names-2009-semi-finalists&catid=5:news&Itemid=4

The 2009 semi-finalists are:

Javier Arenas, Sr., Alabama
Eric Berry, Jr., Tennessee
Barry Church, Sr., Toledo
Perrish Cox, Sr., Oklahoma State
Joe Haden, Jr., Florida
Brandon Harris, So., Miami (FL)
Taylor Mays, Sr., USC
Tyler Sash, So., Iowa
Darrell Stuckey, Sr., Kansas
Earl Thomas, So., Texas
Alterraun Verner, Sr., UCLA
Kyle Wilson, Sr., Boise State

Isn’t Alterraun Verner a famous botanist?

I believe Berry’s one interception was against His Holiness himself. Not quite walking on water but maybe turning water into grape juice.

It will come down to who the WWL hypes.

“Isn’t Alterraun Verner a famous botanist?”

No – he’s a Senator from Coruscant in the Outer Rim.

Mays will not win it.