Pac-10 Offensive Player Of The Year: Jahvid Best Not Jacquizz Rodgers

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and read the title of the headline story from The Oregonian's sports section, "Rodgers Runs Off With Pac-10's Top Honor." While Jacquizz Rodgers deserved mention in the talk of Offensive Player of the Year for the Pac-10, he wasn't the offensive player of the year for the conference.

Don't get me wrong—Rodgers had an excellent season, and the highlight of it was when Oregon State took down then number one USC, where Rodgers rushed 37 times for 186 yards for a five yard average per carry and two touchdowns. The 186 yards were the most yards in a game for Rodgers.

Anyone who can put up those numbers against USC definitely earns them recognition in the conference. Yet what amazes me is the fact that the award is for the whole season, not just one game.

Rodgers ended the season with 259 carries for 1,253 yards, which meant he averaged 114 yards per game and a 4.8 yards per carry average. He also caught 29 passes for 247 yards and one touchdown.

The player who actually should have won the award is Jahvid Best from Cal. He didn't need nearly the number of carries to have more yards than Rodgers.

Best is arguably one of the most dangerous players in college football when he's healthy. This season, since the Bears game against Colorado State, Best has been playing with a dislocated elbow and missed one game against Arizona State.

What The Oregonian sportswriter forgot to mention in the article is the fact that Rodgers had a huge yardage advantage coming into the last game of the season for the Cal Bears. In fact, Best needed 171 yards to overtake Rodgers. Not only did Best surpass Rodgers, he did it with relative ease, carrying the ball 19 times for 311 yards and four touchdowns.

The 311 yards by Best is the most yards gained by a Cal Bear running back in the school's history.

Best ended the season with 174 carries for 1,394 yards, which meant he averaged 127 yards per game, eight yards per carry, and had 13 touchdowns. On the receiving end, he caught 27 passes for 246 yards and one touchdown.

The fact is that Best is more scary when he has the ball, and defenses can only hope to contain him. While Rodgers has the speed, he hasn't shown the breakaway ability yet. Best showed in his freshman year that he had the ability, but a hip injury derailed his freshman season.

As mentioned earlier, Rodgers' best game was 186 yards, and that took 37 carries. Best had three games over 200 yards. In those games, he carried the ball 52 times for 712 yards and nine touchdowns.

The best average attempted per carry in a game for Rodgers was 7.3 yards per carry against Washington State, where Best had five games over 7.3 yards per carry. Rodgers went over 100 yards rushing seven times, and Best went over 100 yards seven times as well.

The only difference between Best and Rodgers is that the Oregon State Beavers had a more consistent offense this year than the California Golden Bears did. The Beavers have a solid group of receivers while Cal does not, but the receiving corps doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Best had a better season and deserved the offensive player of the year award over Rodgers.

The only good news that came of the announcement of Rodgers winning the award is that it wasn't a USC Trojan who won. Next year, watch out—I believe that Best will have a much bigger season next year, stay fully healthy, and the Cal passing game will be much better, which allows for Best to be even more dangerous.