10. Shannon Woods
running over Baylor. Shannon had 125 yards and three touchdowns on the
ground, which allowed our Air Raid to flourish as the Baylor defense didn't know
who to focus their attention to. As if his 125 yards rushing weren't
enough, Shannon added another 48 yards receiving. Woods proved throughout
the season to be a reliable all-purpose back, and filled in for the huge void
left by Taurean Henderson better than we all thought that anyone could have
done. Shannon gave us good production all year long, but the effort
against Baylor was easily his marquee game. I'm glad to have Shannon
around.
9. The DBs' coverage
in the Oklahoma State game. Adarius Bowman came into the game against
Tech as one of the Big 12's top wideouts, but was shut down on the day.
Chris Parker had some extremely timely deflections, including the one that
sealed the victory on the last play of the game. Jamar Wall had another
fantastic leaping deflection late in the game. Darcel McBath's 4th quarter
interception was huge, and Joe Garcia had an INT returned for a touchdown that
was stolen from him. Antonio Huffman was timing his hits well, and forced
a few drops. We had the OSU receivers playing scared.
8. L.A. Reed's
special teams play. The coverage teams had a great season, aside from
the long kickoff return at Texas A&M. Reed was the most consistent of the
unit, but there were also great contributions from Blake Collier, Daniel Charbonnet, and Marlon Williams. L.A. and the other members of the unit
were arguably the reason that we were able to make the comeback in the second
half, with the way that they put the Cowboys in awful field positions for most
of the latter part of the game. Reed showed us some of the playmaking
abilities that he will hopefully bring to the receiving corps next season at X.
7. Joel Filani's
domination of Baylor. Filani was in unstoppable form against Baylor,
as the Bears secondary never had a chance against him. Joel put up 212
yards and three touchdowns, with an average of 26.5 yards per reception.
Filani also had a 76-yard touchdown that was spectacular, perhaps only bested on
the season by his TD in which he broke multiple tackles against Texas A&M.
Joel proved that he can be a #1 guy, and certainly helped his NFL stock with his
performance in the game against Baylor. Here's hoping that a pro team
recognizes his potential and gives him a chance to shine at the next level.
6. Darcel McBath's
two interceptions against UTEP. On a day in which our defensive scheme
was getting killed by Johnnie Lee Higgins as linebackers struggled to cover him,
we had the secondary step up and give us a chance to win the game. Darcel
McBath got two turnovers in the game, but the last was the most important.
Jake Ratliff deflected a Jordan Palmer pass up in the air in the Miners' first
overtime possession, which Darcel was aware enough to intercept. This gave
us the ball back with a chance to win the game with only a field goal, and
that's exactly what we were able to do to get the victory.
5. Jarrett Hicks' big
day against UT. In a season where Jarrett Hicks had to deal with so
much adversity, Hicks managed to punish one of the nation's best corners in his
best game of the year. As a matter of fact, they were getting so
frustrated with trying to cover him that they ended up taking a cheap shot on
Jarrett, which injured him for the rest of the season. Of course, it
wasn't even penalized. Anyway, I hope that Jarrett's pro stock didn't
suffer from being underutilized, injured, and erroneously held out of games
thanks to the NCAA. If the pros just give him a long hard look, he will
make a splash in the NFL.
4. The rebound at
Iowa State. After the Colorado debacle, the team and fanbase were at a
very low level of morale. The response was an "Air it Out" meeting that
Leach held, as well as the show of support from our fanbase thanks to an
ingenious idea generated on RaiderPower. I truly believe that the
combination of both of these things caused us to become reinvigorated for the
rest of the season. We had a road game against an Iowa State team with
nothing to lose, and we pulled together and got a decisive win that set the tone
for the remainder of the year. This game was the reason for our inspired
effort against UT.
3. Alex Trlica's
game-winning FG against UTEP. After questionable officiating negated a
Robert Johnson TD for the second time of the UTEP game, we were penalized in
overtime twice on that play since we thought that we had won the game. We
were able to get back close enough to attempt a FG. Trlica trotted out
after missing a few field goals earlier to try a 49-yarder and have his shot at
redemption. The kick sailed through the air, and caromed off of the
upright and fell through. We all thought they we were headed for a second
overtime, but Alex came through for us and won the game.
2. Graham Harrell
picking apart the UT secondary. Graham absolutely torched the UT
defense for 519 yards through the air. That's a phenomenal effort no
matter how you slice. We spread the ball around, and the Air Raid was
playing to its potential. While we didn't win the game, partly thanks to
the same questionable officials that did the UTEP game, we put out a fantastic
effort and put down any notions that teams have figured out our offense.
Aside from the slip on the quarterback sneak, Graham's performance in that game
gave us more than enough reason to get excited to have him around for a while.
1. Robert Johnson's
TDs against A&M. Johnson's three touchdown effort was amazing against
A&M. Graham was able to pick on Jordan Peterson, the defensive back who
had the unfortunate assignment of trying to keep Robert out of the end zone.
Needless to say, Peterson failed in that game, but went on to have a good season
overall. RoJo found the holes in the 4-2-5 defense that was designed
specifically to stop our offense. The best moment of the regular
season for me was Graham's hot route to Johnson for the game-winning TD.
The throw. The catch. The A&M sadness. It was beautiful.
Trent Wycoff
(Questions, comments, praise, and constructive criticism
can be directed to Trent within the forums or through email at
trent@raiderpower.com)