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About 10 days ago, I sent a mass communique to all of ODB's contributors, both football and otherwise, for their selections for the 2013 OurDailyBears Season Awards. I've now managed to include all of ODB's contributors in the voting, and if you want to be a part of this next year, you should probably email me and talk about it.
In going back and forth in our emails, we eventually settled on the following categories for the first-ever ODB Awards. This is something I've wanted to do in seasons past and never put together, so I'm proud to bring it to you now. I'll introduce each of the categories first, then at the bottom of the post there will be a chart listing how everyone voted in every category except "Best Moment." There the responses were just a bit too long to fit into the chart itself. Without further ado...
The 2013 OurDailyBears Season Awards!
Team MVP -- QB Bryce Petty
The voting for this one was pretty straightforward. We had 9 respondents, 7 of whom voted for Petty. One other vote went to Tevin Reese. I suppose when you throw down the following stats, you deserve a nod for Team MVP, even if you are robbed as a Heisman finalist.
Offensive Player of the Year -- QB Bryce Petty
Surprise! It's Bryce Petty again. This time he received 9 of 10 votes for the award. Once again the other went to Tevin Reese. Because Bryce's stats have already been included, now is a good time for Tevin's, I'd say.
Tevin is listed as having appeared in 7 games because he was injured before catching a pass vs. Oklahoma. What might have been...
Defensive Player of the Year -- LB Eddie Lackey
Baylor's senior All-Big 12 performer at LB earns the nod with 8 of 10 votes. Ahmad Dixon and K.J. Morton both received one vote to tie for second place.
I have no qualms with this.
Special Teams Player of the Year -- WR/KR Levi Norwood
The only unanimous selection in our entire voting, and he earned it. Norwood was the star of a slightly-improved Baylor special teams unit in punt returns. His return against Texas Tech, in particular, probably won him this award.
Game of the Year: Baylor vs. Oklahoma
With Hammer's votes now counted, the tie between Baylor vs. OU and Baylor vs. UT has now been broken. The OU game received 4 votes to UT's 3, leaving 3 more to be split between Iowa State, TCU, and Kansas State. The links above go to the ODB Game Hubs for each game, where you should be able to find stats, highlights, and everything else that might suit your fancy. I'll keep the gifs from each of the top two selections in place because I like them.
Worthy choices, all.
Play of the Year: TIE -- Seastrunk 80-yard TD vs. WVU, Burt INT vs. TCU
The voting for this award was particularly scattered; no single play earned more than 2 votes and 7 different plays were represented in the voting. The top 2:
Check the chart below for links to the other plays receiving votes.
Offensive Lineman of the Year: LG Cyril Richardson
I expected this one to be unanimous, but two votes snuck in for Spencer Drango and caught me off guard. I don't have any stats for Cyril to show you other than those Hammer has done all year, but I do have this:
Defensive Lineman of the Year: DE Chris McAllister
McAllister took 7 of 10 votes for this award, leaving 3 for true freshman Andrew Billings and sophomore Beau Blackshear to split between them.
Favorite Uniform: Chrome Helmet, Black Jerseys/Pants
This was the combination we wore in the game against West Virginia, a.k.a. the debut of the chrome helmets.
Let me add that by far my least favorite was the Black/White/Black combo vs. Oklahoma State, and it really has nothing to do with the game at all. I promise.
Most Improved: CB K.J. Morton
KJ took the "Most Improved" title on his strength in run support all season, his continued dominance of Case McCoy, and, oh yeah, possibly the best interception I've ever seen. Andrew Billings received 2 votes, presumably from the "improved most through the season" voters, and the last 4 went to Goodley, Clay Fuller, Sam Holl, and Blackshear, respectively. K.J's interception:
*Should have been 1.
Breakout Player: WR Antwan Goodley
When you lead your team in all-purpose yards on the season with 1355, including 1319 receiving in your first year as a go-to threat, you're probably going to win a Breakout award or two. Redshirt freshman RB Rashodrick Linwood received 3 votes, followed by ODB favorite Shawn Oakman's 2.
Unsung Hero: NB Sam Holl
I was very glad to be able to cast the third vote for Holl in this award. Others receiving votes included sophomore safety Terell Burt, sophomore OT Spencer Drango, the combination of freshman DTs in Andrew Billings and Byron Bonds, senior jack-of-all-trades OL Kelvin Palmer, and senior defenders Morton and Lackey.
Holl got my vote for finding his place in our defense at nickelback. I wrote extensively before this season about how the Holl-Dixon switch could backfire on the Bears, and instead both excelled in their new spots.
Most Missed: TIE -- S Ahmad Dixon, OG Cyril Richardson
Dixon and Cyril managed to tie for this award with 3 votes apiece, followed by Demetri Goodson with 2. Senior RB Glasco Martin picked up a vote, as did Lackey. From last season, but whatever...
I like to think that he's saying he'll miss us, too.
*****
So there they are, the 2013 ODB Season Awards. Contributors, since this post was already 1600+ words, I decided not to include the "Best Moments" submissions. If you like, please post them in the comments!
The Voting
The acronym "OY" means "of the year." So "POY" means "Player of the Year."
Feel free to give us your own take in the comments for all of the categories listed plus any you might otherwise formulate. If you have questions about any of the categories/choices, shoot them our way. I'll tell you now that I left my explanations for the categories purposefully open-ended to get as many viewpoints as possible.
Also, we're eventually going to do ODB Blog Awards for this year, so be thinking about potential candidates/nominations for things like Best Comment, Best Post, and the like. All in good fun, obviously.
