I-AA (Kind Of) Gets Its Due
Posted: December 10, 2012
HARRISONBURG — Taylor Heinicke is the top Division I college football player in Virginia. Last week, he won the Dudley Award by a unanimous vote — 16-0 — to prove it. But is the record-setting Old Dominion quarterback the best player in the state?
It depends on your interpretation of what the Dudley is supposed to recognize: the state’s stud, or the state’s most valuable player on a particular team.
“It’s real simple. It’s the Player of the Year in the state of Virginia,” said Washington Times sports editor Mike Harris, the chairman of the Dudley Award selection committee from 1995-2007. “And, to me, that’s always been clear. That is not the ‘best’ player.”
Typically, though, the MVP factor appears to have been given scant consideration.
Overwhelmingly, voters have awarded the Dudley to the state’s most talented and skilled player — and, not surprisingly, that player almost always comes from one of the state’s two Division I-A schools: Virginia or Virginia Tech. The Cavaliers and Hokies have dominated, winning the Dudley a combined 19 times in the 23 years it’s been awarded. Only four lower-division players have won: Emory & Henry quarterback Cary Perkins (D-III) in 1992, Richmond defensive tackle Marc Megna (I-AA) in 1998, James Madison quarterback Rodney Landers (I-AA) in 2008 and Heinicke (I-AA), only the fourth player to win the award unanimously, in 2012.
This year, neither U.Va. nor Tech was strong — they finished the regular season with 4-8 and 6-6 records, respectively — and neither had a standout player to overshadow Heinicke, who played for the state’s most successful team and amassed eye-catching statistics.
“I think, in order for a [I-AA] guy to win it, he’s got to do something really extraordinary,” said the Virginian-Pilot’s Ed Miller, a Dudley voter for more than 10 years. “And there’s got to be a weaker field in the two big schools.”
Heinicke had the perfect confluence. He had a hyper-productive season, setting the D-I single-game passing record with 730 yards on Sept. 22 against New Hampshire. For the season, the sophomore from Georgia threw for 5,076 yards, completing 68.7 percent of his 579 passes. He also threw 44 touchdowns to 14 interceptions. Add that to ho-hum performances by players at U.Va. and Tech, and the Dudley Award was close to a no-brainer this season for the members of the media who pick the winner.
Crucially, perhaps, Old Dominion also won big. The Monarchs, who went 1-1 in the Division I-AA playoffs, finished with an 11-2 record, thanks largely to Heinicke’s productivity.
“With the numbers Heinicke put up this year, he would have been a good candidate even if Virginia and Virginia Tech had a feasible candidate themselves. Heinicke’s numbers were that good,” said Lane Casadonte, a voter and the sports director at CBS-affiliate WTVR in Richmond.
The standards, voters admitted, are higher for non-I-A players because of the talent difference between the two levels.
“If someone had put up similar numbers to Heinicke at Virginia Tech, I probably would have voted for the Tech guy,” said Gary Hess, another voter and the Richmond-based sports director at the Virginia News (Radio) Network. “If [Tech quarterback] Logan Thomas had put two-thirds the numbers of Taylor Heinicke or what have you, I probably would have voted for Heinicke. There might have been other people who voted for the Tech guy.”
Newport News Daily Press columnist David Teel also said Heinicke — who led I-AA in total offense, passing yards and passing yards per game during the regular season — would have been in the conversation even if U.Va. or Tech had produced a viable candidate.
When Landers won the award in 2008, he had a season similar to Heinicke’s — putting up notable dual-threat stats during a year in which U.Va. and Tech produced no major stars. Of course, the Cavaliers and Hokies still get the bulk of attention, regardless of how well they do. Teel said the lack of media exposure hurts the smaller-college candidates — one of whom is nominated by each football-playing school in the state and sent to Times-Dispatch sports editor Steve Trosky, who compiles the ballot and votes. The award is presented at a banquet in Richmond.
Heinicke, with his video-game statistics, managed to overcome his I-AA stigma. Still, there is an inherent inequity in the award — and it’s one that wasn’t intended when a group of Richmond businessmen and the Times-Dispatch sports editor at the time, Bill Millsaps, created the award in 1989. The idea was to give lower-division players as much consideration as their more talented major-conference peers.
But that’s not what happened, and it’s why the Lanier Award was created in 2004. Named for Hall of Fame NFL linebacker and Virginia native Willie Lanier, it’s given to the top D-II, D-III or NAIA player in the state. Those players no longer are eligible for the Dudley Award, which is limited to players from the state’s 10 Division I football schools.
Millsaps, who retired as the Times-Dispatch’s executive editor in 2005, said splitting the award is not something he wanted but something he viewed as necessary.
“I understand the rationale,” Millsaps said. “When a small-college or lower-division player wins the award, it has extra meaning. Basically, anybody Virginia or Virginia Tech that’s going to be there, they’re going to get the votes more heavily weighted toward them — and that probably should be. I like the idea of having them all in there together, but I understand the rationale of having two separate awards.”
The voters said it was a good move, too.
“I’m kind of glad they did separate it,” Teel said. “... It was still going to go 90 percent of the time to someone from Virginia or Virginia Tech. There was so little chance for someone from Shenandoah or Emory & Henry or Christopher Newport to ever crack that top tier, and now there’s a chance.”
And, as Heinicke and Landers have proven, there’s also a chance that a I-AA star will win — assuming nobody does anything special in Charlottesville or Blacksburg.
It depends on your interpretation of what the Dudley is supposed to recognize: the state’s stud, or the state’s most valuable player on a particular team.
“It’s real simple. It’s the Player of the Year in the state of Virginia,” said Washington Times sports editor Mike Harris, the chairman of the Dudley Award selection committee from 1995-2007. “And, to me, that’s always been clear. That is not the ‘best’ player.”
Typically, though, the MVP factor appears to have been given scant consideration.
Overwhelmingly, voters have awarded the Dudley to the state’s most talented and skilled player — and, not surprisingly, that player almost always comes from one of the state’s two Division I-A schools: Virginia or Virginia Tech. The Cavaliers and Hokies have dominated, winning the Dudley a combined 19 times in the 23 years it’s been awarded. Only four lower-division players have won: Emory & Henry quarterback Cary Perkins (D-III) in 1992, Richmond defensive tackle Marc Megna (I-AA) in 1998, James Madison quarterback Rodney Landers (I-AA) in 2008 and Heinicke (I-AA), only the fourth player to win the award unanimously, in 2012.
This year, neither U.Va. nor Tech was strong — they finished the regular season with 4-8 and 6-6 records, respectively — and neither had a standout player to overshadow Heinicke, who played for the state’s most successful team and amassed eye-catching statistics.
“I think, in order for a [I-AA] guy to win it, he’s got to do something really extraordinary,” said the Virginian-Pilot’s Ed Miller, a Dudley voter for more than 10 years. “And there’s got to be a weaker field in the two big schools.”
Heinicke had the perfect confluence. He had a hyper-productive season, setting the D-I single-game passing record with 730 yards on Sept. 22 against New Hampshire. For the season, the sophomore from Georgia threw for 5,076 yards, completing 68.7 percent of his 579 passes. He also threw 44 touchdowns to 14 interceptions. Add that to ho-hum performances by players at U.Va. and Tech, and the Dudley Award was close to a no-brainer this season for the members of the media who pick the winner.
Crucially, perhaps, Old Dominion also won big. The Monarchs, who went 1-1 in the Division I-AA playoffs, finished with an 11-2 record, thanks largely to Heinicke’s productivity.
“With the numbers Heinicke put up this year, he would have been a good candidate even if Virginia and Virginia Tech had a feasible candidate themselves. Heinicke’s numbers were that good,” said Lane Casadonte, a voter and the sports director at CBS-affiliate WTVR in Richmond.
The standards, voters admitted, are higher for non-I-A players because of the talent difference between the two levels.
“If someone had put up similar numbers to Heinicke at Virginia Tech, I probably would have voted for the Tech guy,” said Gary Hess, another voter and the Richmond-based sports director at the Virginia News (Radio) Network. “If [Tech quarterback] Logan Thomas had put two-thirds the numbers of Taylor Heinicke or what have you, I probably would have voted for Heinicke. There might have been other people who voted for the Tech guy.”
Newport News Daily Press columnist David Teel also said Heinicke — who led I-AA in total offense, passing yards and passing yards per game during the regular season — would have been in the conversation even if U.Va. or Tech had produced a viable candidate.
When Landers won the award in 2008, he had a season similar to Heinicke’s — putting up notable dual-threat stats during a year in which U.Va. and Tech produced no major stars. Of course, the Cavaliers and Hokies still get the bulk of attention, regardless of how well they do. Teel said the lack of media exposure hurts the smaller-college candidates — one of whom is nominated by each football-playing school in the state and sent to Times-Dispatch sports editor Steve Trosky, who compiles the ballot and votes. The award is presented at a banquet in Richmond.
Heinicke, with his video-game statistics, managed to overcome his I-AA stigma. Still, there is an inherent inequity in the award — and it’s one that wasn’t intended when a group of Richmond businessmen and the Times-Dispatch sports editor at the time, Bill Millsaps, created the award in 1989. The idea was to give lower-division players as much consideration as their more talented major-conference peers.
But that’s not what happened, and it’s why the Lanier Award was created in 2004. Named for Hall of Fame NFL linebacker and Virginia native Willie Lanier, it’s given to the top D-II, D-III or NAIA player in the state. Those players no longer are eligible for the Dudley Award, which is limited to players from the state’s 10 Division I football schools.
Millsaps, who retired as the Times-Dispatch’s executive editor in 2005, said splitting the award is not something he wanted but something he viewed as necessary.
“I understand the rationale,” Millsaps said. “When a small-college or lower-division player wins the award, it has extra meaning. Basically, anybody Virginia or Virginia Tech that’s going to be there, they’re going to get the votes more heavily weighted toward them — and that probably should be. I like the idea of having them all in there together, but I understand the rationale of having two separate awards.”
The voters said it was a good move, too.
“I’m kind of glad they did separate it,” Teel said. “... It was still going to go 90 percent of the time to someone from Virginia or Virginia Tech. There was so little chance for someone from Shenandoah or Emory & Henry or Christopher Newport to ever crack that top tier, and now there’s a chance.”
And, as Heinicke and Landers have proven, there’s also a chance that a I-AA star will win — assuming nobody does anything special in Charlottesville or Blacksburg.