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Mid-season MVPs: Prescott, Ray shine brightest in first half of 2014
By Ethan Levine
Published:
It’s hard to believe, but we’ve already reached the halfway point of the 2014 college football season. The first seven weeks of the season were chock-full of superstar performances, unthinkable upsets, epic battles between ranked teams and plenty of the pageantry and passion that make college football the greatest sport on earth.
The SEC was no exception to college football’s first half excitement. The state of Mississippi has gone from an afterthought to the best state in the college football nation. Kentucky is no longer just a basketball school. Johnny Manziel and Michael Sam have actually been outdone by their replacements (statistically speaking), and Steve Spurrier is beginning to show his age at South Carolina.
All of the excitement packed into the first seven weeks of the SEC season is epitomized by the conference’s first half MVPs: Dak Prescott on offense and Shane Ray on defense.
Prescott had made just seven career starts entering this year, but after just half a season his team has gone from unranked to No. 1 in the country, and he’s gone from a relative unknown to the Heisman Trophy frontrunner.
Ray replaced last season’s SEC Defensive Player of the Year in Sam, and quickly had Mizzou fans forgetting about Sam’s spectacular 2013 season as Ray embarked on an even more astounding 2014 campaign.
Both players emerged from the realm of the undervalued to shine for their respective teams this year. Prescott is sixth in the SEC in passing and fifth in the conference in rushing, and after posting just 2,136 yards through the air and 947 yards on the ground in his first two seasons combined, he’s on pace to top both of those totals this season alone.
The redshirt junior has a chance to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in the same season (he’s on pace to throw for 2,946 and rush for 1,152), and he’s managed to score 23 total touchdowns in seven games while throwing just three interceptions in that span.
No other collegiate has been able to match Prescott’s playmaking abilities this season. He’s scored those 23 touchdowns in three different ways (14 passing, 8 rushing, 1 receiving), and has scored touchdowns both through the air and on the ground in five of his six games so far in 2014. The Bulldogs are having their best season in history, and Prescott is shaping up to be perhaps the greatest Mississippi State football star of all-time.
That’s right, all-time.
Not to be outdone, Ray has been equally as spectacular on the defensive side of the ball this year. The junior had big shoes to fill in replacing last season’s Defensive Player of the Year in the conference, yet somehow has exceeded expectations on his way to potentially earning Player of the Year honors himself come season’s end.
Ray is second in the SEC with 7 sacks, 0.5 behind conference leader Myles Garrett. He’s made 36 tackles this season, an average of six per game, and his 12.5 tackles for loss are the most in the SEC by a wide margin. Despite starring on an otherwise lackluster defense, Ray has beaten regular double-teams all year to post those numbers. He’s proven himself to be impossible to stop, and as we move to the second half of the season Missouri’s upcoming opponents can only hope to slow the star defensive end down.
Prescott is the first player teams gameplan for when Mississippi State arrives on their schedules. The same can be said for Ray when opponents begin preparing to face Mizzou. That’s how you know both players are talented enough to earn these MVP awards (their ridiculous numbers help as well).
But what about their value to their respective teams? What about the “V” in MVP? Trust me when I tell you, there is no player in the SEC more valuable to his team than Prescott is to MSU and Ray is to Missouri.
If the season ended today, Prescott would be the 2014 Heisman Trophy recipient. Does his value to Mississippi State need any further explanation? The Bulldogs are No. 1 in the nation for the first time ever. Prescott has led the team to three straight wins over top 10 teams after Mullen had lost 15 straight games to ranked teams without Prescott. The program is night and day better in his first year as the full-time starter, and it’s no coincidence, either.
Without Prescott, Mississippi State would be in the midst of another 7-5 or 8-4 season, just good enough to avoid disaster but just average enough to fall short of any worthwhile achievements. With Prescott, the team is a national title contender for the first time ever. As I said before, he has a chance to be the greatest Mississippi State Bulldog in history.
Ray has been just as valuable to the Missouri defense. The Tigers are third in the SEC in sacks and tackles for loss, and Ray has about one-third of the team’s total in both categories all by himself. Furthermore, many of sacks and tackles for loss the rest of the Tigers record are still influenced by Ray’s stellar performances. He often occupies multiple blockers to free up teammates, and alters the execution of an opposing offense to set his teammates up with easy plays.
Without Prescott and Ray, the Bulldogs and Tigers would be middle-of-the-pack teams, or perhaps even worse than that. With them, however, both remain contenders to win their respective divisions as the SEC makes the turn to the second half of the year. Neither player was expected to be a star this season. Instead, both are more than stars — they’re the midseason SEC MVPs.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
