Hustle Belt at Halfway: Players of the Year

Now that we have reached the halfway point of this season, I thought it would be prudent to take a look at the individual performances so far this season - not just those who have shined in any given "of the week" nomination, but those who are in the running for the end of season award.

Let's sort it out by position (more or less) shall we?

Our leaders thusfar are fairly obvious to anyonewho has watched any football thus season. Alex Carder has led the Broncos to a strong start, including that stud outing that pretty much single-handedly won the game against UCONN. He now has put up 1,678 yards to go with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions, as well as two rushing scores for good measure

Chandler Harnish has had a very impressive statistical season, racking up 1,344 yards passing to go with 12 touchdowns and only three interceptions, as well as 442 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground. Unfortunately, I would put him behind both Carder and our next candidate, Tyler Tettleton, for doing things like disappearing completely against Wisconsin.

Speaking of Tettleton, he is doing his best Harnish impersonation with an equally impressive 1,395 yards passing, 13 touchdowns and two interceptions, as well as 168 yards and four scores on the ground. His team's record is better (failures against Buffalo notwithstanding), and I wouldn't be shocked if he finishes with better numbers than Harnish as well.

One name you don't see is Keith Wenning, who has managed a measly 31 for 65 for 239 yards, no touchdowns and five picks in his last two games.

Running Back

No real shocks here. Temple's Bernard Pierce is the cream of the crop with 692 yards and a whopping 15 touchdowns on the season. He is the man in Temple's offense, and other teams struggle to stop him despite knowing this ahead of time. Close behind him are two other talented (if slightly less productive) backs in Buffalo's Branden Oliver (682 yards, 8 TD;  16 rec 98 yards) and Akron's Jawon Chisolm (575 yards, 6 TD, 6 rec 38 yards).

Wide Recievers

Here we have a nice race for tops at the position, though I may not throw votes towards any of these guys for top overall player in the conference. First up is Carder's favorite target, Jordan White, who has hauled in 67 catches for 824 yards and seven touchdowns. He is to Carder what Welker is to Brady, and it seems to be working pretty darn well. After that comes the versatile Eric Page, who has "only" caught 54 passes for 577 yards and four touchdowns. Page, however, has also had a punt return for a touchdown and a touchdown pass this season. Rounding out this list is Miami's Nick Harwell, who is coming on strong with 36 catches for 636 yards and two scores (in only five games thusfar).

Other deserving nominees include Bowling Green's Brian Schmiedebusch, who has cooled down since the start of the season but is still averaging 47.4 yards per boot as well as 10 each of the 50+ yard punts and the ones he drops inside the 20 yard line. Temple linebacker Tahir Whitehead has tallied ten tackles for loss, four sacks, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries as he has been all over the field for the Owls, while Buffalo's Khalil Mack isn't far behind (9.5 TFL, 1 FF, 1 INT).

I'm sure there will be at least one of you wise guys complaining, so bring it on.