By now, loyal TSL readers are familiar with TSL's Defensive Player of the Game award and how it's calculated. The DPOG award is strictly numbers-based, and at the end of every win, we throw the defensive stats into our spreadsheet, crunch the numbers, and spit out that week's winner. The weekly winners score anywhere from about 20 points to as much as 40-50 points.

In 2000 and 2001, we also threw the season-ending statistics into our spreadsheet and awarded Player of the Year awards. That was part of our old monthly TSL Extra format, and the Defensive Player of the Year Award was an "Inside the Numbers" feature (hence the title of this article). Ben Taylor snagged the award both years, with 251.2 points in 2000 and 306.2 points in 2001.

In late 2002, the TSL Extra monthly format was retired, and we started streaming pay articles through the home page one at a time, calling them "TSL Pass" articles. Along the way, the TechSideline.com Defensive Player of the Year Award was left by the wayside, so in addition to calculating this year's winner, we need to catch up on 2002 and 2003. So let's get started.

First, a refresher on how the calculation is done. If you're already familiar with this, or you're not numbers oriented and don’t' really care about the details, then skip ahead to the section titled "A Change From Previous Years."

As always, we got our statistics from hokiesports.com:
http://www.hokiesports.com/football/stats/teamcume.html

Here are the point totals awarded for each type of defensive play.

Notes:

1.) Tackles are complicated, and are calculated like this: when a player makes a tackle, he gets 1 point (assisted tackle) or 2 points (unassisted tackle). If it's a tackle for loss (TFL), he gets an additional 2 points, plus 0.2 points for every yard lost on the play. If the tackle for loss is a quarterback sack, it is calculated just like a TFL, but the player also gets 2 bonus points for the sack.

2.) Points for fumble return yardage are double what is awarded for interception return yardage because fumble recovery statistics typically include less return yardage than interceptions. Most fumbles are recovered on the ground, whereas most interceptions are made standing up with a chance to run. Fumble return yards should therefore be awarded points at a premium over INT return yards.

3.) The defensive statistics include special teams stats and tackles made by offensive players after turnovers, which can skew the statistics. (Check out the stats link above – Bryan Randall is credited with a tackle.) In the past, we attempted to account for special teams stats, but this year, we have thrown that calculation out the window – see the explanation just below.

In 2000 and 2001, in addition to calculating the total points (which measures a player's total productivity), we calculated "points per play" to measure a player's productivity for his time on the field. It produced some interesting results. Backup defensive tackle Channing Reed, for example, led in points per play in 2001.

We did that by taking the Hokie Huddler's season-ending depth chart, which included the number of plays from scrimmage per player, and dividing the total points by the number of plays to calculate the points per play.

These days, bowl statistics are included in players' stats, but the Hokie Huddler's season-ending depth chart doesn't include the bowl game snaps. So this year, we have thrown out points per play and instead will add points per game, which is easier to calculate and understand.

We also used to try to mathematically remove a player's special teams tackles, but this year, assuming that special team stats are minor compared to true defensive stats, we won't jump through that hoop.

Having said all that, let's get down to the results.

In our closest scoring ever, Jimmy Williams edges out Darryl Tapp for 2004 TechSideline.com Defensive Player of the Year. With all the stats Tapp accumulated, it's remarkable that Williams beat him out. I figured that running the calculation would just be going through the motions, that Tapp would win in a walk. Boy, was I surprised when Williams' name rose to the top of the list.

Williams won the title by virtue of his 50 tackles, 5 interceptions, including one for a TD against Maryland, 19 passes defensed (third in the nation), and 5.5 tackles for loss, an impressive figure for a cornerback.

That was enough to beat out Tapp, who had a monster year: 60 tackles, 16.5 TFL, 8.5 sacks for 54 yards in losses, 23 QB hurries, and even an interception.

Here are the scoring totals, and you can see that Williams' victory over Tapp was a narrow one, the closest scoring ever:

Highlights:

• Jimmy Williams: Team high 5 INTs, including one for a TD.
• Darryl Tapp: Team highs in sacks (8.5), TFLs (17) and QB hurries (23).
• Jim Davis: 12 TFLs, 5 sacks, 5 passes knocked down.
• Jonathan Lewis: 11 TFLs, 5 sacks, 14 QB hurries.
• Vincent Fuller: 2nd on the team with INTs (3).
• James Griffin: 56 tackles, solid all-around stats.
• Vince Hall: 2nd on the team with 64 tackles.
• Mikal Baaqee: Team-high 71 tackles.
• Chris Ellis: 2nd on the team with 14 QB hurries.
• James Anderson: 48 tackles, 6.5 for loss.
• Noland Burchette: 6 TFLs, 11 QB hurries.

Let's take another look at the stats, ranked by points per game, and be on the lookout for a guy who wasn't even listed in the total points chart.

Very interesting – the usual suspects from the total points list are present, because they're VT's most productive players, but the surprise is that Xavier Adibi shoots into the top ten in points per game, all the way up to #3. And remember, of the 7 games he played, Adibi didn't start any of them, and he only played about half of one of them, the opener against USC. As a matter of fact, Adibi is the only non-starter in the top ten in points per game.

Adibi has a lot of ground to make up to learn his position, and he needs to get stronger at the point of attack, but there's no doubt that he's a playmaker. As we've gone over repeatedly, Adibi is a nice compliment to Vince Hall, and the future is bright for VT at linebacker. It's catchy to call Hall and Adibi "9-1-1", but I think they're more "Thunder [Hall] and Lightning [Adibi]".

I think I just realized the real reason that I didn't calculate the Defensive Player of the Year for 2002 and 2003: they were miserable years for the Hokie defense.

Nonetheless, let's crunch the numbers and award (posthumously for those seasons) the Defensive Player of the Year.

I don't know about you, but comparing those results to the 2004 results makes me want to mash the numbers from all five years together.

When combined with the results from 2000 and 2001, here's the complete list of winners over the five-year history of the award (2000-2004):

Wow, Ben Taylor had a monster season in 2001. At the time he won the 2001 award, I wrote that he set a mark that would be hard to beat (with his point total of 306.3). It's a little bit of an LOL (Laugh Out Loud) that Willie Pile beat it the very next season, by the slimmest of margins at 0.1 points, but when you factor in the number of games played – the NCAA started counting bowl game statistics in 2002, plus the Hokies played a preseason game, plus the regular-season schedule was 12 games that year -- Taylor rises back to the top with an amazing 27.8 points per game.

Lastly, one more set of data. I want to list the top 20 from the last five seasons, sorted first by total points, then by points per game.

Notes:

• Willie Pile is the only three-time entrant into the top 20.
• The following players appear twice: Ben Taylor, Mikal Baaqee, Jimmy Williams, DeAngelo Hall.
• Position breakdown: LBs – 6; Safeties – 4; Rovers – 3; CBs – 4; DEs – 3; DTs – 0.

Notes:

• Ben Taylor is the man, holding down spots 1 and 3.
• Willie Pile is no slouch, appearing 3 times in the top 9.
• The top of the list is populated by NFL players Ben Taylor, Kevin McCadam, and Willie Pile. Also included are NFL'ers Cory Bird and DeAngelo Hall.

There's another article in here somewhere. The 2004 defense, as good as it was, didn't produce guys with a lot of tackles or a lot of points. Mikal Baaqee's team-high 71 tackles were the lowest total since Wooster Pack had 70 in 1991, and Baaqee made his tackles over 13 games; Pack had just 11 games.

Jimmy Williams (2004) won this year's title with the lowest point total (232.7) by far of the five years we've been doing this. His total points barely crack the Top 10 in the last five years, at #10. And he played 13 games!

The 2004 Hokie defense – as good as it was as a unit – didn't produce a lot of stats on an individual level. That's intriguing, and at some point, I'm going to dig and try to figure out why.

But for now, congratulations to Jimmy Williams for his golden, gleaming 2004 TechSideline.com Defensive Player of the Year Award.

To access our 2004 data as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, click here.