Howdy folks - What do you do when you have an irrational obsession with college lax and a little free time? You see if some random lax twitter accusation is BS or not of course! Some twitter people are saying that Lehigh LSM Checo may have inflated Caused Turnover stats. This is based on him having an insanely high amount (30+) and Craig Chick, former Lehigh LSM, also having insane numbers during his career, which some see as potential for a trend of stat inflation. There is a Navy v Lehigh game on youtube and the stats claim he had 5 CTs in the game. Its just one game, but I thought why not take a look at the tape and see if there are any signs of shady stat behavior. Clicked around to when Navy had the ball.
What I found was that first off, Lehigh has one heck of an LSM in Checo, and second, there was...almost(!) definitely no real attempt at cooking the books by the Lehigh stat people in this one. Here are when the CTs happen:
1st CT – 1:31 1st quarter -takes it cleanly from middie
2nd CT – 14:03 2nd quarter -trail check and grabs gb
POTENTIAL not actual CT – 8:50 2nd quarter - guy on navy hounded by Checo throws the ball out of bounds
3rd CT – 2:58 2nd quarter - Yard sale - and then forces it out of another guys stick right after to send it the other way. Could maybe count as two CTs but not sure.
4th CT – 1:08 3rd quarter – does it count if another Navy guy picks up the ball immediately after? I believe it does.
5th CT – 13:16 4th quarter- guy loses it in scrum first and Checo just cleans up after, but still a clear CT
So basically I do not know the rule on if you on if you get the ball on the ground and another guy on the opposing team picks it up. If that happens is it not considered a CT? If so then maybe the 4th one would be struck from the record. BUT there were also at least two other instances where an additional CT could have been rewarded. Would say at least in this game there are no major signs of foul play. Could have easily been counted at 6 or maybe 7 in this game. And more importantly, Checo looks like the type of guy who could have 30 cts on the season in March. Reminds me of Jack Rowlett in that he is always going for big takeaway checks but also maintains good positioning. Will be a force to deal with for years to come. Those accusing Lehigh should watch the tape!
