Individual Records Tracking

[ST_Lawson]

With the regular season nearing an end, I thought it might be interesting to start talking about where some players are at on the record books...both for Western and in the MVFC (if applicable).

Lance Lenoir - already holds most of the WIU career records for receiving and is eyeing some of the MVFC records. He is currently 242 yards behind Dedric Ward (UNI) for most receiving yards in MVFC history, although SDSU’s Jake Wieneke is only 91 yards away from that mark and with Wieneke being only a junior, when it’s all said and done, Wieneke will likely be #1 with Lenoir at #2 for career receiving yards in conference history. Lenoir picked up the #1 spot in the conference for career receptions last weekend and is now at 255 (previous #1 was Illinois State’s Tyrone Walker at 250). The FCS record is 395, so unfortunately he’s not a threat to that mark. He is currently averaging 116.4 receiving yards per game, which, if it remains close to that through the rest of the season, would give him the #1 spot for YPG in a season in the WIU record books. He is already currently on that list at #3 (91.1 ypg last year) and #6 (85.8 ypg his sophomore year).

Joey Borsellino - Joey is also closing in a few things. He’s currently at 2,277 career yards, which is 149 behind the #2 man in the Western record books (Reggie Gray), and at 176 career receptions, he’d actually already be #1 on that listing if it weren’t for Lenoir (previous #1 was also Gray, with 153). Borsellino’s 13 receiving TDs has him currently tied with Rusty Jones (‘69-’71) at #8 for career receiving TDs.

Brett Taylor - currently at 169 solo tackles in his career, which puts him at #8 on the WIU list for that metric. He’s currently #1 in the FCS in solo tackles per game this season and if he continues on his current pace, he will likely surpass Kyle Glazier at the #6 spot (186 solo tackles) by the end of the season. He does have one more year left, and obviously anything could happen, but if he picks up another ~90 solo tackles in his senior year like he did last year and is likely to do this year, he should end up somewhere around the #3 spot on the list, behind only Lee Russell and Edgerton Hartwell (although unless he has an absolutely crazy breakout year next year, he’s unlikely to surpass either of them).

Sean McGuire - currently averaging 272.5 yards per game passing. The WIU record for yards per game passing in a season is currently Matt Barr with 262.3 back in 2010. Also currently averaging .582 completion rate for the season which, if no change throughout the rest of the season, would put him at #9 on the list, again right behind Matt Barr's 2010 season of .583. His career high of 363 passing yards against Indiana State earlier this season puts him in a 4-way tie at #14 with individual games of Steve LaFalce, Rob St. Sauver (was both of their career highs as well) and Paul Singer.

Steve McShane - currently averaging 5.306 yards per carry, which, if that remains the same throughout the rest of the season, will put him at #10, right behind J.C. Baker's Junior (5.319 ypc) and Senior (5.142 ypc) seasons.

If there's any other ones that I'm missing that you can think of, please let me know.

[yokedneck]

While he is no longer starting where is Trent Norvell with respect to the record books? He was effectively the starter for three years and put up some numbers.

Tom

[ST_Lawson]

While he is no longer starting where is Trent Norvell with respect to the record books? He was effectively the starter for three years and put up some numbers.

Tom

Yes, Norvell put up some pretty big numbers when he was starting. That was my one "disappointment" about seeing him not start this year. I know that overall McGuire was a better fit for running this offense and obviously it's worked out well for us so far this season, but just to be able to see Norvell break a bunch of records would have been pretty cool.

For single-game records, Norvell's yardage high was 370 last season at Coastal Carolina. That's tied with one of Sam Clemon's games for 12th. He has a #3 spot for completions in a game with 31. He was tied with 5 other game performances for #2 with 5 TD passes in a game.

Season Records - #5 on the list of most passing yards in a season behind Barr's 2010 year, two of Michna's seasons, and one of Paul Singer's.
Norvell's average of 240.9 yards per game in 2014 is the #5 performance in WIU history, 219 completions that same year is #4 on that list, plus his freshman year in 2013 is #7 with 195 completions. His 2014 sophomore season also netted him a .587 completion rate, good for #7 on that list. He hit 24 TDs that season, which was the 3rd most passing TDs in a season for a WIU QB.

Career Records - This is the one that has all the "close, but not quite" records for Norvell. #2 in yards, #2 in completions, #2 in attempts, #2 in TDs. All of those #1's are currently held by Paul Singer, a decent QB (about on the level of Norvell or McGuire...really good but not the absolute best we've ever had) who also was able/lucky enough to start for all 4 years, eventually playing in 44 games from '85-'88. Also, all of those records Norvell was on track to surpass around roughly mid-season this year, if he had continued as a starter and continued about on the level that he'd been playing.

Norvell does currently hold the record for career yards per game, putting up a total of 7,187 yards in 34 games so far. Obviously that could change a bit if he ends up playing at all in the final 3 regular season games or during the playoffs, but at this point, that's an average of 211.4 yards per game throughout his career (was at 216.4 before he played a bit in the SDSU game throwing for only 46 yards). Still, the #2 for yards per game throughout a career is Sam Clemons at 195.2, so assuming Norvell doesn't play much if at all the rest of the season, he will go down in the record books as being the only QB in Western history to average over 200 yards per game for his entire career.

I greatly admire Trenton's decision to stick around and finish out his final year here, even knowing that he likely wouldn't get to play much. He's been a great QB for us, helped see the program through a great deal of growth and improvement, and on Senior Day when his name is announced, I'm giving him the biggest damn standing ovation I can.