Feast or Famine: Barnes Stormin’

October 21st, 2009 by Adam Mankuta

Can Freddie Barnes have the “MAC” of all Seasons?

With every passing week, Bowling Green star Wide Receiver Freddie Barnes is re-writing the record books for his university while gaining national notoriety in the process. He began the 2009 campaign with 42 catches during the first three games of the Falcons schedule, which included a 15 catch, 2 TD opener in an upset of Troy. What followed brought Barnes back down to earth. In back to back losses to Boise State and Ohio, Barnes totaled only 11 receptions for just over 100 yards and the biblical start Barnes was off to, was over. As Lee Corso says, not so fast my friend…

Barnes proved his doubters wrong as in the next BGSU game against Kent State, he amassed an astounding 22 catches, for 278 yards and 3 scores. While those 22 catches pails in comparison to the all-time record of 39 catches in one game, set by Chris Bryant of ECU in 2002, Barnes fell just two receptions short of the 24 that one Hall of Famer by the name of Jerry Rice caught while at Mississippi Valley State in 1983.

After that amazing outing, Barnes has continued to roll, with another 10 catch, 160 yard, 3 TD day last week against Ball State. And that got me thinking, how close is Barnes to breaking some of the single season receiving marks that are on the books? Well here are the answers.

What first needs to be stated are his statistics to date. Through only seven games, Barnes has amassed 85 receptions, for 882 yards, and eight scores. Entering this weekend Barnes still has five scheduled games (Central Michigan, Akron, Miami Ohio, Buffalo and Toledo) and a potential Bowl game if the Falcons are selected for a game. Given their high flying aerial attack and soft schedule, the teams they are scheduled to play entering this week are a combined (12-20), Bowling Green very well may be adding another game for the year. With that being stated, lets take a deeper look as to what records may be broken.

One record he will not be breaking, despite three games in which he has multiple TD games, is the most touchdowns in a season mark. While Barnes has eight scores, the top three touchdown seasons exceed 22 for the year. Troy Edwards had 27 for Louisiana Tech in 1998, Randy Moss had 26 for Marshall in 1997, and Michael Crabtree had 22 for Texas Tech in 2007. What hurt Barnes most was the four game stretch- during the middle of the season- in which he did not score at all. If he scored once in each of those contests, he would have 12, which would leave him with a shot to get to Crabtree’s 22. However that ship seems to have sailed.

Now onto receiving yards for a season… the current mark was set by Trevor Insley of Nevada who in 1999 gained 2,060 yards in one season, while averaging 187.3/game. Again Barnes seems to be falling short of that mark, as he is roughly 60 yards short per game, while almost 1,200 yards off for the season. Unless Barnes gets on a tear of 200+ yard games, both of these marks seem unlikely to be broken this season.

The final marks that should be discussed, while also being the most likely to be broken are the receptions per game record and the receptions for one season number. All the way back in 1965 Howard Twilley of Tulsa set the mark with 13.4 receptions per game while Manny Hazard of Houston in 1989 set the NCAA mark with 142 catches in one season.

Entering the week, Barnes is averaging 12.1 catches per game and is at 85 receptions for the year, leaving him 58 short of a new record. Given that he has five games left, that leaves him at 11.6 catches per game to get the mark. That record seems likely to be Barnes’ by seasons end given his 12.1 average. To hold one of the single season records is incredible. To make things even more interesting, if Barnes can somehow get 76 receptions over his last five games, which would be 15.2 per game, Barnes will also set the mark for most catches per game for one season. If he can somehow hold that double record, this will go down as an even more historic campaign.

And remember, if the Falcons can add that 13^th game to the schedule, meaning they have earned a bowl game, expect Barnes to threaten some more marks on his way to one of the best single seasons any Wide Receiver has ever had at any level.

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