32 Days Until Kansas Football: Video Game All-Stars - Hasan Defense
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The return of the NCAA Football video game is scheduled for next summer, and that gives us the perfect opportunity to highlight some players that didn't get an opportunity to appear in the series during it's hiatus.
Thanks to a rating system that includes individualized ratings of college players that we discussed on the Rock Chalk Podcast, we are able to take correct that oversight. This rating combines their base talent level with their actual college production to come up with an overall look at their performance.
A reminder that our Video Game All-Stars series will look at recent Kansas players who played well at Kansas but never got an opportunity to be captured with a virtual version of themselves. We will look back at their careers, and include a projection of what their overall rating would have been had the games been around.
Today we jump back to the defense to hit a position that hasn't been looked at yet. That's right, we are looking at CB Hasan Defense.
Other Player Spotlights in this series:
Daniel Wise
Mike Lee
Joe Dineen
Andrew Parchment
Pooka Williams
Recruiting Bio
A 6'0", 180-lb cornerback from Jacksonville, FL who came to the Jayhawks by way of Kilgore Junior College in Kilgore, TX, Defense picked Kansas after enjoying the aftermath of the biggest win of the David Beaty era.
Defense was a 3-star athlete that was initially targeted due to an overwhelming need to replace outgoing seniors at the position. He was recruited to Kansas recruiting coordinator Kenny Perry. He committed over offers from Cincinnati, Central Florida and Utah, among others.
Production at Kansas
| Season | Total Tackles | Solo Tackles | Passes Defended | Fumbles Forced | INT/TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | 42 | 35 | 9 | 0 | 2/0 |
2018 | 43 | 31 | 6 | 0 | 3/0 |
2019 | 37 | 27 | 8 | 0 | 1/1 |
Defense started playing immediately in his time at Kansas, and put together a very nice career during a time where large portions of the defense were subpar around him.
If you only look at his stats, it is hard to say immediately that he belongs on this list. But the impact of a good cornerback is usually measured in how many throws went away from him, as taking away a side of the field is sometime more valuable than having to stop everything coming your way.
And for comparison, while he never had a season as good as Aqib Talib's spectacular 2007 season, he still put up some pretty comparable numbers to the other years of his career (although without all the interceptions).
Best Game
There is really only one game that clearly stands out as a big one for Defense, and unfortunately it came in a loss for the Jayhawks to the West Virginia Mountaineers. His consistency across his career was great, but it didn't give him a lot of opportunities to pile up huge stat lines.
But I also decided to take the opportunity to highlight a fantastic play and game that was light on stats but huge on impact.
October 6, 2018: 38-22 Loss at #9 West Virginia
Stat line: 7 tackles, 5 solo tackles, 1 pass defended, 2 interceptions
The offense didn't do much to help the Jayhawks in this game, with multiple turnovers deep in their own territory. But Defense came up big, with two interceptions in the end zone in the first half to help keep the game within reach. The closest the Jayhawks got after the break was 21-14 after a first drive touchdown, but it wasn't from a lack of Defense's efforts.
August 31, 2019: 24-17 Win over Indiana State
Stat line: 1 tackle, 1 solo tackle, 1 interception, 1 TD.
This was an atrocious game for the Kansas offense, but Defense was fantastic in this game, as was the rest of the Kansas defense. A 57 yard interception return for a touchdown by Defense opened up the scoring, and it took some late heroics from Carter Stanley to atone for a fumble that the Sycamores recovered for the go-ahead touchdown.
But it was the defensive efforts that kept the Jayhawks in this game, and a final stop allowed Kansas to come away with the victory.
Video Game Rating
Base Rating: 79
Production Bonus: 14
Total Rating: 93
Hasan Defense was rated well as a recruit coming out of both high school and junior college, but it was his consistent production that allowed him accumulate the production bonus to boost his rating into the 90s.
While the ratings we have are not broken down into the individual attributes that you would typically see in a game like the Madden series, it is possible to guess which attributes would be the highest. There are a few options, but given that he moved from cornerback to safety and then back to corner, I would have to say his awareness and agility would likely be his two highest attributes.
A reminder that our video game ratings are provided by CFB Winning Edge, which is an independent outlet focused on college football analytics that has developed team, player and coach ratings based on a wide range of current and historical data.
Patreon supporters have access to their FBS Team Profiles, which includes ratings for over 11,000 individual players across all 131 FBS teams, as well as ratings for every head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, and strength of schedule metrics. In addition to stats, recruiting data, injury reports, and player movement information, they also offer three sets of projected point spreads for every FBS game based on separate projection models, as well as projected win totals.
You can find more information about what they offer by going to their Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/CFBWinningEdge
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