Chad Being Chad

Former Clemson QB Chad Kelly’s arrest in Buffalo NY this weekend made the national news. After being kicked off the Clemson team following the spring game for conduct detrimental to the program, we learned the nephew of Hall of Famer Jim Kelly had a great year playing for East Mississippi Community College and had accepted a scholarship offer from Ole Miss. We shall see if the Rebels withdraw the offer. I wanted to learn more about Kelly’s 2014 season.

Here’s what I found on the EMCC website: Kelly's first-team selection extends East Mississippi Community College's current streak to seven consecutive years that the Lions have featured an NJCAA All-American quarterback.  The 6-foot-3, 220-pound sophomore signal-caller follows in the footsteps of Dontreal Pruitt (now at Troy University), Quez Johnson (Florida Atlantic), Bo Wallace (Ole Miss), Brad Henderson (Northwestern [La.] State), and two-time honoree Randall Mackey (Ole Miss).

Kelly, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., tied for the NJCAA lead with 47 touchdowns thrown and ranked second nationally in pass completion percentage (66.9%).  On the season, the Clemson University transfer completed 303-of-453 passes for 3,906 yards and had only eight interceptions.  Completing his lone EMCC campaign by hitting 40-of-53 passes for 434 yards and five touchdowns against second-ranked Iowa Western Community College, Kelly was tabbed as the 2014 Player of the Year by the Mississippi Bowl Committee following the Lions' recent 34-17 victory over IWCC in the NJCAA Football Championship Game/Mississippi Bowl VII played Dec. 7 in Biloxi.

So Kelly averaged 325 yards and 4 touchdown passes per game. He was also the team’s third-leading rusher with 446 yards (37 per game). EMCC prides itself on feeding players into 4 year colleges and has had 29 players drafted or signed by NFL teams – including RB Antowain Smith.

But how does a four year school know what they’re getting when the Lions play such obviously inferior competition? This year the East Mississippi CC team had a five game streak where they outscored their opponents 269-0. For the season they outscored their opponents 645-91. Over half the points were scored against them in the three playoff games. The closest regular season game was won by 36 points. You’d think at some point they’d quit passing and pull their starters. Perhaps that’s how EMCC attracts so many good QB’s.

8.28 52-14 @ SW Miss CC

9.04 46-10 Copiah-Lincoln CC

9.11 83-7 @ Coahoma CC

9.18 65-7 NE Miss CC (featuring WR Joe Horn Jr)

9.25 51-0 @ Itawamba CC

10.04 55-0 Jones County JC

10.09 49-0 Holmes CC

10.16 49-0 @ NW Miss CC

10.23 65-0 Miss Delta CC

11.01 42-21 Miss Gulf Coast CC (MACJC State Semifinals)

11.08 54-15 @ Copiah-Lincoln CC (MACJC State Championship Game)

12.07 34-17 Iowa Western CC (NJCAA Championship Game)