25 Days Until Kansas Football: Video Game All-Stars - Dorance Armstrong

We return to our series looking at the best Kansas players that didn't make it into an NCAA Football video game. Up next is EDGE Dorance Armstrong.

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.

Contents

1. Recruiting Bio
2. Production at Kansas
3. Best Game
4. After Kansas
5. Video Game Rating

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 EDGE Dorance Armstrong.

Other Player Spotlights in this series:

Daniel Wise
Mike Lee
Joe Dineen
Andrew Parchment
Pooka Williams
Hasan Defense

Recruiting Bio

A 6'4", 210-lb cornerback out of North Shore High School in Houston, TX, Armstrong came to the Jayhawks in a 24-player 2015 class that included QBs Ryan Willis and Carter Stanley, TE Jace Sternberger and WR Steven Sims Jr. 

Armstrong was a 3-star athlete that was one of the cornerstones of the first recruiting class under David Beaty. He was recruited to Kansas by defensive line coach Calvin Thibodeaux. He committed to the Jayhawks over offers from Purdue, Michigan State, Missouri, Texas Tech and Cal, among others.

Production at Kansas

Season	Total Tackles	Solo Tackles	Sacks	Forced Fumbles	Passes Defended
2015	23	16	3.5	0	0
2016	55	40	10	1	0
2017	63	33	2	3	4

Armstrong came to Lawrence with some high expectations, and he started contributing immediately. He played nine games in his first season, totaling 3.5 sacks in limited games. 

His best season came in 2016, when he tallied 10 sacks on the season to go with one forced fumble, but a large part of his impact didn't show up on the box score. He really took off when he paired with Daniel Wise, but he had a knack for finding his way into the backfield to disrupt the play. He ended the season as a unanimous 1st Team All-Big 12 selection. 

While his 2017 season didn't quite live up to the prior one in sacks, he did force three fumbles, and he was quite the proficient tackler. He ended his career at Kansas with a 2nd Team All-Big 12 selection, and is still in the top 10 for tackles for loss, even though he only played three seasons.

Best Game

There is one game that is Armstrong's best by far, and it is the most famous game of the David Beaty tenure, one that we have talked about multiple times here on the countdown.

But it didn't seem right to only include that one game, so I also picked another game from that 2016 season that he performed well in and that Kansas was competitive in.

October 8, 2016: 24-23 Loss vs TCU

Stat line: 5 tackles, 2 solo tackles, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble

A lot of Armstrong's contributions were early in this game, when a strip sack of QB Kenny Hill led directly to a Kansas touchdown to take the early lead. There wasn't enough offensive firepower to come all the way back, but Armstrong and company did enough to make the game interesting, as Kansas lost on a last second missed field goal.

November 19, 2016: 24-21 OT Win over Texas

Stat line: 11 tackles, 9 solo tackles, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery.

Armstrong teamed up with Daniel Wise on the defensive line to pressure Texas all day long, leading to careless mistakes. A strip sack in the first led to a Kansas recovery, and late in the second quarter, he jumped on a D'Onta Foreman fumble to help the Jayhawks to a 10-7 halftime lead.

The pressure kept up in the second half, with Armstrong a big contributor to keeping the Longhorns off balance. And it was his pressure on Texas QB Shane Buechele in the first overtime that led to Mike Lee's interception.

After Kansas

Armstrong entered into the 2018 draft and was selected 116th overall in the 4th round by the Dallas Cowboys. He played immediately for the Cowboys, getting his first career start against the Jacksonville Jaguars on October 14, 2018. His first career sack came in the November 5th game against the Tennessee Titans.

He has played for Dallas in all four of his professional seasons, playing at least 13 games in each season. For his career, he has 98 total tackles, 7.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries (including one that he ran back for a touchdown against the Washington Redskins) and 1 blocked punt. 

Video Game Rating

Base Rating: 77
Production Bonus: 20
Total Rating: 97

Dorance Armstrong was a high 3-star recruit coming out of high school, but it was his insanely productive 2016 season that pushed him up into the upper tier of player ratings. His speed and ability to get off of the block made him very difficult to deal with.

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 his his ability to escape blockers and the fact that he rarely came off the field lead me to believe his two highest attributes would be strength and stamina.

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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