By The Numbers – Offense, Defense, Special Teams

College football’s sole constant is change. Single wing, the rise and fall of the ND Box formation, Oklahoma defense, wishbone, veer, two way players.

College football’s aphorisms last long and die well after they have outlived their validity and utility.

“You lose a game for every sophomore who starts.”

“There are three things that happen when you pass the football and two of them are bad.” Darrell K. Royal, Woody Hayes and countless others.

“Special Teams are one-third of the game.” Not any more…….

For those who doubt that high-powered offenses are here to stay, we offer evidence from 11 of last year’s most pivotal games: The four conference championships, the three official playoff games, and ND-FSU, TCU-Baylor, OSU-Michigan State and Bama-Auburn, each of which either eliminated from or propelled someone into the playoff hunt.

Here are the scores of those games in the order in which they were played:

Baylor 61 TCU 58

Florida State 31 Notre Dame 27

Ohio State 49 Michigan State 37

Alabama 55 Auburn 44

Oregon 51 Arizona 13

Alabama 42 Missouri 13

Florida State 37 Georgia Tech 35

Ohio State 59 Wisconsin 0

Oregon 59 Florida State 20

Ohio State 42 Alabama 35

Ohio State 42 Oregon 20

The lowest number of points scored by a winning team was on the fateful night of October 18th in Tallahasee. An apparent score that would have raised that minimum was disallowed but we rub no more salt in that wound

Here are the AVERAGE numbers per team (winners lumped with losers) per game:

Points scored: 37.7 ppg

First downs: 24.5

Total yards: 494

Rushing attempts: 41.5

Passing attempts: 35.6

TOTAL PLAYS 77

NOTE: Pro defensive coordinators tell you they get worried if their defenses are on the field for more than 55-60 plays. Colleges, because of clock rules (stop on first down) and the emphasis on hurry up, run MANY MORE PLAYS.

Punts 4.40

Touchdowns 4.81

Field Goals made 1.45

Field goals missed .27

Punt return yards 10.6

Here is the point. If you are not explosive enough on offense to score 31 points on a pretty decent defense, then don’t even show up for an elimination game, whether official or unofficial. You will have to run a lot and pass a lot, both successfully. And you need lots of touchdowns, not just field goals.

Here is the second point. If you are not good defensively, and if you don’t have the depth to handle over 77 offensive plays so your guys are fresh in the fourth quarter, then don’t show up in an elimination game, or you will get trucked.

Special teams are about 1/6 of the game, right around 17%, but well over 2/3 of those plays are placement kicks after a touchdown and kickoffs. In 2014, teams in big games scored touchdowns more often than they punted. Neyland, Rockne, Leahy, Sutherland, Bierman, Bryant, Hayes and Schembechler would be aghast.

You only have to punt about four times. To paraprhase Maximus’ opening soliloquy in the woods in “Gladiator” if you have punted more than four times, you are already in Elysium.

A further note on the number of special team plays. 106 TDS were scored. In 100 instances an extra point was attempted, none were missed, but two were blocked.  6 two point conversions were attempted, and 4 were made. These are technically special team plays but redound more in passing and running plays.

Only the OSU-Michigan State game and the Oregon hosting of Arizona for the Pac XII occurred in places where the venue could have been cold or icy or both. The rest were in warm weather and indoor stadia, increasing the likelihood of touchbacks in a fundamentally sterile, windless environment. This trend toward balmy venues will continue.

We all know that one play, even a fluke play, can turn a football game. Ask Nick Saban about his last visit to Auburn Alabama.

But you better be using your 20 hours a week the NCAA allows you to build an explosive, diverse offense, and an offense that has enough speed, size, scheme and playmakers to slow down the explosive offense the other guys are bring to the fight.

Get a punter who can kick touchbacks.

Get a placekicker who can kick field goals and hopefully has the leg to kick touchbacks after you score, at least indoor in places like Indy, Detroit, New Orleans, Atlanta, St. Louis or Arlington or balmy places like Miami, Glendale and Pasadena.

Mostly, (sorry Nick Saban, would you like a chorus of “Cry Me a River” for that missed field goal runback play Chris Davis of Auburn made against you?) you will rise or fall on your offense and your defense.

It’s the way of the world. It’s 2015. No leather helmets, no fear of playing sophomores, no fearing the “two bad things that can happen when you pass the ball” and no expectation that special teams are 1/3 of the game.

Further, historians note that Craig Krentzel (2002) Matt Mauck (2003) and Matt Flynn (2007) quarterbacked Ohio State, LSU and LSU again to national championships early in this millennium. Flynn had an NFL arm but was largely kept under wraps in college. These three were styled as “game managers’ but the day of the game manager quarterbacking a national championship team are in twilight, if not over. I would never be so sadistic to mention that Buck Belue once carried a Georgia Bulldog squad to a national championship in a clinching game in which he was 1-12 passing, for 7 yards.

Bring a quarterback, that is one who can throw, to the gunfight. Keep the “game managers” on your prep team.

It’s different now, but the 2015 Irish are built for today. Go Irish!