Ed: Bumped to front
Last weekend's games had an interesting effect on the yards per play (YPP) metric in the SEC. Ole Miss took one on the chin from Texas (through no fault of their offense's) and Tennessee's second half collapse totally inflated their number on the defensive side of the ball. I won't spend the time this week explaining why I'm using YPP rather than total yards; you can find that argument in last week's fanpost.
The numbers, once again provided by the wonderful College Football Stats, are after the jump.
| Rank | Team | Offensive YPP | Defensive YPP | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisiana State | 6.91 | 3.46 | 2.00 |
| 2 | Alabama | 6.69 | 3.56 | 1.88 |
| 3 | Georgia | 7.80 | 4.69 | 1.66 |
| 4 | South Carolina | 6.71 | 4.53 | 1.48 |
| 5 | Florida | 6.42 | 4.55 | 1.41 |
| 6 | Texas A&M | 6.02 | 4.43 | 1.36 |
| 7 | Mississippi State | 6.71 | 5.32 | 1.26 |
| 8 | Vanderbilt | 4.71 | 4.29 | 1.10 |
| 9 | Kentucky | 5.87 | 5.35 | 1.10 |
| 10 | Mississippi | 7.05 | 6.67 | 1.06 |
| 11 | Auburn | 5.42 | 5.50 | 0.99 |
| 12 | Tennessee | 5.72 | 6.73 | 0.85 |
| 13 | Missouri | 4.10 | 4.86 | 0.84 |
| 14 | Arkansas | 4.02 | 5.88 | 0.68 |
Thoughts:
- We're on our way to another LSU-Alabama Parts I and II again, aren't we? LSU is demolishing their competition to the tune of gaining twice as many yards per play as they give up, and Alabama is busy giving a preseason top 10 team (lolol) their worst home shutout lost since the Van Buren administration. After LSU gets done carpetbombing my beloved Auburn Tigers and Alabama drops 50+ on FAU in a third straight shutout, we'll be talking again next week about the inevitability of the re-rematch in January. Seriously, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, you don't want to win the East. It will only cause pain and suffering on December 1.
- Gators are coming on strong. Florida has looked pretty dang good beating Texas A&M and Tennessee on the road to open SEC play. The defense is good in the first half of games then lights out in the second half of games, and their offense has steadily improved. I thought Will Muschamp would just be angrier Ron Zook, but he's making me reconsider. Their only true remaining SEC road game is Vanderbilt, so their schedule (even with a matchup with LSU) sets up nicely for a return trip to ATL for the first time since 2009.
- Tennessee's defense: yikes. They should take their aggressions out on Akron this weekend and improve that number, but they have a worse defensive YPP than Ole Miss does, even after Texas gained 1500 yards on the Rebels this past weekend. They played decently in the first half against Florida, but the wheels came off in the second half. The offensive numbers are surprisingly poor, too: the Vols rank 10th in the conference in offensive YPP.
- So this is what rock bottom looks like. Arkansas has the worst YPP numbers in the conference, and it isn't close. And their crazy old cat lady head coach is asking reporters to smile during press conferences. On the bright side, Razorbacks, it can only get better.
I hope people are finding this information useful and interesting like I am. I got one rec on last week's post, so someone out there must have liked it. If this week's post doesn't generate a lot of discussion, I will stop cluttering up the fanpost list on the side. Hopefully you enjoy it, I know I've enjoyed putting it together!
