| Spring Blog • June 10, 2015 |
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% of Tackles Returning
Today’s blog continues the in-depth look at my NCAA Experience Chart. For seven years I listed an experience chart that broke down the number of seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen each team had in the two deep and rated the team's experience level with a formula I devised. In 2009, I made the experience chart FIVE TIMES better by adding new categories like Career Starts on Offensive Line, % of Offensive Yards returning, % of Defensive Tackles returning and % of lettermen returning.
Let me interrupt this message to let you know that the 2015 College Football Preview is up and available right now on iTunes (see bottom of page).
Today I will look at the % of tackles returning. I took all of the tackles made by the team a year ago and then took all of the returning tackles from 2014 and divided it into that number for the percentage.
Last year at the top of the list was Air Force which had 89.6% of their total tackles returning from 2013 and they went from 2-10 to 10-3! Ole Miss was #3 with 84.4% and they went from allowing 23.7 ppg to just 16.0 ppg (and those numbers were better than that prior to giving up 42 in the bowl).
At the other end of the spectrum last year was #128 Arizona St which had just 30.8% of their tackles returning and #127 Oklahoma St which had just 35% back. Arizona St went from allowing 372 ypg to 417 while Oklahoma St went from yielding 21.6 ppg all the way up to 31.2 ppg. Western Kentucky was #126 with just 38.1% back and they imploded going from 339 ypg and 24.6 ppg allowed in 2013 to 510 ypg and 39.9 ppg in 2014!!
This year the most veteran defenses are all teams I expect to improve their records this year. Notre Dame leads the way with 90.9% of its tackles returning while Temple is #2 at 89.9%. A couple of Sun Belt teams come in at #3 and #4 in Appalachian St and Georgia St.
At the bottom of the list are #128 Syracuse which has just 29.3% of its tackles returning and Oregon St which has just 29.7% of its total tackles back. They are the only two teams to have under 30% of their tackles back from last year.
Now let me take a look at some of the top 10 teams for this year. Baylor leads the way at #13 with 78.4% and once again Ohio St ranks high at #29 with 73.2% of their tackles from last year back. The lowest of the Top 10 teams is TCU which has 43.4% back (only #119). Here is the complete list.
% of Tackles Returning
| NCAA | % of | NCAA | % of | ||
| Rank | Team (Conf Rank) | Tkls Returning | Rank | Team (Conf Rank) | Tkls Returning |
| 1. | Notre Dame (1) | 90.89% | 65. | Army (2) | 63.23% |
| 2. | Temple (1) | 89.91% | 66. | Wisconsin (7) | 61.90% |
| 3. | Appalachian St (1) | 89.16% | 67. | Minnesota (8) | 61.82% |
| 4. | Georgia St (2) | 87.33% | 68. | Cent Michigan (9) | 61.59% |
| 5. | Connecticut (2) | 84.63% | 69. | W Michigan (10) | 61.42% |
| 6. | Kent St (1) | 83.51% | 70. | Utah St (6) | 61.16% |
| 7. | Vanderbilt (1) | 82.40% | 71. | Mississippi (10) | 61.11% |
| 8. | Massachusetts (2) | 81.89% | 72. | East Carolina (7) | 60.62% |
| 9. | California (1) | 81.71% | 73. | Tulsa (8) | 60.52% |
| 10. | New Mexico St (3) | 80.46% | 74. | Mississippi St (11) | 60.43% |
| 11. | Arizona St (2) | 79.16% | 75. | Indiana (9) | 60.32% |
| 12. | Colorado (3) | 78.68% | 76. | Purdue (10) | 60.05% |
| 13. | Baylor (1) | 78.39% | 77. | Nebraska (11) | 60.02% |
| 14. | N Illinois (3) | 78.35% | 78. | Miami, Fl (8) | 59.79% |
| 15. | West Virginia (2) | 78.22% | 79. | FAU (5) | 59.32% |
| 16. | Ohio (4) | 77.32% | 80. | Washington St (7) | 59.24% |
| 17. | Boise St (1) | 77.01% | 81. | Nevada (7) | 59.13% |
| 18. | FIU (1) | 76.62% | 82. | Louisiana Tech (6) | 58.85% |
| 19. | USF (3) | 76.25% | 83. | Hawaii (8) | 58.80% |
| 20. | Middle Tenn (2) | 76.21% | 84. | Navy (9) | 58.34% |
| 21. | South Carolina (2) | 75.20% | 85. | Iowa (12) | 58.19% |
| 22. | Oklahoma St (3) | 74.73% | 86. | Oregon (8) | 57.53% |
| 23. | Georgia Tech (1) | 74.70% | 87. | Marshall (7) | 57.46% |
| 24. | Wake Forest (2) | 74.67% | 88. | Arizona (9) | 57.29% |
| 25. | San Diego St (2) | 73.94% | 89. | Cincinnati (10) | 57.09% |
| 26. | Charlotte (3) | 73.77% | 90. | Arkansas St (7) | 56.63% |
| 27. | WKU (4) | 73.59% | 91. | North Texas (8) | 56.44% |
| 28. | Ball St (5) | 73.30% | 92. | Rutgers (13) | 56.33% |
| 29. | Ohio St (1) | 73.21% | 93. | LSU (12) | 56.06% |
| 30. | Florida St (3) | 72.46% | 94. | Houston (11) | 55.73% |
| 31. | Toledo (6) | 72.26% | 95. | Idaho (8) | 55.57% |
| 32. | Texas Tech (4) | 72.19% | 96. | Fresno St (9) | 55.43% |
| 33. | ULM (4) | 72.04% | 97. | Boston College (9) | 54.58% |
| 34. | E Michigan (7) | 71.98% | 98. | Louisiana (9) | 54.33% |
| 35. | Georgia Southern (5) | 71.32% | 99. | UTEP (9) | 53.31% |
| 36. | Illinois (2) | 71.29% | 100. | BYU (3) | 53.22% |
| 37. | North Carolina (4) | 70.92% | 101. | Arkansas (13) | 53.13% |
| 38. | Oklahoma (5) | 70.40% | 102. | Southern Miss (10) | 52.59% |
| 39. | Miami, Oh (8) | 69.63% | 103. | Akron (11) | 52.48% |
| 40. | Kentucky (3) | 69.08% | 104. | Georgia (14) | 52.47% |
| 41. | Duke (4) | 68.97% | 105. | Old Dominion (11) | 51.98% |
| 42. | NC State (5) | 68.63% | 106. | Kansas St (7) | 51.40% |
| 43. | Virginia Tech (6) | 68.44% | 107. | Texas St (10) | 50.74% |
| 44. | Colorado St (3) | 67.86% | 108. | Washington (10) | 50.60% |
| 45. | Florida (4) | 67.14% | 109. | Louisville (10) | 49.55% |
| 45. | Tennessee (4) | 67.14% | 110. | San Jose St (10) | 47.99% |
| 47. | Michigan St (3) | 67.03% | 111. | Bowling Green (12) | 47.55% |
| 48. | Utah (4) | 66.67% | 112. | Virginia (11) | 45.99% |
| 49. | Auburn (6) | 66.47% | 113. | Maryland (14) | 45.90% |
| 50. | Northwestern (4) | 66.42% | 114. | Rice (12) | 45.55% |
| 51. | New Mexico (4) | 66.03% | 115. | Stanford (11) | 45.49% |
| 52. | Michigan (5) | 65.54% | 116. | Memphis (12) | 44.74% |
| 53. | Troy (6) | 65.47% | 117. | Air Force (11) | 43.76% |
| 54. | Penn St (6) | 65.44% | 118. | Clemson (12) | 43.61% |
| 55. | UCLA (5) | 65.18% | 119. | TCU (8) | 43.45% |
| 56. | Tulane (5) | 64.83% | 120. | Texas (9) | 42.95% |
| 57. | Texas A&M (7) | 64.59% | 121. | Wyoming (12) | 41.90% |
| 58. | Pittsburgh (7) | 64.40% | 122. | Kansas (10) | 38.80% |
| 59. | Iowa St (6) | 64.27% | 123. | UTSA (13) | 37.96% |
| 60. | Missouri (8) | 64.07% | 124. | Buffalo (13) | 37.55% |
| 61. | USC (6) | 63.96% | 125. | UCF (13) | 37.35% |
| 62. | SMU (6) | 63.52% | 126. | S Alabama (11) | 35.79% |
| 63. | UNLV (5) | 63.32% | 127. | Oregon St (12) | 29.71% |
| 64. | Alabama (9) | 63.28% | 128. | Syracuse (13) | 29.30% |
2015 College Football Preview
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In 2013 was the first year my College Football Preview magazine was available on iTunes to download to your iPhone or iPad. In that initial year, we naturally dealt with some issues through trial and error and it was not available to purchase until mid-August. Last year it came out in early June and was PERFECT with none of the bugs of the previous year. I loved it as I do not use my iPhone much (I am always at my desk computer) but I was able to navigate it easily with no problems!
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