Daily Blog •June 3, 2011	Blog Archives

Today’s blog starts my in-depth look at my New and Improved Experience Chart. For 7 years I had listed an experience chart, which broke down the number of seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen each team had in the two deep and rated the teams experience level with a formula I devised. In 2009, I made the experience chart FIVE TIMES better. Today I will look at the number of career starts returning for offensive lineman and the % of lettermen returning.

When most folks judge a team for the upcoming season they look at the QB, RB and WR's that are returning. A few may take the time to look at star defensive players that are back (those with a lot of sacks or interceptions). However, very few look at the offensive line and yet the team that controls the line of scrimmage wins the game more often than not.

This year SMU returns six players who have been full-time starters at some point in their career and as a unit returns 158 career starts. The Mustangs are led by 1st Tm All-CUSA OT Kelvin Beachum. They also have OC Blake McJunkin and OT JT Brooks who were both HM CUSA LY. Together they paved the way for RB Zach Line to have one of the best rushing performances in SMU history.

Northwestern comes in at #2 on the list with 137 career starts and are led by All-Big 10 candidates in OT Al Netter and OC Ben Burkett who is a 3-year starter.

Arizona is at the bottom of the list with 1 career starts back which obviously makes their OL my biggest concern on a team that has the ability to make a 4th straight bowl game this year.

Now experience on the O-line is not the only criteria for an offensive line’s potential for the next year. You have to add in the Blue Chips, how last year’s line performed (ypc rushing and sacks allowed), size, etc. That is how a team like Oklahoma St can be just #48 in career starts returning but rated as my #3 OL this year.

OL Career Starts Returning

Rk	Team	OL Career Sts	Rk	Team	OL Career Sts
1	SMU	158	60	Vanderbilt	68
2	Northwestern	137	62	Washington	65
3	Clemson	118	63	E Michigan	64
3	UAB	118	63	Nevada	64
5	Tulsa	116	65	Marshall	63
5	Northern Illinois	116	65	Notre Dame	63
7	Florida St	115	65	Bowling Green	63
8	Temple	111	65	Utah	63
9	Rice	109	69	USF	62
10	BYU	107	69	Tulane	62
11	Missouri	105	69	Colorado St	62
12	Middle Tenn	104	72	Navy	61
13	Virginia Tech	98	72	Idaho	61
13	Miami Oh	98	74	NC State	60
13	Boise St	98	74	N Carolina	60
13	New Mexico St	98	74	Minnesota	60
17	Kansas	97	77	Iowa	59
17	Colorado	97	77	North Texas	59
19	Ball St	96	77	FAU	59
20	ULM	94	80	Buffalo	58
21	West Virginia	92	81	Syracuse	57
22	Oregon St	91	81	Michigan St	57
23	Alabama	90	83	Oregon	56
23	Utah St	90	84	Iowa St	54
25	Rutgers	89	84	Troy	54
25	Kent St	89	86	Pittsburgh	53
27	UCF	87	87	Penn St	52
28	Texas A&M	86	87	Houston	52
28	Georgia	86	89	Boston College	50
30	Toledo	85	89	W Michigan	50
30	California	85	89	Stanford	50
32	Arizona St	84	89	Tennessee	50
33	Texas Tech	83	89	FIU	50
33	San Diego St	83	94	Akron	49
35	Virginia	82	94	Arkansas	49
36	Oklahoma	81	96	Louisiana Tech	46
37	UCLA	80	97	Kansas St	42
37	Miss St	80	98	Air Force	41
37	San Jose St	80	99	Nebraska	40
40	Purdue	79	99	Fresno St	40
41	Wyoming	78	101	Cincinnati	39
41	LSU	78	101	Southern Miss	39
43	Duke	77	101	Ohio	39
43	Ohio St	77	104	Georgia Tech	38
43	Baylor	77	105	Texas	36
43	Kentucky	77	105	UNLV	36
43	Mississippi	77	105	TCU	36
48	Oklahoma St	76	108	Memphis	34
49	Miami Fl	74	109	Arkansas St	28
49	Wisconsin	74	109	Louisiana	28
51	Maryland	73	111	E Carolina	27
52	Connecticut	72	111	USC	27
53	Indiana	71	111	Florida	27
53	Washington St	71	114	Louisville	25
53	WKU	71	115	Army	21
56	Michigan	70	115	Hawaii	21
56	S Carolina	70	117	New Mexico	20
58	Illinois	69	118	Auburn	15
58	C Michigan	69	119	UTEP	7
60	Wake Forest	68	120	Arizona	1

Last year I went back and looked at percentages of lettermen returning and lost. Using percentages is more reliable than the amount of returning or lost lettermen because schools give out letters in different manners. Some schools hand out a lot of letters and others far fewer. Getting a letter at Syracuse under Paul Pasqualoni was tough, as he handed out just 38 total letters in 2004 and 40 in 2003. This year the low's went to Nevada with 46 while NC State and Florida Atlantic had 48 each. Nebraska in 2001 handed out 82 letters or over double what Syracuse was giving out. It was also the most given out by any school in the previous 6 years. In 2007, Ohio broke all records with an amazing 91 letters given out while Hawaii had 90! Last year Ohio was at the top again with 81 and Michigan had 80.

% of Lettermen Returning

Rk	Team	% LTR Return	Rk	Team	% LTR Return
1	Toledo	84.75%	61	Penn St	70.31%
2	SMU	83.08%	62	Baylor	70.27%
3	Florida St	80.65%	63	Colorado	69.86%
4	Tulsa	80.60%	64	Oklahoma St	69.81%
5	Texas A&M	80.26%	65	New Mexico	69.49%
6	Northwestern	80.00%	66	Virginia	69.35%
7	WKU	79.66%	66	N Carolina	69.35%
8	Missouri	79.37%	68	Washington St	69.12%
9	BYU	79.22%	69	Fresno St	69.09%
10	Wisconsin	78.87%	70	Troy	69.01%
11	Purdue	78.48%	71	C Michigan	68.85%
12	ULM	78.33%	72	Oregon St	68.83%
13	Alabama	77.94%	72	North Texas	68.83%
14	Vanderbilt	77.78%	74	Michigan	68.75%
15	Temple	77.42%	75	Wyoming	68.52%
16	Boise St	77.33%	76	E Carolina	68.49%
16	Air Force	77.33%	76	Florida	68.49%
18	Ball St	76.81%	78	Kansas St	68.18%
18	Michigan St	76.81%	79	Nebraska	67.95%
20	FIU	76.56%	80	Pittsburgh	67.69%
21	Idaho	75.81%	80	Arizona	67.69%
22	Arizona St	75.71%	82	UCF	67.65%
23	San Jose St	75.38%	83	Indiana	67.61%
24	Houston	75.36%	83	Oregon	67.61%
25	San Diego St	75.00%	85	Notre Dame	67.57%
25	Oklahoma	75.00%	86	Connecticut	67.35%
25	E Michigan	75.00%	87	Rutgers	67.27%
25	USF	75.00%	88	West Virginia	67.21%
29	Arkansas St	74.67%	88	Syracuse	67.21%
30	Rice	74.65%	90	Virginia Tech	67.16%
31	Middle Tenn	74.63%	91	Bowling Green	66.67%
32	Stanford	74.36%	91	Utah	66.67%
33	Miami Florida	74.19%	91	La Tech	66.67%
34	Wake Forest	74.03%	94	Ohio St	66.22%
35	Cincinnati	73.91%	95	N Illinois	66.20%
36	Kent St	73.33%	96	Clemson	65.71%
37	California	73.13%	96	Utah St	65.71%
38	Tennessee	73.02%	96	Marshall	65.71%
39	LSU	72.97%	96	Georgia Tech	65.71%
40	Duke	72.88%	100	Mississippi	65.28%
41	Washington	72.73%	100	Maryland	65.28%
42	Kentucky	72.60%	102	Iowa St	64.91%
43	New Mexico St	72.58%	103	Miss St	64.71%
44	Minnesota	72.55%	103	UTEP	64.71%
45	Buffalo	72.46%	105	Georgia	64.29%
46	Illinois	72.41%	106	Louisiana	64.18%
47	Tulane	72.22%	107	UAB	63.49%
48	W Michigan	72.13%	108	TCU	63.38%
49	Nevada	71.74%	109	Kansas	63.08%
50	UNLV	71.62%	110	USC	62.90%
51	Southern Miss	71.43%	111	FAU	62.50%
52	Texas Tech	71.23%	112	Army	62.12%
53	Boston College	71.19%	113	Hawaii	62.03%
54	Texas	71.01%	114	Louisville	60.71%
55	Miami Oh	70.83%	115	NC State	60.42%
55	UCLA	70.83%	116	Akron	59.26%
57	Arkansas	70.67%	117	Navy	59.09%
58	S Carolina	70.59%	118	Iowa	57.58%
58	Colorado St	70.59%	119	Memphis	56.52%
60	Ohio	70.37%	120	Auburn	55.07%

Toledo is #1 here in % of lettermen returning with 50 of 59 players back (84.75%). SMU is #2 with 54 out of 65 lettermen returning (83.1%). At the bottom of the rankings is defending national champ Auburn who returns just 55.1% of their lettermen and loses an incredible 31 lettermen. At #119 is Memphis who returns just 39 out of 69 lettermen from last year (56.5%). #118 is Iowa who lost a lot of key players and returns just 57.6% from last year.

Please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my Top 30 Countdown which continued yesterday with #14 South Carolina. Every day now thru June 15th, I will post both magazine pages on each team that day and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite team. Remember I will make those magazine pages available for only 24 hours for you to download. Today Arkansas comes in at #13.

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