Daily Blog •February 20, 2013

Every year I am adding to new features and articles to my College Football Preview and PhilSteele.com and this year for all 124 teams I have added a couple extra columns to the Game-by-Game Stats that you will find on the right hand page for every team. A lot of people have been asking me what those columns stand for and I thought I would explain it further in today’s blog.

During the 2012 season I was wondering how certain offensive and defensive performances that a team had vs a particular opponent stacked up on how the other opponents fared against that team. Not every performance as far as yards gained and given up is created equal due to the quality of opponent played. Let’s face it gaining 300 yards of offense last year vs Alabama’s defense would be far more impressive than gaining 300 yards vs Kansas’ D. So to the right of the net yards and points columns, you will see an offensive vs foe and defensive vs foe numbers. The first # is what that performance ranked compared to every other team their opponent allowed throughout the year (#1 being the best, with #12 being the worst since most teams played 12 games) while the second column contains the number of yards positive or negative against their opponent’s average.

If you need further explanation feel free to check out the June 14th blog.

In today’s blog I took all those averages on offense and combined them to come up with the most impressive offensive teams in the country compared to how they fared against their opponent. First, here is a ranking of all 124 teams and how they did.

Offensive YPG Avg Compared to
Opponent's Defensive YPG Avg

Rank Team Offensive Avg
vs Opp D Avg
1 Texas A&M 210.94
2 Baylor 178.56
3 Louisiana Tech 175.74
4 Clemson 144.48
5 Oregon 143.64
6 Arizona 124.61
7 Marshall 120.32
8 Oklahoma St 118.92
9 Tennessee 112.77
10 Georgia 111.23
11 Nebraska 102.23
12 Syracuse 101.98
13 Troy 97.92
14 West Virginia 96.65
15 Nevada 94.74
16 North Carolina 85.59
17 Oklahoma 79.67
18 Fresno St 77.50
19 Texas Tech 75.63
20 Florida St 75.46
21 Alabama 73.99
22 Miami, Fl 72.77
23 Louisiana 67.69
24 Indiana 64.00
25 UCLA 59.37
26 Arkansas St 56.81
27 Northern Illinois 56.23
28 Arkansas 55.42
29 Cincinnati 52.34
30 San Jose St 50.01
31 Arizona St 49.11
32 Notre Dame 49.06
33 Utah St 48.85
34 USC 47.69
35 Louisville 46.49
36 Houston 45.99
37 Georgia Tech 44.34
38 Ohio St 43.18
39 Toledo 41.53
40 Mississippi 38.86
41 Ball St 38.68
42 Army 35.52
43 Duke 34.60
44 Oregon St 33.23
45 NC State 32.11
46 Penn St 32.01
47 Ohio 30.58
48 Tulsa 28.49
49 Wisconsin 27.69
50 Michigan 27.05
51 Northwestern 24.24
52 BYU 21.83
53 Texas 18.30
54 ULM 17.99
55 Western Michigan 12.91
56 Pittsburgh 12.90
57 Purdue 7.32
58 South Carolina 7.06
59 Middle Tennessee 2.44
60 UAB 1.17
61 Boise St 0.61
62 California 0.58
63 San Diego St 0.02
64 LSU -1.10
65 Kent St -1.42
66 UCF -1.47
67 Virginia Tech -2.60
68 Miami, Oh -4.02
69 Air Force -4.72
70 South Florida -6.15
71 Rice -6.20
72 Missouri -7.45
73 Mississippi St -8.24
74 East Carolina -8.56
75 Wyoming -9.31
76 Michigan St -11.84
77 Akron -17.02
78 North Texas -20.68
79 Virginia -21.39
80 Washington St -23.22
81 FIU -25.20
82 Florida -25.88
83 Stanford -30.63
84 Central Michigan -31.26
85 Boston College -31.61
86 Buffalo -31.64
87 Vanderbilt -32.22
88 Kansas St -32.92
89 TCU -33.19
90 WKU -33.37
91 UTSA -36.01
92 Navy -37.20
93 Florida Atlantic -40.99
94 UTEP -42.42
95 SMU -42.51
96 Temple -43.26
97 Washington -43.35
98 UNLV -46.00
99 New Mexico -48.60
100 Colorado St -51.79
101 Iowa St -53.65
102 Eastern Michigan -57.36
103 Texas St -59.01
104 Minnesota -59.77
105 Kansas -60.13
106 Rutgers -61.77
107 Connecticut -66.17
108 South Alabama -66.92
109 Bowling Green -67.94
110 Kentucky -72.08
111 Southern Miss -74.54
112 Idaho -76.11
113 Wake Forest -79.23
114 Utah -82.40
115 Iowa -85.98
116 Tulane -93.32
117 Auburn -94.08
118 Colorado -95.24
119 New Mexico St -95.31
120 Hawaii -99.80
121 Maryland -108.66
122 Massachusetts -113.53
123 Illinois -115.02
124 Memphis -123.49

As you can see here, Texas A&M’s offense by far when you compare it to what their opponents were giving up had the most impressive offense gaining nearly 211 yards per game more than what their opponents D’s were allowing. This was more than 30 yards better than #2 Baylor who averaged 179 ypg better offensively than what their opposing D’s were allowing. Only two teams who were in the Top 10 in this offensive category failed to have a winning season as Marshall (+120.3) and Tennessee (+112.8) each had powerful offenses but their breakdowns on the other side of the ball prevented them from further success.

At the bottom of the chart you will find Memphis and Illinois as the two least impressive offenses as they averaged less than 115 ypg than what their opponents were giving up. Three bowl teams actually made the bottom 20 as Bowling Green, Rutgers and Minnesota each had underachieving offenses a year ago and rode the strength of their defenses and weaker schedules to bowl games.

Tomorrow I will break down the top performing defenses and it should come as no surprise as to who #1 will be.