Phil Steele Blog • June 20, 2016

 

% of Tackles Returning

Today’s blog continues my in-depth look at my NCAA Experience Chart. For seven 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 by adding new categories like Career Starts on Offensive line, % of Offensive Yards returning, % of Defensive Yards returning and % of lettermen returning.

Dont forget that the 2016 College Football Preview is up and available right now on iTunes, Google Play and through our office (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 2015 and divided it into that number for the percentage.

Last year at the top of the list was Notre Dame which had 90.89% of their total tackles returning from 2014 and they went from 8-5 to 10-3! Temple was #2 with 89.91% and they went from 6-6 to 10-4.

At the bottom of the list last year was #128 Syracuse which had just 29.30% of their tackles returning and #127 Oregon St which had just 29.71% back. Syracuse went from allowing 349 ypg to 439 while Oregon St went from yielding 31.6 ppg all the way up to 37.0 ppg. South Alabama was #126 with just 35.79% back and they imploded going from 26.4 ppg allowed in 2014 to 37.3 ppg in 2015!

This year the most veteran defenses are all teams I expect to improve their records this year. Arkansas leads the way with 86.76% of its tackles returning. #2 Army West Point (84.95%) and #3 Wyoming (84.20%).

At the bottom of the list are #128 Utah St which has just 27.25% of its tackles returning the only team under 30% this year. Illinois at 127 which has just 35.35% of its total tackles back.

Here is the complete list.

% TKL % TKL
RANK Team Return RANK Team Return
1 Arkansas 86.76% 65 Iowa 62.87%
2 Army West Point 84.95% 66 UNLV 62.65%
3 Wyoming 84.20% 67 Miami, Fl 62.53%
4 UCLA 82.84% 68 Navy 62.34%
5 Indiana 82.63% 69 Duke 61.76%
6 Air Force 82.57% 70 UTEP 61.71%
7 Purdue 81.56% 71 Connecticut 61.67%
8 Syracuse 81.09% 72 Penn St 61.39%
9 Kansas 81.02% 73 Baylor 61.36%
10 Rice 81.01% 74 UL Lafayette 61.21%
11 Cincinnati 80.00% 75 SMU 61.01%
12 Colorado 79.90% 76 WKU 60.98%
13 Tennessee 79.72% 77 Idaho 60.77%
14 LSU 79.64% 78 Arizona St 60.49%
15 NC State 78.70% 79 North Carolina 60.18%
16 Tulane 78.69% 80 Buffalo 60.10%
17 New Mexico 78.34% 81 Hawaii 59.90%
18 Texas A&M 77.99% 82 Minnesota 59.35%
19 New Mexico St 76.85% 83 USC 59.10%
20 Arkansas St 76.46% 84 Rutgers 59.08%
21 Pittsburgh 76.37% 85 Mississippi 58.76%
22 San Diego St 75.38% 86 Florida 58.67%
23 Kent St 75.20% 87 East Carolina 58.64%
24 Old Dominion 74.11% 88 Stanford 58.26%
25 Appalachian St 73.46% 89 Fresno St 57.90%
26 Bowling Green 73.17% 90 Oklahoma 57.05%
27 Ball St 73.13% 91 Western Michigan 56.74%
28 Texas 73.09% 92 Georgia Tech 56.56%
29 TCU 72.78% 93 South Alabama 56.02%
30 Washington 72.53% 94 Marshall 55.32%
31 Vanderbilt 72.44% 95 Georgia Southern 55.03%
32 UCF 71.99% 96 Boise St 54.99%
33 San Jose St 71.67% 97 Ohio 54.76%
34 North Texas 71.09% 98 FIU 54.60%
35 Oklahoma St 70.51% 99 Georgia 54.43%
36 Nebraska 70.39% 100 Temple 53.86%
37 Iowa St 69.95% 101 UTSA 53.75%
38 Kansas St 69.85% 102 Michigan 53.70%
39 USF 69.53% 103 Alabama 53.38%
40 Louisville 69.20% 104 Oregon 53.16%
41 Mississippi St 69.04% 105 Texas Tech 52.00%
42 Tulsa 68.81% 106 Maryland 51.75%
43 Georgia St 68.67% 107 Auburn 51.69%
44 Missouri 68.28% 108 Utah 51.19%
45 Wake Forest 67.94% 109 Nevada 50.34%
46 Central Michigan 67.76% 110 Texas St 50.30%
47 Eastern Michigan 67.57% 111 Colorado St 50.00%
48 Northwestern 67.18% 112 South Carolina 49.74%
49 Oregon St 67.07% 113 Florida St 49.36%
50 Virginia 66.84% 114 Houston 49.00%
51 Florida Atlantic 66.71% 115 Massachusetts 48.97%
52 Boston College 66.38% 116 California 44.20%
53 Memphis 66.01% 117 Middle Tennessee 44.19%
54 Southern Miss 65.52% 118 Clemson 44.15%
55 Washington St 65.32% 119 Toledo 43.53%
56 Wisconsin 65.26% 120 Ohio St 43.01%
57 Michigan St 64.95% 121 Notre Dame 42.57%
58 Miami, Oh 64.50% 122 Kentucky 41.43%
59 Northern Illinois 64.22% 123 West Virginia 40.26%
60 Virginia Tech 64.00% 124 ULM 39.48%
61 Troy 63.75% 125 Louisiana Tech 36.11%
62 Arizona 63.30% 126 Akron 35.67%
63 Charlotte 63.19% 127 Illinois 35.35%
64 BYU 63.17% 128 Utah St 27.25%

 

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