re: "Offense is the problem"

quote:

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ETA: typo, average starting field position was just past the 42 yard line

2011: LSU ranked 13th in the country for best starting field position on drives ending in touchdowns (22nd on all drives)

2006: LSU ranked 66th in the country for best starting field position on drives ending in touchdowns (90th on all drives)

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ok, I imported the drive data from CFB into mysql and ran the queries. Let's dig a little deeper...

First of all, your rankings are skewed because the data contained FCS/Other division teams who probably only had 1 game worth of data in the record set. For example, ranked first based on average starting spot in 2006 is Wofford, with 1 game in the dataset.

Second, using actual starting position for all drives, the following data was returned from the query...

2006 - 69.357 / 30.6 yard line
2011 - 66.392 / 33.6 yard line

Where drives end in touchdown, drive length / starting spot

2006 - 61.682 / 38.3 yard line
2011 - 57.857 / 42.1 yard line

So we have a 3 yard difference in overall starting position, and a 3.8 yard difference in TD drive starting position. Not much of a story here...

This database is cool, thanks unknown for the info on this...digging a little deeper into the 3 yard difference in 06 and 11. In 2011, kickoffs were from the 30, in 2006 they were from the 35. This had the following impact...

Touchbacks on Kickoffs
2006 - 19
2011 - 6

Avg Starting Position After Kickoff
2006 - 22.1
2011 - 25

Hmm, basically a 3 yard difference. In looking at drives starting inside the 20...

2006 - 56 drives, 11 TD's, 19.64%
2011 - 46 drives, 9 TD's, 19.57%

adding Field Goals
2006 - 6 fgs, 30.36% Scoring
2011 - 3 fgs, 26% Scoring