Lotta Booze
Ramblin' Wreck
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No that’s ok. I’m just curious to see the YoY trend (or maybe a 5 year trend). An 87 ranking is not measurably better than what we had under Johnson’s DCs. As I said, the def looks better than it did under roof / woody. Better run fits, better coverage. It definitely wears down as the game progresses, but that’s a symptom of playing 35-40 minutes per game - as was the case in our win against NCSU last week.
I've been curious as well why the defense looks better but it isn't reflected in the stats. I think part of it is that with the offensive struggles the team has had this year they play more minutes and like you said get worn down.
But also, I think a reason why it's looked better is because we've created more tackles for loss this year.
So far this year we've averaged 5.2 Tackles For Loss per game which puts us tied with Tennessee for 97th in FBS. (no. 1 is UCF with 9.4 for reference)
97th is definitely not great but it is significantly better than the previous year where we were averaging 4.2 TFLPG and ranked 125th in FBS. Only ahead of Louisville, Bowling Green, Ga. State, and Navy. And we were at 4.3 TFLPG in 2017, 4.4 in 2016.
One full TFL per game improvement seems pretty good and definitely plays into the defense looking like they're better. If we can get 1 more TFLPG improvement that would put us in Bama territory.
Current year stats here:
https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/467