re: Auburn football head coach search thread?

quote:

---

I looked at total offensive stats:

Auburn #63
ASU #66

---

You are looking at Total Yards-per-Game.

What about this is complicated? If you have the ball, and you turn it over - you can't run any more plays on that drive and now must wait to get the ball back. If you aren't running plays, then you aren't picking up yards. Furthermore, if you don't have the ball, then you aren't scoring points.

If you look deeper at their underlying stats, Arizona State had a very functionally above-average offense...apart from turning the ball over a shite-ton (mainly fumbles lost). The success or failure of an offensive coordinator is measured by their ability to call and execute plays which pick up an above-average amount of yards per play. Doing this means that you will convert first downs. Converting first downs is the key to scoring on offense. Even the most explosive offenses can only score on so many big-yardage plays, hence the best offenses are typically those that can CONSISTENTLY move the chains.

If you look at those other metrics I posted, we ranked nowhere near Arizona State. So even though we slotted a few spots behind them in "Yards Per Game", the actual offensive efficacy isn't comparable at all.

What an offensive coordinator doesn't have control over: his players dropping the football. Do you believe that Zak Hill was calling some magical plays that were so bad that they made his players drop the football? Do you understand the difference between things one has control over, and things they don't?