Defense 2007 – Another Look

For a Dawg, Senator Blutarsky of Get the Picture is surprisingly cognizant. I note this because, in my last piece about defenses and “national titles”, he points out that due to recent rule changes relating to the game clock and kickoff position, a more illustrative comparison rather than “raw” points might be comparing the teams to the overall Division I-A statistics for the particular season.

He was correct.

Going back to 2000, the eventual “national champion” was clearly a defensive leader in each of the year’s examined. The following was the results –



For this year, as one might suspect, scoring has increased notably in Division I. The average score this year is 27.00, or 1.5 per game more than the average this century. Last year’s clock rules saw an average of only 23.18 per game scored, so this year teams are scoring at a clip that is almost 4 more points per game.

In this context, Florida’s 2006 defense – while still outstanding – doesn’t look quite as good as some of the other championship teams at 9.7 ppg less than that year's D I-A average (likewise Oklahoma in 00’ and Texas in 05’). Miami’s 2001 team, on the other hand, looks outstanding.

Looking at this year’s MNC contenders going into the BCS title game using the same metrics, we have –

Ohio State – National Rank 1st, 10.7ppg, - 16.3 Difference

LSU (not adjusted for OT) – National Rank 20th, 19.6 ppg, -7.4 Difference

LSU (adjusted for OT) – National Rank 7th, 17.2 ppg, -9.8 Difference

Which leads to an obvious question – Is this LSU team’s defense good enough to win the “national” championship?

As I said before, the BCS title game might just be more interesting than it looks.