Brigham Young Cougars head coach Bronco Mendenhall has stated several times that one of his goals is to rush for 100 yards every game. Earlier this week, I got into a debate on Twitter with @gregwrubell and @Y4LYFE about how important it is that BYU reach this, or any other, defined rushing standard. The premise of any statistic is to determine whether it is a strong predictor of a certain outcome. In football the desired outcome, of course, is winning.
This Twitter debate got me questioning, what about the losses?
2006--Boston College (30-23, OT): 111 yards
2007--Tulsa (55-47): 157 yards
2008--Utah (48-24): 214 yards
2008--Arizona (31-21): 116 yards
2009--Florida State (54-28): 108 yards
2009--TCU (32-7): 110 yards
2010--Air Force (35-14): 221 yards
2011--TCU (38-28): 139 yards
That is 44% of the losses. Nearly half of the times BYU lost over the last six years they still had over 100 yards rushing.
I am not trying to draw any conclusions with this stat. I present it merely to provide more information to think about on this subject.
The Editor appreciates all feedback. He can be reached via email at bluecougarfootball@gmail.com
This Twitter debate got me questioning, what about the losses?
Did you know that BYU rushed for over 100 yards in 8 of its 18 losses from 2006 to 2011?Those eight losses were:
2006--Boston College (30-23, OT): 111 yards
2007--Tulsa (55-47): 157 yards
2008--Utah (48-24): 214 yards
2008--Arizona (31-21): 116 yards
2009--Florida State (54-28): 108 yards
2009--TCU (32-7): 110 yards
2010--Air Force (35-14): 221 yards
2011--TCU (38-28): 139 yards
That is 44% of the losses. Nearly half of the times BYU lost over the last six years they still had over 100 yards rushing.
I am not trying to draw any conclusions with this stat. I present it merely to provide more information to think about on this subject.
The Editor appreciates all feedback. He can be reached via email at bluecougarfootball@gmail.com
If that were the only goal, then I would agree that it's not statistically relevant. However, at least 5 of those games, TOs played a major factor in off-setting those Rushing Yards.
ReplyDeleteWhat is BYU's record when it rushes for over 100 yards in a game v. their record when they don't rush for 100 yards in a game? This would be a more telling statistics.
ReplyDelete