The Year in Kickoff Returns

by Army Tiger on Nov 30, 2009 11:25 PM CST

The Bengal identified an interesting number in his "The Season in Statistics." LSU ranked 110th in kickoff returns. This is a great example of stats obscuring an important fact. I looked at every kickoff LSU received this year, and the results were interesting, and reasonable given our opponent's reluctance to kick the ball deep to our speedsters. LSU received 51 kickoffs in 2009. The average starting position on those kicks was the 33 yard line, and only once during the entire year did they start inside the 20. I have no idea how this ranks against other teams but I would be willing to bet it compares favorably...

The following is a loose comparison, because NCAA statistics are based on return yards, not starting field position (they don't count touchbacks, KOs out of bounds, etc.), but if you estimate that an average "regular" college kickoff goes to the 5 yard line, then LSUs equivalent return yardage is 28 yards per kick. This would rank LSU as 3rd in the nation. Sometimes the reputation of a great return game is better than actually having one.

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Great Analysis

I have to say, I didn’t consider starting field position when I pondered the 110th KO returns ranking. That’s a great point and further underscores how good our special teams were this year. Joe Robinson and Larry Porter did a great job with that unit this year.

CHAD JONES! WOOOO!!!!

by The Bengal on Dec 1, 2009 10:48 AM CST reply actions

To a small

degree that could explain us getting out gained as much as we did while outscoring our opponents by a decent margin, overall.

We scored on shorter drives.

That’s doesn’t speak great for our D but it explains it to some degree…

GEAUX TIGERS!!!

by SouthernMan on Dec 1, 2009 11:28 AM CST reply actions

This year

I felt the defense gave up a lot of yardage, but did a good job in the end of preventing the other team from scoring and really thats all that matters.

by shelby924 on Dec 1, 2009 11:41 AM CST up reply actions

A little more on scoring drives...

LSU scored 48 times this year (FGs and TDs). The average length of those drives was 48 yards, which is pretty short, though I don’t know how much we can credit this to low offensive numbers. Obviously, there were a lot of other drives that didn’t result in points that figure into our lack of offensive priduction. We also only had 4 zero-yard scoring drives (returns/int for a TD). If we ranked high in scoring offense then I would be fine with low yards due to short drives, but we were 75th and that’s a pretty average scoring rank.

by Army Tiger on Dec 1, 2009 4:57 PM CST up reply actions

agreed

GEAUX TIGERS!!!

by SouthernMan on Dec 1, 2009 5:17 PM CST up reply actions

Good points

I think the really remarkable thing is that we had a 61% TD rate in the Red Zone which is 50% higher than our 3rd down conversion rate! If you got the ball into the Red Zone, we were likely to score TDs, but getting the ball there required a short field to start with.

I think the O-line was so inconsistent we had trouble maintaining long scoring drives. The other factor is penalties. While we were only 35th in penalty yardage, we were 67th in number of penalties. That says to me we incurred a lot of shorter penalties (illegal procedure, illegal substitution, illegal formation) that slowed the offense. Now I’m curious what our average plays per possession were and where we ranked nationally.

CHAD JONES! WOOOO!!!!

by The Bengal on Dec 1, 2009 6:01 PM CST up reply actions

and for your viewing pleasure

Kickoff Returns: LSU 110th, Penn State 106th
Punt Returns: LSU 1st, Penn State 108th
KR Defense: LSU 3rd, Penn State 62nd
PR Defense: LSU 10th, Penn State 115th

So… yeah.

This after years of being one of the top 15 ST units in the country. As a PSU fan this is what has me sweating if the Nittany Lions go to the Cap One.

by Cairo on Dec 1, 2009 3:27 PM CST reply actions

love it

thanks for the stats post

by ORtigerfan on Dec 1, 2009 5:36 PM CST up reply actions

One of the amazing things to me

is how little we’ve played some of the Big 10 teams. We’ve only met Penn State once (1973), Iowa once (2005), and we’ve never played Michigan. We have now played Ohio State 3 times, but as a comparison we’ve played Notre Dame 10 times and Nebraska 6 times.

CHAD JONES! WOOOO!!!!

by The Bengal on Dec 1, 2009 6:11 PM CST up reply actions

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