Don’t laugh about this post – I already did that when I thought about writing it. Needless to say, this is the last one of these I’ll run for the season.
If you’ve been following things at this blog, I’ve been tracking seven SEC statistical categories that have in common that Georgia excelled in each of them in ‘02, ‘03 and ‘05, the three years that the Dawgs have made it to Atlanta under Richt (you can read the background on my analysis here). They are
- Hold opponents under 17 points per game.
- Finish at least +8 in turnover margin.
- Average better than 380 yards per game on offense.
- Finish in the top five in total defensive yardage.
- Finish in the top three in first downs.
- Finish no worse than third in passing yardage.
- Finish no worse than third in sacks.
After the Tennessee blowout, here’s where the Dawgs rank in each category in the SEC:
- Points allowed per game: 20.2
- Turnover margin: -1
- Total offense per game: 361.8 yards
- Total defense per game: 321.2 yards, 5th in the conference
- First downs: 120, 6th in the conference
- Passing yardage per game: 201.8, 8th in the conference
- Sacks: 9, 8th in the conference
You know, there are two schools of thought with regard to statistics. One is the Benjamin Disraeli, Mark Twain group – “lies, damned lies and statistics”.
The other is the Charlie Brown position. There’s a Peanuts strip where Lucy is reciting to Charlie all of the statistics their baseball team compiled during another season of futility to which a fed up Charlie Brown finally turns to Lucy and says, “Tell your statistics to shut up.”
I’m definitely feeling Charlie Brown today.
Get The Picture 
I understand why you might not do these any longer this year, but I encourage you to. We may not win the SEC East but it’s interesting to see the areas in which we seem to be doing ok and those in which we are struggling.
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Thanks for the support, Hobnail.
I’ll consider it, but keep in mind that I’ve never claimed that there’s a causal connection between these particular statistical results and Georgia’s records in those years. It’s just that those are the common areas of at least above-average play I found in the seasons when Georgia went on to Atlanta. I was curious to see if history would hold up if Georgia made another run this year.
Since it’s pretty clear at this point that the Dawgs won’t be representing the East in the SECCG in ’07, I’m not sure what purpose it would serve to keep running this feature.
That’s not to say that in the future I won’t look at some of the stats Georgia is compiling this season in an attempt to understand how things play out, though.
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