It was touched on in the comments to this post the other day, so I thought I’d take a look at the number of plays run by and against Georgia over the past ten seasons to see if the data shed any light on what Bobo might have accomplished with the introduction of his shiny new no-huddle toy last season. The information comes from Georgia’s official site, and is broken down by total number of plays run and yards per play:
YEAR UGA PLAYS UGA YPP OPP PLAYS OPP YPP 2011 1016 5.63 870 4.46 2010 814 6.1 828 5.2 2009 793 5.9 868 5.1 2008 826 6.7 816 5 2007 874 5.6 868 4.8 2006 768 5.3 775 4.3 2005 818 6.2 855 4.8 2004 826 5.9 747 4.6 2003 1023 5.2 880 4.4 2002 981 5.5 934 4.5
First off, if you’d have told me before I looked that the Dawgs ran more plays in 2003 (the offensive line’s Year of Living Dangerously) than any other season in the last ten, I never would have believed it. The second most shocking item to note is that Martinez’ 2006 defense managed the lowest yards per play figure of any Georgia team in that period.
In general, some of the year-to-year variations you see there can be explained by personnel, by the NCAA clock rule changes and by the season’s length, but I don’t see how anyone can deny that last season Bobo squeezed more plays out of Georgia’s offense by going to the no-huddle, something which had largely been abandoned in Athens since Richt’s first season.
By the way, you should be a little impressed with Grantham’s results last season. Despite the offense picking up the pace somewhat, the defense held its own in terms of getting off the field (it defended one more game than in 2010, remember) and the 2011 defensive yards per play figure is as good as it was in VanGorder’s prime.
Let me know what y’all think of the numbers.
Get The Picture 
Here’s what I think: Thats great, and keep up the no huddle. But hopefully the offense, like last years defense, will be better at execution in year two. It seemed like last year had a ton of flat out missed assignments by the offensive line and tight ends, and perhaps the two are related, given the difference in communicating plays and assignments between the huddle and no huddle.
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Not surprised 2006 had the least amount of offensive plays. I never thought Richt as OC adjusted well to the clock rule changes that year.
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This begs for an analysis of our special teams.
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What I find most interesting: 2007 appears to have been a mediocre year for both offense and defense. Cue Gruden’s rallying cry about “making plays when then need to be made,” I suppose.
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Bobo had a really solid year.
Bobo finished in SEC:
3rd in yards per game
4th in yards per play
4th in points per game
Even against ranked teams, truer test, Bobo in SEC:
4th in scoring
1st in total offense
4th in yards per play
Grantham in SEC ranked:
6th in scoring
4th in total defense
4th in yards per play
But against ranked teams, truer test, Grantham in SEC rankings struggled:
8th in yards per play
6th in yards per game
11th in points per game
So Bobo had a much better year than Grantham.
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What are the national rankings for all of those?
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I can kinda see the 2003 number being that way … the defense in 2003 was terrific and pretty deep with young talent. Plus, there were games like @ Tenn that year where in the second half we picked off like 3 straight Vol passes (one was a duck because Pollack creamed the QB) and ran the ball down their throats for a quarter and a half.
Despite the OL issues, there were some blowout games that probably skewed the numbers.
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I think the correlation in stats boils down to time of possession and points
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Generally, true for Alabama, UGA, LSU, and South Carolina (all finished top 4 in SEC) that time of possession in 2011 translated to wins, all 4 won 10 to 13 games. Exception was Arkansas, who had a quick strike offense finished 10th in SEC in time of possession, but 1st or 2nd in yards per game/yards per play.
Offensive yards per play in the SEC was a really important stat in 2011, top 5 were Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Arkansas really struggled in defensive yards per play, and yards per game, yet still won 11 games, including a win over South Carolina.
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I remember the ’06 defense being pretty solid – but they had to be with Stafford (God bless him) throwing 3 picks a game.
That Tennessee game still smarts, though.
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Think what last year’s numbers would have looked like had Bobo/Richt not “taken their foot off the gas” …
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At first glance, the ypp for 2003 does not seem too impressive. But keep in mind that we had some big leads in those glory years and that likely impacted the final numbers. I would be interested in seeing just the first half stats for the past 10 seasons.
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I want to see the no huddle look sharp and crisp. No more 15 seconds spent staring at the sideline, get those plays in quickly and line up and snap the ball. It takes so long to get the play that the D has plenty of time to move around and confuse Murray. I don’t know if it’s a communication issue with the booth and the sideline or if Bobo is taking too long to make the call but something needs to be corrected in their system. And before someone says it, I don’t mean fire Bobo.
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Thanks for this Senator. You answered my specific question with this new information.
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I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far into the comments and no one has said it yet…so here goes, I blame Bobo. The Martinez 06 defense yeilded 4.3 yards per play in the following manner: !st down 3yd gain for opponent;2nd down 5 yd loss for opposing offense; 3rd down pass complete for 15 yard gain and a first down. Net 13 yards in 3 plays equals4.3 yards per play. It’s still painful to recall defensive backs never turning around to find the ball in the air. Coach em up Willie……War Damn Eagle
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The only reason Dawgs won 10 games in 2011 was because of CTG’s D. We’d have won more games if the O and STs were coached as well as the D.
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I think the numbers prop up your post concerning the good coaching of Bobo.
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I know I’m late to the party here Senator but in response to your statement concerning the # of plays in 2003 vs. 2011 check out the number of games played vs other seasons. In those 2 years along with 2002 I believe (almost 1000 plays) are the only yrs we’ve played 14 games. The rest of the time it was either 12 (11 reg games 1 bowl) or 13 (12 reg 1 bowl). This may not explain all of it, but it’s worth noting.
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Which is why I did. 😉
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