Interesting chart from John Pennington, comparing SEC defensive yards per play from the 2012 season with this year’s stats (against BCS opposition only):
School 2013 Yds/All/Play 2012 Yds All/Play Change Florida 4.77 4.33 0.44 worse Alabama 4.99 4.38 0.61 worse Missouri 5.31 5.78 0.47 better S. Carolina 5.47 4.63 0.84 worse LSU 5.66 4.64 1.02 worse Ole Miss 5.87 5.79 0.08 worse Georgia 5.88 5.27 0.61 worse Auburn 6.11 6.48 0.37 better Vanderbilt 6.19 5.00 1.19 worse Miss. State 6.22 5.67 0.55 worse Arkansas 6.41 6.18 0.23 worse Texas A&M 6.42 5.45 0.97 worse Tennessee 6.70 6.49 0.21 worse Kentucky 6.97 6.01 0.96 worse
Bitch about Grantham all you like – and much of it’s deserved, no doubt – but he’s got plenty of company this year. Just for yucks, I checked Georgia’s offensive ypp for the same periods. It’s declined from 6.7 to 6.29. As TAMU, Alabama, Missouri, LSU and South Carolina have all improved in that department in 2013, I’d say that’s a bigger deal. Toss in the craptastic special teams play, and you can see the path to 4-3.