I'll admit it, I'm an engineer.

As such, I tend to lend more credence to statistics than probably most of the people out there.

That said, I found myself looking to compare the national championship Horns, to Colt's horns.  No one gets more credit (Vince) or more blame (Colt) for the performance of the team than the quarterback, but Football, perhaps more than any other sport, is a team sport.

Here is the data - absolute numbers are averages per instance or per game, depending on the stat, and in parenthesis is the national rank.

First off, as we should all well know, the 2005 squad was a hell of a team.  Top 10 offense, defense, and in special teams categories.  Wow.  It should also come as no surprise that Vince hardly went down at all.

Second thing that sticks out to me, is the decline in special teams and defense since 2005.  Reasons for this could stem from lbs of pot, to Chizik, to Akina, to Cosby.  Whatever the reason, that sort of sharp decline is really a concern.  I hope that Muschamp helps to fulfill our hopes and dreams, and hopefully Shipley or someone gets a chance to step up on special teams to give us some help there as well.

Third is turnovers.  Margin as well as absolute here.  Honestly the overall number I was expecting a more dramatic difference from 2005 to 2007, not a 30% increase.  However, that combined with our lack of creating turnovers is killer.  Hopefully Colt can lower his picks, and we can generate a few of our own with Beasley and some LB blitzing pressure.  This is another really bad trend to see that we need to improve on immediately.

Ok enough of me, take a long look over the numbers yourself.  Are there any conclusions you draw from them?  Any opinions reinforced, any dispelled?

Part 2:

First off, something was out of whack for the Tackles for Loss stats in 2004.  Ill assume the national position is right, but something changed, and the per game numbers didn't sync with the other years, so I didn't include it.

What else, I'm surprised at how little we actually ran in 2006, and when we did, how few yards per carry we had.  With the O-line being what it was, Greg must have been seriously confused as to how to run without Vince.

Lastly I was at first appalled by our yards penalized, looking at these other stats I think I consider around the 40th in the nation near what I would call "disappointing"; however for penalty yards as I looked at the teams on the top, we are about right.  I think penalties shows some measure of aggression on D, and no doubt bone-headedness, but I don't think you push your limits if you don't break them sometimes.  So, I'm fine with where we stand in penalties.

Plus in 2005, that was just more yards for us to gain back each possession!

Time of possession in 2006 is counter-intuitive as well.  With what is certainly our worst rushing year, and 3rd down conversion year, we had our best time of possession.  Though really, with them being so close, you might as well assume they are equal.  Point still stand though.