The One Stat That Has to Change If OSU Is Going to Be Successful in 2015

I was doing a little research for the 2015 season recently, and I stumbled upon a pretty interesting stat and corresponding correlation. The appropriately-named fbsdrivestats.com has drive charts for every FBS school in the country dating back to 2005 which is incredible. I started digging in and found something that intrigued me in this chart.

This shows what percentage of possible yards OSU gave up on drives in a given season (black dots) and what percentage of possible yards OSU gained on drives in a given season (orange dots). So if your offense starts on its own 20 and scores a TD, that would be 100 percent of yards gained. It it gets to the opposing team’s 20 that would be 60 yards gained out of a possible 80, or 75 percent. You obviously want the orange dot to be higher than the black.

The orange and black numbers are how many wins OSU had each season.

As one would expect, Mike Gundy’s first year in 2005 (far left) was an abomination. OSU gained 30 percent of possible yards on every drive. So if it started every drive at its own 20 it advanced, on average, to the other team’s 46. That’s not good. It also gave up over 50 percent (!) of total possible yards.

You can see why that team went 4-7.

But 2015 wasn’t a whole lot better. OSU gained only 40 percent of possible yards on a given drive and gave up 46 percent. You can see why that team went 7-6. Obviously 2010-11 are the gold standards. In 2011, OSU gained 62 percent of possible yards on a given drive and only surrendered 44 percent. A joke, really. Incredible.

If the Pokes reverse last year’s numbers they should have a 9-win or even 10-win season. Basically, 2012 without the QB-go-round.