On fumbles

cyptomcat

cyptomcat

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On fumbles:
http://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-tech/georgia-123870.html
“Hope the familiarity of what you are doing will decrease that,” Johnson said. “It has most everywhere else I’ve been.”
That’s partially true. Georgia Southern actually lost more fumbles in Johnson’s second season in Statesboro (19) than in his first (15). But the number of times the Eagles lost fumbles compared to the number of carries stayed the same at 2.1 percent each season. At Navy, the Midshipmen decreased their fumbles lost from 25 to 12 in Johnson’s second season, and their percentage of carries that resulted in a lost fumble decreased from 3.8 percent to 1.7.
Georgia Tech’s percentage of fumbles lost per carry was 3.1 last season. In comparison, the ACC’s remaining 11 teams lost fumbles on 2.2 percent of their carries last season.
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Hmm, so we definitely have room for improvement. That is a would be a HUGE improvement if we could decrease those pesky turnovers.
 
Georgia Southern actually lost more fumbles in Johnson’s second season in Statesboro (19) than in his first (15). But the number of times the Eagles lost fumbles compared to the number of carries stayed the same at 2.1 percent each season.


There was really no change in familiarity with the offense that season for Southern. They never stopped running the offense he introduced as OC in the mid eighties and were still running it when he returned as head coach.
 
I think the fumbles/carries ratio is the more relevant number. If ours gets down to that level, we are all happy.

surferdave said:
Georgia Southern actually lost more fumbles in Johnson’s second season in Statesboro (19) than in his first (15). But the number of times the Eagles lost fumbles compared to the number of carries stayed the same at 2.1 percent each season.


There was really no change in familiarity with the offense that season for Southern. They never stopped running the offense he introduced as OC in the mid eighties and were still running it when he returned as head coach.
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If our yards/carry and TDs/carry goes up, we won't have to worry so much about fumbles/carry going down, because we'll be in the endzone before we fumble. :)
 
That GSU lost fumbles at the same rate per carry in year two but lost more total fumbles in year two either implies that they ran more in their 2nd season than their first (I thought we established that they passed more in CPJ's 2nd season) or that they ran a whole lot more plays.
 
00Burdell said:
That GSU lost fumbles at the same rate per carry in year two but lost more total fumbles in year two either implies that they ran more in their 2nd season than their first (I thought we established that they passed more in CPJ's 2nd season) or that they ran a whole lot more plays.
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Could be because GSU lost in the semifinals in Johnson's first year but went to the National Champ game in his second, so that's another game to have fumbles and carries.
 
beej67 said:
++

Personally, I'd like to see us run fewer plays for more yardage.
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In principle I agree but running more plays means keeping the other offense on the sideline and wearing out their defense.

I reviewed the much reviewed Roddy Jones' 4th qtr touchdown against the muttheads last year and noticed that the last guy to touch him didn't even raise his arms - just tried to shoulder him out of bounds. When Roddy kept going, they defender could barely even act like he was running after him - he was completely exhausted.

Imagine how that will work this year with our backfield depth. The other team is gasping for air and here comes Anthony Allen/Lucas Cox/ Daniel Drummond/ etc. etc. etc. going full speed.

If, after dominating time of possession for 3 quarters, we can put any O-Line blocking together at all to get our backs past the LoS, I pity the other team's linebackers and secondary.
 
Watch Roddy's run again. Big Nick Claytor hustles down and gets just enough of that last tackler to let Roddy squeeze past him. Hard to see but watch it several times.
 
I think total TO rate is a better measure. Yeah we fumble more than anyone, but how many picks do we throw compared to competition? Not many
 
GSU played 2 extra games CPJ's 2nd year at GSU cause they went to the NC game. They lost 6 fumbles in the Championship game. Only 13 in the other 14 games that season. Their fumbles lost per game and per carry was basically the same his first 2 years there and that includes that one terrible game. The GSU numbers show, I think, that they were better his 2nd year but also that they weren't that bad his first year. He definitely hit the ground running at GSU more than Navy (but that's obvious looking at records of 10-3 vs 2-10) so there wasn't as much room for improvement. I definitely feel we'll improve our giveaways this year. If we're able to get about the same number of takeaways, we'll end up with a nice turnover margin which will obviously lead to a nice record.

PS-This is easily the best blog post Doug has done. Finally something of substance with facts to back it up. I looked forever for that 19 fumbles lost stat from 1998.
 
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