D
Dcr36Wasn't planning on doing this for the remainder of the year (except maybe Hawaii, and our bowl opponent), but I've got a huge paper due on Thursday, a huge cleaning project, and the main story in college football right now is soul-crushingly depressing. I could use a distraction.
Offense -
The Vandals have really retooled their offensive philosophy in the last couple weeks, so rather than spit up a bunch of numbers I figured I'd offer a write-up of where they're at right now.
1. QBs - Starting QB will be Taylor Davis, per Moscow's newspaper. Brian Reader has been the starter, but lost the job when Davis won against SJSU.
Davis has essentially 1 1/2 games under his belt. His stats the only two games this season with significant playing time -
vs. Hawaii - 6/17, 33 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 39.83 PER ( -92.03 below opp.'s mean PER allowed)
vs. SJSU - 13/20, 162 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 139.54 PER (+2.65 above opp.'s mean PER allowed)
So you have one abysmal performance, and one satisfactory, albeit low-volume, performance. Note that the low volume is TRUE low volume - unlike Nelson, who alters the pass/rush split by scrambling and improvising, Davis is going to either throw the ball or hand it off. In his two games, he has significant negative rushing yardage (i.e. he got sacked). Idaho has run the option under him, but it looks like they favor the triple option and don't use Davis as a running threat. He has decent mobility though, and made some good-looking throws rolling out of the pocket.
2. Receivers - Watch for Mike Scott - Idaho relies a LOT on him. He has almost twice as many catches as the #2 receiver. His YPC is a decent 12.62. Aside from that, not a whole lot to worry about. TEs don't make up much of their passing game.
3. Play-calling - That low-volume passing game against SJSU is a recent development. On the season, Idaho's run/pass playcalling split has been:
278 rushes (46.2%) to 323 passes (53.8%)
I think that's deceptive, though. In the last two games, Idaho has run the ball 84 times times and thrown it only 44 times. Granted, you're bound to throw the ball less in winning efforts due to more manageable, short-yardage situations, but I have to believe that given their renewed focus on the run netted them a narrow loss against a better WAC team and their first BCS win on the year, they'll probably stick to running.
4. RBs - As far as their run game is concerned - Idaho averages 3.11 YPC, good for 113th in the FBS. They've yet to have a game this year where they've averaged over 4 YPC against the opponent. For reference, BYU (which has not been a consistently good rushing team this year) averages 4.14 on the season. Their best rushing performance was last week against SJSU, where they rushed the ball 46 times for 183 yards and 3 TDs. While this could be genuine improvement, it doesn't really scare me: SJSU's weakness against the run has already been witnessed by BYU fans.
Interesting fact - Idaho's 3.98 YPC against SJSU was their season best, while SJSU's 3.98 YPC allowed on defense was THEIR 3rd best!
Personnel-wise, Idaho switched up their feature back against SJSU as well. Princeton McCarty, who's been Idaho's workhorse this year, only received 11 touches against SJSU, while Kama Bailey was given 19. Bailey cashed in the opportunity for 163 yards and 2 TDs including a 70-yard TD run. Bailey is 5-9 and 195. I watched about 2/3 of the SJSU game, and it was hard to tell what kind of back Bailey is. He had gaping holes to run through. He showed good straight-ahead speed but came to a pretty screeching halt when he had to change direction.
5. Drive sustaining - A last note - Idaho stalls a LOT on offense. They lead the nation in total punts (73), averaging over 8 punts a game. Even against SJSU, they punted the ball away 6 times.
DEFENSE -
Total Defense - 406.4 YPG allowed (78th)
Pass Defense - 281.6 YPG allowed (110th), 134.93 PER yielded (81st)
Rush Defense - 124.9 YPG allowed (35th), 3.56 YPC allowed (35th)
Idaho's run defense is legit. Period. They've held Texas A & M and Virgina to respectably low rushing numbers. Hawaii is a bad rushing team, but a .71 YPC is nuts. In both YPG rushing and average YPC, they're comparable to (gulp) TCU. Fortunately, their pass defense is exploitable.
Idaho also holds opponents to a 31.11% conversion rate on 3rd downs - best for 11th in the nation. I would imagine that this is probably closely related to the aforementioned rush defense.
Aside from that, not a whole lot to mention. Red zone defense is pretty comparable to their overall defensive performance.
OTHER:
Idaho has turned the ball over 19 times this season, good for 91st. They have a -5 turnover margin - good for 96th (tied with BYU :~( ). Unlike BYU, however, they tend to turn the ball over several times each game, rather than turning the ball over constantly in one or two games.
Offense -
The Vandals have really retooled their offensive philosophy in the last couple weeks, so rather than spit up a bunch of numbers I figured I'd offer a write-up of where they're at right now.
1. QBs - Starting QB will be Taylor Davis, per Moscow's newspaper. Brian Reader has been the starter, but lost the job when Davis won against SJSU.
Davis has essentially 1 1/2 games under his belt. His stats the only two games this season with significant playing time -
vs. Hawaii - 6/17, 33 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 39.83 PER ( -92.03 below opp.'s mean PER allowed)
vs. SJSU - 13/20, 162 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 139.54 PER (+2.65 above opp.'s mean PER allowed)
So you have one abysmal performance, and one satisfactory, albeit low-volume, performance. Note that the low volume is TRUE low volume - unlike Nelson, who alters the pass/rush split by scrambling and improvising, Davis is going to either throw the ball or hand it off. In his two games, he has significant negative rushing yardage (i.e. he got sacked). Idaho has run the option under him, but it looks like they favor the triple option and don't use Davis as a running threat. He has decent mobility though, and made some good-looking throws rolling out of the pocket.
2. Receivers - Watch for Mike Scott - Idaho relies a LOT on him. He has almost twice as many catches as the #2 receiver. His YPC is a decent 12.62. Aside from that, not a whole lot to worry about. TEs don't make up much of their passing game.
3. Play-calling - That low-volume passing game against SJSU is a recent development. On the season, Idaho's run/pass playcalling split has been:
278 rushes (46.2%) to 323 passes (53.8%)
I think that's deceptive, though. In the last two games, Idaho has run the ball 84 times times and thrown it only 44 times. Granted, you're bound to throw the ball less in winning efforts due to more manageable, short-yardage situations, but I have to believe that given their renewed focus on the run netted them a narrow loss against a better WAC team and their first BCS win on the year, they'll probably stick to running.
4. RBs - As far as their run game is concerned - Idaho averages 3.11 YPC, good for 113th in the FBS. They've yet to have a game this year where they've averaged over 4 YPC against the opponent. For reference, BYU (which has not been a consistently good rushing team this year) averages 4.14 on the season. Their best rushing performance was last week against SJSU, where they rushed the ball 46 times for 183 yards and 3 TDs. While this could be genuine improvement, it doesn't really scare me: SJSU's weakness against the run has already been witnessed by BYU fans.
Interesting fact - Idaho's 3.98 YPC against SJSU was their season best, while SJSU's 3.98 YPC allowed on defense was THEIR 3rd best!
Personnel-wise, Idaho switched up their feature back against SJSU as well. Princeton McCarty, who's been Idaho's workhorse this year, only received 11 touches against SJSU, while Kama Bailey was given 19. Bailey cashed in the opportunity for 163 yards and 2 TDs including a 70-yard TD run. Bailey is 5-9 and 195. I watched about 2/3 of the SJSU game, and it was hard to tell what kind of back Bailey is. He had gaping holes to run through. He showed good straight-ahead speed but came to a pretty screeching halt when he had to change direction.
5. Drive sustaining - A last note - Idaho stalls a LOT on offense. They lead the nation in total punts (73), averaging over 8 punts a game. Even against SJSU, they punted the ball away 6 times.
DEFENSE -
Total Defense - 406.4 YPG allowed (78th)
Pass Defense - 281.6 YPG allowed (110th), 134.93 PER yielded (81st)
Rush Defense - 124.9 YPG allowed (35th), 3.56 YPC allowed (35th)
Idaho's run defense is legit. Period. They've held Texas A & M and Virgina to respectably low rushing numbers. Hawaii is a bad rushing team, but a .71 YPC is nuts. In both YPG rushing and average YPC, they're comparable to (gulp) TCU. Fortunately, their pass defense is exploitable.
Idaho also holds opponents to a 31.11% conversion rate on 3rd downs - best for 11th in the nation. I would imagine that this is probably closely related to the aforementioned rush defense.
Aside from that, not a whole lot to mention. Red zone defense is pretty comparable to their overall defensive performance.
OTHER:
Idaho has turned the ball over 19 times this season, good for 91st. They have a -5 turnover margin - good for 96th (tied with BYU :~( ). Unlike BYU, however, they tend to turn the ball over several times each game, rather than turning the ball over constantly in one or two games.