Chick-fil-A Bowl preview: statistical comparison

See also:

• Virginia Tech's schedule and animated drive charts
• Virginia Tech's unit rankings

Here's how the two teams stack up against each other in each of the key statistical categories in Hooper's wizbang BlogPoll Computerer. The top row for each team is the actual data; the bottom the national rankings.

	WL	SOS	PED	RD	3DO	TD	PEO	OPPG	TO	3DD	RTT RANK
	0.25	0.91	1.576	0.13	0.04	1.03	0.38	0.66	0.3	0.87	53.61
	46	27	8	58	58	18	40	26	48	24	29
	0.97	1.22	1.79	0.24	0.34	1.19	1.25	1.46	0.18	0.72	99.56
	15	17	6	52	43	14	13	11	55	27	10

Hmm. I don't really like the looks of that, do you? Looking at the bright side, though, the numbers are mostly very close, even if Tech does have the advantage in most categories.

Pitting the respective units against each other:

		Delta
SOS	27	-10	17	SOS
TD	18	37	55	TO
TO	48	-34	14	TD
PED	8	5	13	PEO
3DD	24	19	43	3DO
PEO	58	-52	6	PED
3DO	58	-31	27	3DD

So both teams have an advantage on defense, but which defense has more of an advantage? If you look at total defense, Tennessee's ranking outpaces Virginia Tech's total offense by a mere three spots more than vice versa. When it comes to pass efficiency and third downs, though, the differences in the rankings are much more pronounced in favor of the Hokies.

Next up in the preview series: Hokie players to watch for.