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ON NEW OFFENSIVE COORDINATORS, QUARTERBACKS, AND SCHEMES

Tennessee's struggles on offense this season are well-documented. To determine just how bad it is, have a quick look at the Vols' ranking in all of the NCAA's key offensive statistics:

RO
PO
TO
SO
PE
SA
TFLA
3DC
4DC
RZO
FDO
AVG
49
96
81
101
111
22
26
87
1
82
89
67.72727

Abbreviation key:

  • Rushing offense
  • Passing offense
  • Total offense
  • Scoring offense
  • Pass efficiency
  • Sacks allowed
  • Tackles for loss allowed
  • 3rd down conversion percentage
  • 4th down conversion percentage
  • Red zone offense
  • First down offense

Tennessee leads the nation in 4th down conversions (woo, and cue hooper bashing his head against a brick wall) and isn't actually horrible at allowing sacks or tackles for a loss, but other than that, it's fairly pitiful. Our average offensive ranking is 67.73. Passing offense, scoring offense, and pass efficiency is absolutely putrid.

This is the point in the article where we beat our chests and scream into the raining heavens, "WHY, THEN?! WHY, OH WHY?!"

There are most certainly many reasons for the current futility of our offensive unit, but I wanted to focus on three factors and then compare our stats to schools in similar situations. Those factors? New coordinators, new schemes, and new QBs. Unfortunately, the real-life obligations of the week have practically pounded me into a fetal position, and I haven't been able to gather all the data I wanted. I'm hoping y'all will help. Here's what I have so far:

Team
New OC
New QB
New Scheme
AVG OR
Alabama

Y

    34.09091
Arkansas
Y
    78.63636
Auburn
Y
Y
 Y 86.45455
Baylor
Y
    49.72727
California
Y
    45.90909
Duke
Y
    57.18182
Georgia
Y
    34.90909
Georgia Tech
Y
    60.27273
Kansas St.
Y
    22.81818
Maryland
Y
    65.72727
Michigan
Y
Y
 Y 88.36364
Mississippi
Y
    53
Nebraska
Y
    43
Northwestern
Y
    54.18182
Oklahoma St.
Y
    17.45455
South Carolina
Y
    68.18182
South Fla.
Y
    36
Syracuse
Y
    73
Tennessee
Y

Y

 Y 67.72727
Texas A&M
Y
    80.72727
UCLA
Y
Y
  88.18182
Washington St.
Y
    95.54545
West Virginia
Y
    57.27273

Those are the schools in BCS conferences that at least have new offensive coordinators this season. I obtained the coordinator info by reading Phil Steele's preseason blurbs on each team's coaches. I could have missed some, and some of that could be wrong. For instance, I couldn't really gather whether South Florida had a new OC this season, but it sortkinda sounded like they did. I filled in the new QB information column just from memory, but I didn't really want to guess, so I only completed it if I was pretty sure. Determining whether a team has a new QB this season shouldn't be difficult. Determining whether they have a new scheme is more problematic but might be the factor most correlating to a steep and long learning curve.

In any event, if any of you have time and the inclincation, see what you can find to fill in that chart above. I wonder what we can learn, if anything, once it's completed. Some discoveries may be quite painful, such as finding that former Vol Trooper Taylor is doing quite nicely at Oklahoma St., thank you very much, which may lead to wide-spread lamentations that we in fact should have hired the man. Or that Alabama's new OC is, um, rolling right along. But . . . we may find that the Cowboys' (and maybe the Tide's) only change on offense is the coordinator, and that they merely plugged a new OC into a mature system with an experienced QB. That's certainly quite different than bringing in a new guy with a new system and making the team adapt to a new scheme with a new QB under center.

Other discoveries may give some comfort, like finding that Tennessee is in pretty good company with the likes of South Carolina, Auburn, UCLA, and Michigan. I'm fairly certain that we'll find that with the exception of South Carolina (where Spurrier's son is almost certainly calling plays out of Spurrier's system), those schools are all struggling on offense primarily because they changed everything on offense . New OC, new QB, new scheme.

Anyway, let's see what we can find. All of the above teams' offensive statistical rankings in order of average rank is below the fold for anyone who's interested.

Rank
Team
RO
PO
TO
SO
PE
SA
TFLA
3DC
4DC
RZO
FDO
AVG
3
Oklahoma St.
1
53
4
3
4
8
26
8
73
9
3
17.45455
10
Kansas St.
74
12
23
8
11
1
8
10
32
52
20
22.81818
14
Alabama
17
101
57
19
42
30
12
14
1
31
51
34.09091
16
Georgia
54
25
30
29
30
60
37
27
32
13
47
34.90909
19
South Fla.
28
26
16
20
31
60
94
20
22
65
14
36
30
Nebraska
57
24
33
17
12
35
78
85
32
59
41
43
35
California
22
41
20
10
44
50
78
80
80
46
34
45.90909
45
Baylor
13
67
26
30
22
97
72
32
80
63
45
49.72727
51
Mississippi
45
60
49
49
49
19
12
57
80
75
88
53
52
Northwestern
64
61
67
72
86
7
37
44
73
23
62
54.18182
58
Duke
78
43
61
44
56
78
50
22
90
78
29
57.18182
59
West Virginia
12
111
67
83
38
15
50
46
48
89
71
57.27273
65
Georgia Tech
5
115
43
56
52
50
50
36
80
97
79
60.27273
69
Maryland
39
89
64
63
59
73
58
35
77
65
101
65.72727
73
Tennessee
49
96
81
101
111
22
26
87
1
82
89
67.72727
74
South Carolina
91
56
79
89
84
116
94
31
32
52
26
68.18182
85
Syracuse
55
108
109
90
82
46
4
115
77
1
116
73
96
Arkansas
109
29
74
96
74
119
116
76
42
59
71
78.63636
100
Texas A&M
101
87
107
88
35
109
112
15
42
93
99
80.72727
107
Auburn
56
97
90
97
99
46
108
112
48
105
93
86.45455
108
UCLA
106
95
114
109
108
78
31
104
13
101
111
88.18182
109
Michigan
82
104
110
93
109
15
112
114
22
99
112
88.36364
114
Washington St.
92
72
96
103
106
113
116
96
113
78
66
95.54545