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First, the caveats, because even lawyers of the former variety can't help themselves: The numbers can't mean much at this point in the season. Some teams have played opponents like, oh say Austin-Peay. And some have played both Clemson and South Carolina. So relative numbers should all be viewed with eyebrows raised to the back of your neck. And even when we get closer to a full data set toward the end of the season, these are rankings, and the actual numbers resulting in those rankings mean more. But this is college football, and rankings matter, so we roll.
With that out of the way, here's the stuff after two games. Green means Top 30, red means Bottom 30, and yellow is the big, fat middle. First up is the Stuff UT is Doing Well:
Dropped out from 2012: Passing Offense, Fumbles Lost, Punt Returns, Red Zone Offense, Total Offense
New Arrivals in 2013: Deep breath . . . 3rd Down Conversion Pct, Fewest Penalties Per Game, Fewest Penalty Yards Per Game, Kickoff Returns (huh?), Passes Intercepted, Rushing Offense, Scoring Defense (yay!), Team Tackles for Loss, Total Defense (yay!), Turnover Margin, and Turnovers Gained. Unless I missed something else, which is entirely possible.
That's a whole lotta green where there didn't used to be green. The penalties thing held up after two games, which is cool, but we'll have to watch it. A couple more aggression-type penalties might not be so bad. Are they sort of like fouls in basketball? Anyway.
Give me three woos for Rushing Offense. And for any category relating to defense. Oregon, here we come! (I'm kidding. But now that I think about it, why do we have Oregon colors in our charts? Oh, it's because the Ducks are also like a stoplight, except without the red.
#OPPORTUNITY is no longer hidden
Yeah, we called this section #opportunityisnowhere last year. I think we'll retire that and just pretend it didn't happen, mmmkay?
But we do (and probably will) still have a couple of categories to watch down here in the cellar. Not sure why Net Punting is in the hundreds right now. Passing Offense may be because we haven't had or wanted to rely on it much yet, or it could be because of accuracy and arm strength issues. And new receivers. And . . . well, let's just keep an eye on it.
New Arrivals in 2013: Net Punting, Passing Offense
Climbed out: Fewest Penalties Per Game, Red Zone Defense, Scoring Defense, Total Defense, Turnovers Gained, Fumbles Recovered, Team Pass Sacks, Passing Yards Allowed, Time of Possession
THE BIG FAT MIDDLE
And here's the rest, for tracking purposes.
Players in the Top 30
