Letter from the Editor

The world of statistics is both fascinating and annoying. While they don’t always tell the whole story they certainly indicate trends. In football, you can really accumulate statistics in just about any category your want: rushing first downs, third down passing accuracy, or forced turnovers.

The NCAA has a total of 24 statistical categories that they update weekly for Division I-A, I-AA, II, and III. They range from Total Offense to Net Punting. The NAIA and Junior College offices do the same rankings for their respective schools. In all, statistics are available for roughly 860 colleges.

In this month’s issue we examine those numbers over a five-year period and match the statistics with the top ten year-ending teams in Division I-A. The statistics are then correlated to indicate which categories are the most important in becoming a top ten or championship team. While certain numbers jump off the screen, other statistics are just as meaningful. Three of the most important categories in producing a championship program are defensive statistics: scoring defense, rushing defense and total defense.

Only over the last two years has the category of ‘Yards Penalized’ been a statistic that has been added to the weekly numbers. Last fall Illinois was the least penalized team among D I-A schools while Florida State was the most penalized institution. Interestingly, coaches may conclude from the numbers in that category is that part of the reason for Florida State’s success is their aggressiveness. That may correspond to the number of penalties they’ve received.

We believe many of the other categories analyzed – pass defense, punt and kickoff returns, turnover margins and fumbles recovered, passes intercepted, passing efficiency and passing efficiency defense – all have relevance to the trends of consistently winning programs. Similarly, we feel the trends shown in statistical categories for I-A teams correspond to statistical trends at all collegiate and high school levels. The old axiom is true: defense does win championships no matter what the playing level.

We hope you enjoy the article and welcome any feedback you have relative to the conclusions of the feature. Along the same path, two other features in this month’s issue are on similar yet different subjects: football programs that have been turned around and the importance of practice management.

Two colleges-Southern Illinois and the Colorado School of Mines – and two high schools – Armwood in Seffner, FL and Byrnes in Duncan, SC – are featured with one common thread: all have experienced turnarounds in their respective programs. Each coach talks about how it happened. Similarly, two high school and college coaches explain their philosophy of practice management and how important attention to detail is at every practice.

Additionally, our July issue begins AFM’s exclusive first annual salary survey for college coaches at all levels. More than 800 questionnaires were distributed to coaches around the country. In this issue the results are included for head coaches, offensive and defensive coordinators, and special teams coaches. The next five issues will include the results of the salary survey for position coaches. Again, we hope you find the articles of interest and welcome your reaction.

As always, please let us know if we can be of assistance to you in any way at either 561-355-5068 or rlardner@lcclark.com.
Respectfully,

Rex Lardner
Managing Editor
American Football Monthly
rlardner@lcclark.com
(561-355-5068)