Varsity Numbers: Ode to the Big Uglies

October 24, 2013, 5:48 pm ET

Photo: USA Today Sports Images

by Bill Connelly One of my favorite features for Football Outsiders, before I became a Football Outsider, was the presence of line stats, the attempt to assign credit to the nameless, faceless folks up front. But while I've used line yards and sack rates for quite a while, Aaron Schatz goes further than that at the pro level. This offseason, I began to do the same, incorporating some of the NFL stats -- stuff rate, power success rate, etc. -- in my 2013 season preview series at SB Nation. A little more than halfway through the college football season, then, we should check back in on line stats. Once I have a full format I like, I might try to get line stats pages created for both offense and defense, but we'll say this is still in experimental mode. Below, you'll find the following line stats for each team in the country (in alphabetical order because there's no overall ranking by which to order them):

Line Yards: line yards per carry. This is not adjusted for opponent -- I figured it might make more sense to have all the numbers either adjusted or unadjusted in this regard. (I will provide adjusted numbers later on.) Garbage time is filtered out.
RB Block Success Rate: This is something I've created for tracking. It will be tweaked in the future, I'm sure. The idea here is simple: If line yards offer 100 percent credit to the offensive line for yards gained up to five yards, what percentage of a teams runs then reach five yards? The use of "success rate" here might be confusing (I'll search for a better name) but we'll use this for now. This is the percentage of runs by a running back that go at least five yards. There is a known glitch here -- it doesn't change runs that happen inside the opponent's 5-yard line. This is a small percentage of overall carries, so it won't impact the numbers greatly (though it's still something I'll change for more official use in the future).
Power Success Rate: As defined on the pro OL page, "Percentage of runs on third or fourth down, two yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown. Also includes runs on first-and-goal or second-and-goal from the two-yard line or closer. This is the only statistic on this page that includes quarterbacks."
Stuffed: Again, as defined on the pro OL page, "Percentage of runs where the running back is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage. Since being stuffed is bad, teams are ranked from stuffed least often (#1) to most often" (#125).
Sack Rate: Percentage of pass (passes + sacks) that resulted in a sack. Again, garbage time is filtered out. And as with line yards, these numbers are unadjusted for opponent.
Standard Downs Sack Rate: Sack rate on standard downs only. (Garbage time is filtered out.)
Passing Downs Sack Rate: Sack rate on passing downs only. (Garbage time is filtered out.)

Team	Line Yards	Rk	RB Block Success Rate	Rk	Power Success Rate	Rk	Stuffed	Rk	Sack Rate	Rk	Std. Downs Sack Rate	Rk	Pass. Downs Sack Rate	Rk
Air Force	3.36	28	45.4%	18	74.3%	42	15.2%	22	5.9%	70	2.2%	16	10.0%	101
Akron	2.71	106	33.0%	96	67.7%	71	20.8%	90	3.6%	31	3.2%	35	4.1%	37
Alabama	3.43	17	47.3%	9	75.0%	35	15.4%	23	3.1%	18	3.0%	31	3.3%	26
Arizona	3.51	11	42.5%	35	81.8%	11	11.4%	3	5.6%	67	3.9%	56	7.5%	79
Arizona State	2.88	85	42.1%	36	64.1%	81	17.1%	40	4.4%	46	4.9%	82	3.7%	30
Arkansas	3.21	43	41.8%	37	84.2%	7	16.8%	36	3.0%	17	5.4%	89	1.1%	3
Arkansas State	3.08	53	43.4%	29	70.0%	58	21.0%	92	8.5%	108	4.0%	63	13.3%	118
Army	3.50	12	49.4%	3	78.9%	21	12.2%	4	6.3%	77	2.6%	19	11.5%	109
Auburn	3.68	7	47.2%	10	78.6%	24	13.5%	8	4.6%	50	4.8%	74	4.4%	41
Ball State	2.89	82	33.6%	94	50.0%	117	21.9%	101	2.0%	8	1.7%	7	2.6%	19
Baylor	3.37	27	46.0%	14	69.2%	62	14.1%	14	2.3%	11	1.9%	10	3.0%	23
Boise State	3.48	14	37.3%	70	78.1%	25	18.6%	62	5.5%	66	4.6%	70	6.9%	70
Boston College	2.87	87	36.1%	76	55.6%	106	21.4%	98	8.0%	106	3.2%	35	12.0%	112
Bowling Green	3.43	18	43.9%	24	62.5%	84	18.1%	53	7.1%	96	6.8%	105	7.5%	77
Buffalo	2.64	112	33.0%	97	56.8%	105	23.9%	116	3.4%	25	5.4%	88	1.2%	6
BYU	3.39	24	31.7%	106	90.5%	4	17.4%	42	8.8%	111	9.4%	118	8.2%	85
California	2.38	123	34.6%	84	46.4%	122	22.8%	107	6.8%	91	3.0%	29	11.5%	109
Central Florida	2.88	86	37.9%	65	75.0%	35	20.6%	86	4.1%	39	6.4%	99	1.3%	9
Central Michigan	3.00	66	32.8%	98	52.2%	113	21.1%	94	8.3%	107	2.7%	21	13.2%	117
Cincinnati	3.01	59	38.3%	62	64.7%	78	18.0%	50	2.1%	9	2.8%	23	1.2%	5
Clemson	3.01	63	36.7%	72	75.7%	34	19.8%	74	4.7%	53	5.5%	90	3.5%	28
Colorado	2.83	92	33.7%	93	58.8%	99	20.4%	84	5.3%	64	4.8%	74	6.0%	62
Colorado State	3.16	47	41.1%	40	73.1%	48	18.4%	58	2.3%	12	3.1%	34	1.2%	6
Connecticut	2.49	121	34.6%	87	60.0%	91	25.0%	121	11.1%	120	4.5%	68	18.8%	125
Duke	3.26	39	44.9%	21	79.3%	19	16.7%	35	3.9%	37	4.0%	59	3.8%	33
Team	Line Yards	Rk	RB Block Success Rate	Rk	Power Success Rate	Rk	Stuffed	Rk	Sack Rate	Rk	Std. Downs Sack Rate	Rk	Pass. Downs Sack Rate	Rk
East Carolina	2.71	107	32.0%	104	55.2%	110	24.8%	119	6.7%	87	6.1%	95	7.6%	80
Eastern Michigan	2.95	73	35.6%	80	71.4%	54	18.9%	64	9.3%	114	4.8%	74	13.6%	120
Florida	2.88	84	35.7%	78	72.0%	51	20.8%	90	9.2%	112	7.8%	112	10.3%	104
Florida Atlantic	2.90	77	28.3%	120	68.2%	66	15.8%	30	6.8%	92	4.0%	60	10.0%	101
Florida International	2.30	124	26.4%	124	54.5%	111	28.2%	125	11.2%	121	10.3%	120	12.1%	113
Florida State	3.36	31	47.1%	11	73.7%	47	19.9%	75	6.7%	89	5.1%	85	9.1%	93
Fresno State	2.90	78	37.8%	68	52.5%	112	17.0%	37	1.2%	1	0.6%	2	2.2%	15
Georgia	2.89	81	38.9%	58	69.6%	61	21.0%	92	3.9%	34	3.0%	29	5.0%	49
Georgia State	2.79	97	22.4%	125	70.0%	58	20.1%	78	6.2%	76	8.0%	113	4.4%	42
Georgia Tech	3.31	36	48.2%	7	70.0%	58	14.6%	20	7.8%	102	8.7%	117	7.0%	73
Hawaii	2.61	113	27.1%	122	90.0%	5	19.9%	75	9.8%	116	6.1%	96	13.5%	119
Houston	2.93	75	48.5%	4	55.6%	106	23.5%	112	3.4%	24	2.1%	12	5.2%	51
Idaho	3.00	64	33.3%	95	51.5%	116	20.7%	88	12.4%	123	15.4%	124	8.2%	86
Illinois	3.01	61	38.5%	60	79.2%	20	19.0%	66	8.5%	109	5.0%	84	14.1%	121
Indiana	3.01	62	36.7%	73	63.3%	83	21.7%	100	3.8%	33	2.9%	26	5.3%	54
Iowa	3.33	34	39.9%	48	73.9%	46	13.2%	6	2.4%	13	2.8%	24	2.0%	14
Iowa State	3.00	65	29.3%	117	60.0%	91	16.5%	33	9.4%	115	6.6%	104	12.5%	114
Kansas	2.83	91	40.0%	47	47.4%	120	23.6%	114	9.2%	112	6.4%	100	11.5%	108
Kansas State	3.21	42	43.2%	33	69.2%	62	20.2%	81	7.8%	103	3.7%	47	12.5%	114
Kent State	2.97	68	29.1%	118	64.5%	79	17.0%	37	5.1%	59	6.5%	103	3.6%	29
Kentucky	3.34	33	48.3%	5	65.0%	77	18.0%	50	5.4%	65	3.8%	51	8.0%	83
Louisiana Tech	2.97	70	41.5%	39	64.3%	80	24.3%	118	7.2%	99	3.0%	27	11.6%	111
Louisville	3.40	23	43.6%	28	81.0%	13	17.0%	37	3.5%	27	3.0%	28	4.2%	38
LSU	3.01	60	43.3%	30	76.9%	28	17.8%	45	6.5%	81	7.1%	107	5.8%	59
Marshall	2.96	71	34.9%	82	81.0%	13	18.4%	58	6.7%	90	5.1%	87	8.8%	90
Team	Line Yards	Rk	RB Block Success Rate	Rk	Power Success Rate	Rk	Stuffed	Rk	Sack Rate	Rk	Std. Downs Sack Rate	Rk	Pass. Downs Sack Rate	Rk
Maryland	2.73	104	37.8%	66	52.2%	113	27.6%	124	6.0%	71	3.4%	42	8.9%	91
Massachusetts	2.51	120	30.9%	109	78.9%	21	23.9%	116	3.3%	21	1.1%	4	5.5%	55
Memphis	2.94	74	39.2%	56	50.0%	117	18.0%	50	7.0%	95	4.6%	73	9.9%	100
Miami	3.40	21	45.4%	17	57.7%	102	20.3%	82	2.1%	10	2.5%	18	1.6%	12
Miami (Ohio)	2.53	117	22.2%	126	57.9%	101	21.1%	94	12.0%	122	11.0%	121	13.2%	116
Michigan	2.58	115	30.0%	114	61.8%	89	28.5%	126	6.0%	73	3.8%	51	7.6%	81
Michigan State	3.10	52	41.7%	38	70.4%	57	18.2%	56	1.8%	6	2.7%	22	0.9%	2
Middle Tennessee	2.98	67	34.3%	91	68.0%	68	20.5%	85	5.1%	59	5.8%	93	4.5%	44
Minnesota	3.14	48	32.6%	100	75.9%	31	16.6%	34	10.7%	119	14.6%	123	8.1%	84
Mississippi State	3.17	46	35.2%	81	82.4%	10	18.2%	56	3.9%	36	4.3%	66	3.4%	27
Missouri	3.74	5	43.6%	27	76.2%	29	12.5%	5	6.3%	79	2.0%	11	14.3%	122
N.C. State	3.11	50	30.1%	113	50.0%	117	19.2%	69	7.6%	100	8.4%	116	6.6%	65
Navy	3.71	6	48.1%	8	72.9%	49	9.5%	1	16.2%	126	15.4%	124	17.1%	124
Nebraska	3.35	32	46.7%	13	75.0%	35	14.8%	21	1.5%	4	0.0%	1	2.9%	21
Nevada	2.96	72	31.7%	106	71.9%	52	18.4%	58	5.3%	63	6.4%	102	4.0%	34
New Mexico	3.49	13	39.8%	49	84.8%	6	15.7%	27	12.6%	124	6.3%	97	19.2%	126
New Mexico State	2.82	93	29.7%	116	47.1%	121	22.8%	107	6.5%	80	4.4%	67	9.2%	95
North Carolina	2.65	111	36.2%	75	55.6%	106	20.6%	86	4.2%	41	4.3%	65	4.1%	36
North Texas	2.65	110	32.6%	101	67.9%	69	21.9%	101	3.2%	19	3.4%	44	2.9%	22
Northern Illinois	3.78	4	45.8%	15	68.8%	65	14.2%	15	1.4%	2	2.2%	14	0.0%	1
Northwestern	3.29	37	39.1%	57	60.0%	91	18.5%	61	8.7%	110	4.6%	72	14.8%	123
Notre Dame	2.78	100	41.0%	41	62.5%	84	19.7%	72	2.6%	15	2.2%	13	3.2%	25
Ohio	2.75	102	34.9%	83	65.2%	75	17.9%	46	3.2%	20	3.3%	40	3.1%	24
Ohio State	3.68	8	53.9%	1	79.4%	18	13.5%	8	4.6%	49	3.3%	37	7.7%	82
Oklahoma	3.37	26	40.5%	44	61.9%	88	17.9%	46	4.7%	52	3.9%	54	5.6%	56
Team	Line Yards	Rk	RB Block Success Rate	Rk	Power Success Rate	Rk	Stuffed	Rk	Sack Rate	Rk	Std. Downs Sack Rate	Rk	Pass. Downs Sack Rate	Rk
Oklahoma State	2.85	90	30.0%	114	65.4%	73	23.5%	112	1.9%	7	2.5%	17	1.1%	4
Old Dominion	3.46	16	34.5%	89	100.0%	1	13.7%	11	4.8%	55	4.0%	60	6.0%	63
Ole Miss	3.40	20	43.7%	26	75.9%	31	15.7%	27	6.0%	72	2.2%	15	9.9%	98
Oregon	4.17	1	48.3%	6	74.1%	43	13.4%	7	5.0%	57	3.9%	57	6.9%	70
Oregon State	2.17	126	31.9%	105	81.0%	13	26.9%	123	2.6%	14	3.5%	45	1.5%	10
Penn State	2.70	108	37.7%	69	66.7%	72	18.1%	53	6.6%	86	8.4%	115	4.6%	48
Pittsburgh	3.17	45	43.2%	32	62.5%	84	17.9%	46	12.8%	125	17.1%	126	9.1%	93
Purdue	2.52	119	32.3%	102	45.0%	123	23.0%	109	6.7%	88	7.1%	108	6.3%	64
Rice	3.27	38	44.1%	23	71.4%	54	17.6%	43	7.1%	97	4.0%	58	10.5%	105
Rutgers	2.81	96	37.0%	71	68.2%	66	18.1%	53	10.6%	118	13.4%	122	7.4%	76
San Diego State	2.78	99	34.5%	90	91.3%	3	19.7%	72	7.8%	104	8.2%	114	7.5%	77
San Jose State	2.72	105	32.1%	103	60.9%	90	19.6%	70	4.6%	51	4.6%	71	4.6%	47
SMU	2.90	79	31.3%	108	75.0%	35	20.7%	88	7.7%	101	5.7%	92	11.2%	107
South Alabama	2.90	79	38.9%	59	31.2%	125	21.1%	94	5.8%	69	7.2%	109	4.2%	38
South Carolina	3.36	30	44.8%	22	74.4%	41	16.2%	31	7.2%	98	5.9%	94	8.6%	88
South Florida	2.53	118	30.2%	111	28.6%	126	17.9%	46	10.2%	117	10.2%	119	10.3%	103
Southern Miss	2.60	114	30.1%	112	58.3%	100	24.8%	119	4.1%	38	3.8%	49	4.4%	43
Stanford	3.36	29	39.5%	53	75.8%	33	13.7%	11	3.9%	35	3.4%	42	4.6%	45
Syracuse	2.92	76	34.0%	92	77.8%	26	17.2%	41	5.0%	58	2.6%	19	7.2%	75
TCU	3.13	49	39.6%	52	60.0%	91	20.1%	78	6.6%	85	7.8%	111	5.2%	52
Temple	3.32	35	40.4%	45	71.4%	54	19.0%	66	6.0%	74	3.9%	53	8.4%	87
Tennessee	3.40	19	45.3%	19	78.9%	21	14.5%	17	3.5%	26	3.3%	39	3.7%	30
Texas	3.17	44	40.1%	46	59.3%	97	16.3%	32	4.4%	47	4.8%	74	4.0%	34
Texas A&M	3.78	3	45.1%	20	71.9%	52	15.5%	26	3.3%	21	1.8%	9	6.9%	69
Texas State	2.86	88	42.9%	34	57.1%	104	23.2%	110	3.3%	21	4.9%	83	1.5%	10
Team	Line Yards	Rk	RB Block Success Rate	Rk	Power Success Rate	Rk	Stuffed	Rk	Sack Rate	Rk	Std. Downs Sack Rate	Rk	Pass. Downs Sack Rate	Rk
Texas Tech	3.04	57	35.7%	78	59.3%	97	19.6%	70	3.0%	16	1.0%	3	5.9%	60
Toledo	3.87	2	45.5%	16	75.0%	35	13.5%	8	1.4%	3	1.6%	6	1.2%	8
Troy	3.04	56	39.8%	50	76.0%	30	18.7%	63	4.3%	43	3.7%	48	5.2%	53
Tulane	2.78	98	35.9%	77	77.3%	27	21.6%	99	7.9%	105	4.8%	80	11.1%	106
Tulsa	2.73	103	30.2%	110	60.0%	91	18.9%	64	1.7%	5	1.2%	5	2.2%	16
UAB	2.85	89	39.3%	55	38.5%	124	20.3%	82	6.1%	75	6.4%	100	5.8%	58
UCLA	3.06	55	40.6%	43	57.7%	102	17.6%	43	6.3%	78	6.9%	106	5.7%	57
UL-Lafayette	3.40	22	43.9%	25	74.1%	43	14.2%	15	6.9%	94	4.8%	74	9.4%	97
UL-Monroe	2.77	101	28.9%	119	92.9%	2	20.0%	77	3.5%	27	4.8%	81	1.9%	13
UNLV	2.81	95	32.7%	99	67.9%	69	21.1%	94	4.4%	44	1.7%	8	7.1%	74
USC	3.02	58	40.7%	42	69.2%	62	19.1%	68	6.6%	83	7.2%	110	5.9%	60
Utah	2.89	83	34.5%	88	55.6%	106	22.7%	106	5.2%	62	3.5%	46	6.8%	67
Utah State	3.07	54	38.4%	61	63.6%	82	22.6%	105	4.2%	40	3.8%	50	4.6%	46
UTEP	3.39	25	38.3%	63	81.0%	13	14.0%	13	6.5%	82	4.3%	64	9.3%	96
UTSA	2.97	69	34.6%	85	72.4%	50	23.3%	111	3.6%	30	4.8%	74	2.2%	16
Vanderbilt	3.23	40	37.8%	67	83.9%	9	10.8%	2	6.6%	83	4.5%	68	9.9%	99
Virginia	2.67	109	36.4%	74	74.1%	43	20.1%	78	4.9%	56	5.5%	91	4.2%	38
Virginia Tech	2.27	125	26.8%	123	52.2%	113	25.3%	122	5.1%	61	3.0%	31	6.8%	67
Wake Forest	2.46	122	28.0%	121	62.5%	84	23.8%	115	5.6%	68	3.3%	37	8.7%	89
Washington	3.22	41	39.5%	54	84.0%	8	15.4%	23	6.9%	93	5.1%	86	9.0%	92
Washington State	3.10	51	43.2%	31	75.0%	35	15.4%	23	3.8%	32	3.9%	54	3.7%	32
West Virginia	2.58	116	34.6%	85	65.2%	75	22.3%	103	3.5%	29	4.0%	62	2.9%	20
Western Kentucky	3.52	10	46.8%	12	65.4%	73	15.7%	27	4.8%	54	6.3%	98	2.4%	18
Western Michigan	2.82	94	38.1%	64	60.0%	91	22.5%	104	4.2%	42	3.3%	40	5.1%	50
Wisconsin	3.59	9	51.3%	2	81.5%	12	14.5%	17	4.4%	45	3.0%	31	6.7%	66
Wyoming	3.47	15	39.7%	51	80.0%	17	14.5%	17	4.6%	48	2.8%	25	7.0%	72

Teams in the top 30 of every run category: Army, Auburn, Missouri, Ohio State, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

Teams in the top 20 of both standard and passing downs sack rates: Ball State, Fresno State, Miami, Northern Illinois, Oklahoma State, Toledo, Tulsa. Teams in the top 25 of both Line Yards and Sack Rate: Alabama, Miami, Northern Illinois, Texas A&M, Toledo. Teams in the bottom 30 of every run category: Buffalo, East Carolina, Florida International, Purdue, Southern Miss, Virginia Tech. Teams in the bottom 20 of both standard and passing downs sack rates: Florida International, Miami (Ohio), Navy. Teams in the bottom 25 of both Line Yards and Sack Rate: Connecticut, Florida International, Hawaii, Miami (Ohio), South Florida Obviously there's noise here -- a really good running back can make the running stats look good, a quick passing game can keep the sack rates down (at least on standard downs), and a pocket statue (or a mobile quarterback who trusts his mobility too much) can inflate sack rates in the wrong direction -- but this certainly gives us a pretty good idea of who has had the most successful lines to date. (And, in Florida International's case, who has had the least successful.) Food for thought.