Tuesday Play Count Tracking: Time Is Down, Plays Are Up & Down, Here We Go

Teams are adjusting to the new rules but this is going to be an interesting experiment

So, let’s start with last week:

Now, here are the changes:

All times are down, including down 10 minutes for both Miami and New Mexico, in terms of 2023 averages. Yet, with the exception of Michigan and Western Kentucky, all plays are up.

So, let’s look at the games that we had:

Army got out the gate and won by 8 over UTSA 37-29

LSU started slow and then let it go against Mississippi State 41-7

Miami took care of business against Bethune Cookman 48-7

Michigan manhandled Bowling Green State 31-6

New Mexico lost by 10 to rivals New Mexico State 27-17

Texas Tech beat up on Tarleton State 41-3

Western Kentucky lost to Ohio State 63-10

Realistically we’re looking at 3 games of “quality” with relatively evenly matched opponents. Army-UTSA lived to billing and came in tight 195 but the Knights also ran way more plays than usual. Weird but also speaks to UTSA only running 49 plays. New Mexico and New Mexico State is in a similar boat with the Aggies only running 45 plays, but they got the win.

LSU in Starkville is interesting because it was 10-0 through the first and then LSU really started to assert themselves. 41-7 is the end result. 50 plays for the Bulldogs, not far off from the 49 and 45 from UTSA and NMSU respectively.

Which did make me start thinking about 3rd Down Conversions. LSU held Mississippi State to 3-13 (23%) Army held UTSA to 4-10 (40%) and New Mexico held New Mexico State to 2-7 (29%). Not a ton of correlation, yet.

But I guess I am going to have to start looking at Opponent 3rd Down Conversions in relation to Plays Per Game because the three teams who are up in Average PPG have to have a reason.

Also, Michigan with 44 plays feels absolutely insane. Thanks for taking this ride with me, I don’t know what we’re learning. Plays are mostly up compared to a year ago, time is down, but I think meaningful games, conference games are going to be the real determinant and we are so close to everyone entering conference play.

Cheers!!