Option Advanced Stats Report: A Breath of Fresh Air

Here at FTRS, we only bring you the most complex, hard-hitting analysis, so here it is: The stats were better against Bowling Green than they were against Clemson.

There’s a lot to go through this week, as we added new functionality to the tool. This week will feature the normal player and play breakdowns, but will also include stats by option read and left/right. None of the breakdowns showed any great revelations this week, as pretty much everything was working in the run game. For the player breakdown, however....

There is a new season highlight yards leader! It’s....the backup QB. Oliver had a unique garbage time stat line. A success rate of under 50%, but 92 highlight yards thanks to a couple of huge runs. Jerry Howard was the definition of consistency, gaining no more than 5 yards but having 5 of his 6 rushes go for exactly that many. I was hoping to see Howard do a bit more with the opportunities he was given in this game, but it was by no means a bad day at the office. Taquon Marshall is now 3rd on the highlight yards leaderboard, being surpassed by Oliver and Jordan Mason, who had a strong showing with nearly 8 highlight yards per opportunity. Marshall had a stronger success rate this game due to better decisions in the pitch game. After several instances where he made inadvisable keeps and got stuffed, he seems to have kicked that habit for the time being. Whether or not he can keep it up could be the story line of the season.

Not a ton to discuss here. Outside of one play, everything worked. The numbers on the Belly Option are a bit inflated due to Oliver’s big run off it, but the most encouraging sign was the Triple. It gets even more promising when broken down by read.

Improved reads played a huge role in this one. For the first time all season, every phase of the triple was working, and the reads were spread fairly evenly. Bowling Green did make a point to take away the dive, but the final tally was 2-3-3 D-K-P, with the Keep and pitch efficiency and explosiveness numbers being close. The counter option was a lot more successful on the pitch, but that tends to be the case due to how slowly it develops. The Belly Option keep stats are crazy, mostly due to Oliver’s garbage time success.

Now for the left/right breakdown:

The sample size is too small to draw meaningful conclusions. The right side had more highlight yards, but that was skewed by a couple of huge runs. The contrast between Triples to the left and right is stark, but still too small a sample size. It will be something to watch going forward, however. The Triple involves difficult second-level blocks for the OTs, and season success rates could be a big indicator of which OT is playing the best.

See y’all next week, hopefully with more good news.