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September 5, 2006
Goal #1: Establish the Run
Here's a thought for you. Unless you go to a pass happy school like Hawaii or Texas Tech, one of the goals of almost every coach in football is to establish the run. Some schools, like Navy, take this to the extreme. Navy finished their game Saturday with only 6 passing attempts for 6 yards. However, they ran the ball 70 times in their triple option attack totalling 403 yards. You could say that they accomplished Goal #1.
That being said, Monday night might have set the course of football game planning back about 150 years. Charlie Jones (pictured) was the leading rusher in the Miami - Florida State game, gaining 27 yards on the ground, including the only touchdown for the Hurricanes. However, based on the way that college football rushing statistics are calculated the box score for the game had the following totals:
Florida State: 1 yard on 25 attempts
Miami: 2 yards on 26 attempts
If you are slow at math, that is a grand total of three yards rushing for the game - not exactly what I would call blowing up the record books. For comparison, the other 115 Division 1-A schools that played this weekend averaged a little over 150 yards rushing. The twenty-nine Division 1-AA schools that played top division teams even averaged 71 yards on the ground, and 26 of those schools lost, most by double digit totals.
Granted, Florida State and Miami are supposed to have two of the top rushing defenses, and the weather was less than spectacular in Miami on Monday night. Miami was also missing their leading rusher from last season, Tyrone Moss, who was suspended for the contest.
Still, three total yards is far from something you would expect for two teams that both have National Title aspirations and are ranked in the Top 15 in the country. Things should improve with each team's next game. Florida State takes on Troy while Miami draws Division 1-AA Florida A&M.
Posted by bmiraski at September 5, 2006 12:30 PM
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