UCF 2017 defensive stats from conference games

[beorach]

I read a post in which our recent defensive woes were referenced as if they were what we should have been expecting because the Golden Knights' defense was poor last season.  I still had spreadsheets with data from JUST the games they played against other American Athletic Conference opponents (unless they were Conference USA or something and I'm confused).

 

To come up with the percentiles I'll share below, I took only stats from conference games played by all FBS teams in conferences (such that some FBS teams, like Notre Dame, were left out) through November 13th of last year.

 

Pass D

 

completions per game: 40

percentage: 88

yards per attempt: 76

touchdowns per game: 54

rating: 82

yards per game: 42

 

 

Rush D

 

yards per game: 51

touchdowns per game: 77

yards per carry: 43

 

 

Scoring D

 

touchdowns per game: 72

points per game: 80

 

 

Total D

 

yards per play: 61

yards per game: 45

plays per game: 21

 

 

Turnover Margin

 

fumbles gained per game: 56

interceptions gained per game: 86

turnovers gained per game: 83

turnover margin per game: 85

 

 

Now, just because I didn't think it was fair to qualify their performance as bad doesn't mean there are no parallels to be drawn.  That the defense faced an inordinate amount of plays per game says something in light of our third down troubles perhaps, to state the most obvious example.  p.s. - I know we discussed the UCF defense at length last year around the time of the coaching search so anyone really interested could find that thread.