Diaco was good at ND. Van Gorder was not. I was going to post the top defensive stats by team so here it go (without any adjustment for strength of schedule and only going down to the average level, relative to national averages in all regular season games played between FBS teams only):
Rankings per Average Z-score across 4 defensive categories: passing, rushing, scoring, and total defense
Alabama 2.19
Michigan 2.09
Ohio State 1.95
Wisconsin 1.77
Florida 1.66 (DC left for HC job)
LSU 1.39 (DC just signed a lucrative extension)
Appalachian State 1.29 (Woody from the list above)
Clemson 1.26
Temple 1.21
Colorado 1.18
Louisville 1.14
Iowa 1.06
Washington 1.06
Auburn 1.04
San Diego State 1.02
Troy 0.96
Virginia Tech 0.89
Minnesota 0.88
Army 0.86
Miami (Florida) 0.81
Penn State 0.81
Ohio 0.81
Houston 0.81
Stanford 0.78
USC 0.73
Nebraska 0.66 (
)
Western Michigan 0.66
Boston College 0.64
Arkansas State 0.64
Indiana 0.63
UCLA 0.63
Georgia 0.63
Boise State 0.62
Miami (Ohio) 0.61
Western Kentucky 0.60
BYU 0.58
North Carolina State 0.56
Florida State 0.54
UCF 0.53
Northwestern 0.50
Wake Forest 0.44
Tulane 0.43
Georgia State 0.43
Air Force 0.40
West Virginia 0.37
TCU 0.37
Utah 0.32
South Carolina 0.28
Louisiana-Lafayette 0.24
Vanderbilt 0.24
Notre Dame 0.22
Washington State 0.20
Kent State 0.18
Cincinnati 0.12
Old Dominion 0.11
Michigan State 0.09
Utah State 0.09
North Carolina 0.07
Kansas State 0.06
South Alabama 0.05
UTSA 0.04
Toledo 0.01
Since I've been concerned about our Nebraska teams not forcing many fumbles, such that it's practically a statistical anomaly over the past several seasons, I thought it'd be interesting to look at the rankings for those also:
National Leaders in Fumbles Gained/Game (per the same rationale already shared (except just for this category obviously))
Minnesota 2.63
Wake Forest 2.29
Memphis 1.94
Tulane 1.94
Boston College 1.59
North Carolina State 1.59
Oregon State 1.59
Tennessee 1.59
Texas A&M 1.59
Vanderbilt 1.59
Colorado 1.25
Eastern Michigan 1.25
Kent State 1.25
Massachusetts 1.25
North Carolina 1.25
Temple 1.25
Tulsa 1.25
Washington 1.25
Penn State 0.93
BYU 0.90
Houston 0.90
Illinois 0.90
Kansas 0.90
Miami (Florida) 0.90
Ohio 0.90
South Carolina 0.90
Utah 0.90
UTSA 0.90
Washington State 0.90
Baylor 0.87
West Virginia 0.87
Louisville 0.61
Texas 0.61
Georgia 0.55
Iowa 0.55
Marshall 0.55
Nevada 0.55
New Mexico State 0.55
Old Dominion 0.55
Syracuse 0.55
UNLV 0.55
Western Michigan 0.55
Arkansas State 0.49
Georgia Southern 0.49
Idaho 0.49
Texas State 0.49
Alabama 0.21
Arizona State 0.21
Arkansas 0.21
Bowling Green 0.21
Buffalo 0.21
Duke 0.21
Florida 0.21
Kentucky 0.21
Middle Tennessee 0.21
Mississippi State 0.21
Northwestern 0.21
Oklahoma 0.21
Pittsburgh 0.21
SMU 0.21
UCF 0.21
Virginia 0.21
Wyoming 0.21
Kansas State 0.10
Louisiana-Monroe 0.10
LSU 0.10
It's too bad Minnesota's recent HC made an a$$ of himself to some extent because we could do a lot worse...since he's tops if I just average these two numbers together, by program (not that I'm advocating a hire be made based on just numbers, even if you also considered the recruiting numbers for a particular candidate):
Rankings with inordinate weight given to forcing fumbles in one season
Minnesota 1.70
Wake Forest 1.35 (just went to ND)
Temple 1.22 (just went to Baylor)
Tulane 1.17 (has one year under his belt after being at Ga. Southern)
Colorado 1.17 (left for Oregon)
Alabama 1.13 (has spent just one year at 'Bama)
Boston College 1.13 (another short-timer who was at Iowa previously)
Washington 1.10 (has a co-DC working with him)
North Carolina State 1.06
Vanderbilt 0.92 (also the HC there)
Florida 0.91 (took Temple's HC job)
Memphis 0.84 (one season there after leaving Arizona State job)
Louisville 0.82 (just left for Mississippi State)
Ohio 0.82 (been here before with Frank)
Penn State 0.81 (promoted to DC and assistant HC a year ago)
Houston 0.81 (sticking with Herman)
Miami (Florida) 0.80 (been doing this job just a season)
Iowa 0.78
BYU 0.76
Texas A&M 0.74
LSU 0.72
Kent State 0.70
Western Michigan 0.65
Oregon State 0.65
North Carolina 0.63
Utah 0.62
Georgia 0.62
Ohio State 0.59
West Virginia 0.57
South Carolina 0.57
Washington State 0.57
Arkansas State 0.55
Tennessee 0.52
Tulsa 0.51
Michigan 0.51
UTSA 0.48
Eastern Michigan 0.41
Virginia Tech 0.35
Old Dominion 0.34
Northwestern 0.30
UCF 0.29
Troy 0.29
Auburn 0.24
Wisconsin 0.23
Massachusetts 0.22
UCLA 0.22
Illinois 0.22
Georgia Southern 0.19
Baylor 0.18
Clemson 0.17
Texas 0.16
Idaho 0.10
Kansas State 0.10
Indiana 0.09
Miami (Ohio) 0.05
South Alabama 0.04
Army 0.03
Oklahoma 0.03
Nevada 0.03
USC 0.02
Georgia State 0.00
