SEC Stats: The Fife Factor, Week Eleven
November 17th, 2009 11:24 PM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Those of you who’ve followed this site all year know that I like to bring you stats that you just don’t find anywhere else.
Like the one below.
Coaches often tell their teams that they can’t afford to beat themselves. Well I wanted to see which SEC squads did the best job of avoiding self-inflicted wounds, so I came up with what we at MrSEC.com call The Fife Factor.
Penalties, turnovers on offense, and sacks are all killers. They are the equivalent of Barney Fife shooting himself in the foot.
Therefore, to arrive at The Fife Factor for each team, we tally up all of a team’s penalties, giveaways and sacks allowed. We then calculate the total number of snaps run by a team on offense and defense. We take that number, divide it by the total miscues, and arrive at our Fife Factor.
Without further ado, below are the SEC’s teams ranked from best to worst according to their proclivity for screwing up.
The Fife Factor
| Rank |
School |
Off. Plays |
Def. Plays |
Penalties |
Giveaways |
Sacks Allowed |
Total Miscues |
Total Plays |
Miscues/Play |
| 1 |
Alabama |
674 |
618 |
54 |
10 |
9 |
73 |
1292 |
17.69 |
| 2 |
Tennessee |
677 |
656 |
50 |
16 |
11 |
77 |
1333 |
17.31 |
| 3 |
Vanderbilt |
735 |
771 |
52 |
15 |
22 |
89 |
1506 |
16.92 |
| 4 |
Kentucky |
688 |
654 |
56 |
17 |
12 |
85 |
1342 |
15.78 |
| 5 |
Auburn |
783 |
763 |
77 |
17 |
15 |
109 |
1546 |
14.18 |
| 6 |
Miss St |
680 |
660 |
58 |
26 |
14 |
98 |
1340 |
13.67 |
| 7 |
LSU |
595 |
694 |
60 |
8 |
27 |
95 |
1289 |
13.56 |
| 8 |
Ole Miss |
680 |
669 |
65 |
22 |
13 |
100 |
1349 |
13.49 |
| 9 |
Arkansas |
643 |
686 |
75 |
11 |
20 |
106 |
1329 |
12.53 |
| 10 |
Florida |
664 |
593 |
64 |
13 |
24 |
101 |
1257 |
12.44 |
| 11 |
SCarolina |
731 |
697 |
69 |
17 |
33 |
119 |
1428 |
12.00 |
| 12 |
Georgia |
593 |
654 |
79 |
22 |
11 |
112 |
1247 |
11.13 |
Observations:
* It’s no surprise that Alabama has been the most disciplined team in the conference this year. The Tide shoots itself in the foot (does a “Tide” have a foot?) just once every 17.69 plays.
* It IS a surprise that Florida ranks just 10th in the league in The Fife Factor. The Gators commit too many penalties and allow too many sacks for an undefeated football team. I suppose that shows just how athletically superior UF is to most teams. They can commit a miscue once every 12.44 plays and still win every game they play. But what will happen when a team that often hurts itself faces a team like Alabama — that doesn’t hurt itself — in the SEC title game?
* Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky are a combined 13-18, but those teams do not beat themselves. Coaches (and fans) always like to say “we just beat ourselves today,” but in the case of these teams, it’s not true. These are disciplined football teams. In all three cases, injuries have played a role in losses, but not a flurry of self-inflicted wounds.
* Teams that DO beat themselves? Georgia and South Carolina. The Bulldogs have committed more penalties than any team in the league and only Mississippi State has turned the ball over more often than the Dawgs. If you don’t have Tim Tebow and a suffocating defense, it’s hard to win that way. As for Carolina, a league-leading 33 sacks allowed have greatly slowed down Steve Spurrier’s offense.
