Those of you who’ve been reading MrSEC.com for the past few years know that we like to take a look at stats and numbers on occasion. Two of our favorite statistics — because they’re usually good indicators of success — are Scoring Efficiency and Defensive Efficiency (which we’ll look at a little later today).
Scoring Efficiency is a measure of a team’s ability to convert yards into points. It’s a total rating, too. The effectiveness of a squad’s special teams and defensive units factor in by providing short fields for an offense. Ditto the ability to create turnovers. And then, of course, there’s the actual ability of a team’s offense to put up points quickly.
The best teams tend to put up the most points while covering the least amount of yards. The worst teams in Scoring Efficiency put up yard after yard after yard without scoring points.
Now that 11 of the 12 SEC schools have played at least three conference games — Arkansas has just played two — we felt it was a good time to start digging into the Scoring Efficiency numbers for 2011. Below are the current numbers for each team in the league taking into account only SEC results:
| Rank | School (Conf. Record) | Total Offensive Yards | Total Points Scored | Yards/Point |
| 1 | Alabama (4-0) | 1797 | 162 | 11.09 |
| 2 | LSU (4-0) | 1545 | 133 | 11.61 |
| 3 | Arkansas (1-1) | 664 | 52 | 12.76 |
| 4 | S. Carolina (4-1) | 1979 | 147 | 13.46 |
| 5 | Florida (2-3) | 1496 | 108 | 13.85 |
| 6 | Georgia (4-1) | 2035 | 146 | 13.93 |
| 7 | Auburn (3-1) | 1412 | 88 | 16.04 |
| 8 | Vanderbilt (1-3) | 1003 | 61 | 16.44 |
| 9 | Tennessee (0-3) | 788 | 42 | 18.76 |
| 10 | Miss. State (0-4) | 1233 | 62 | 19.88 |
| 11 | Ole Miss (0-3) | 558 | 27 | 20.66 |
| 12 | Kentucky (0-3) | 550 | 20 | 27.50 |
Quick Observations:
* Anyone surprised that Alabama and LSU rank 1-2 in this category? And have had such similar success putting up easy points? Didn’t think so.
* Florida’s offense has gone flat since John Brantley was injured against Alabama. The Gators hung 33 on Tennessee and 48 on Kentucky but they’ve only managed 27 points in their last three games combined. It’s doubtful Brantley would have led a comeback against Alabama or an upset of LSU. The Auburn game might have been another story though.
* Georgia has made 20 red zone trips against SEC foes. That’s more than any other team in the conference. Unfortunately, the Dawgs have cashed in with touchdowns only 10 times. If UGA doesn’t start scoring TDs instead of field goals, it could bite them as they try to win the East Division.
* Things have certainly changed since last year. Auburn and Vanderbilt are back to back in this year’s rankings after sitting on top and bottom of the league table last year.
* Look at just how bad Ole Miss has done in terms of compiling yardage and points. And then notice that Kentucky is still a great deal worse. For all the guff Mike Hartline took last year, UK fans would probably love to have him back distributing the football this fall.
