MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — It has become quite evident that in the modern game of college football, offense — not defense — wins games.
Obviously, there isn’t a defensive coordinator in the land who will agree with that, and on the surface, it seems to be an absurd statement.
In golf, for example, there is a saying that in its own way verifies this.
“Drive for show, putt for dough,” they say.
See, in golf, the ultimate idea is to get the ball into the hole, and you do that with your putter.
No different in football. The ultimate goal is to put more points on the board than the opposition. No one wins a game nothing-nothing.
Now, having a strong defense certainly makes it easier to win and sometimes even puts points on the board by itself. But the way the rules are set up today, with the innovations that have come into the game on offense, with the offense always the attacker, setting the tone for the way each game is played, it’s quite difficult to win on defense alone.
We got interested in this as West Virginia began spring ball because it appeared that the Mountaineers had a chance to have a solid offense, but the defense was an unknown factor and offers nothing factually to make one think it will be dominant.
That led to some interesting research — just how important is it to have a dominant defense as compared to a dominant offense in this era?
And so it was that we looked at the top 20 offensive and defensive teams in the nation last season based on points scored and points allowed and matched them up with the nation’s top 20 teams in the AP Poll.
The balance leaned overwhelmingly toward offensive success determining team success.
The top 5 defensive teams in the nation and the points allowed per game were Illinois (12.77), Iowa (13.31), Air Force (13.38), Minnesota (13.85) and Georgia, the national champion (14.27).
Only 15-0 Georgia and 10-3 Air Force reached double figure wins. Only Georgia was ranked in the Top 20. Three of the teams came from the Big Ten and none of them were among the league’s best teams.
Offensively, it was a complete reversal. The five teams in points scored were Tennessee at 46.1 points a game and ranked No. 6, Ohio State at 44.2 points a game and ranked No. 4, USC at 41.4 points a game and ranked No. 12, a ridiculously low ranking caused by being compared to previous Alabama teams rather than to the top teams in the nation in 2022, and Georgia, also at 41.1 points a game and No. 1.
What wins games? Illinois was 8-5, Iowa 8-5, Air Force 10-3, Minnesota 9-4 and Georgia 15-0, giving the top five defensive teams an aggregate record of 50-17. Not bad, but the top five offensive teams were 59-9 ... ranked No 1, 4, 5, 6 and 12.
Go back to the Top 10 defensive teams and four finished in the Top 10 of the poll while seven of the highest scoring teams in the Top 10 of the poll and all were in the Top 20 except UCLA, which finished 21st.
In fact, all of the top 11 offensive teams were in the top 25 while only five of the top 15 defensive teams were.
Now here’s something that seemed strange: Only five schools out of the Top 20 in the AP Poll showed up on both the 20 highest scoring teams and the 20 stingiest defensive teams — Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, Penn State and Florida State.
And Florida State actually was tied for 20th in fewest points allowed.
There is another reason offense has come to dominate and it is part of the way of the world that is college football.
Money.
If offense brings about victories, victories and high national rankings bring about attendance and TV appearances.
The top five scoring schools in America last year — Tennessee, Ohio State, USC, Alabama and Georgia — averaged 90,695 per home game last season while the top five defensive teams — Illinois, Iowa, Air Force, Minnesota and Georgia — averaged 57,398 fans per home game.
Smaller stadiums? Yes. But they averaged more than 33,000 fewer fans per home game than the offensive schools, saying they are selling all those extra seats.
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