Most Reliable Passing Game in the SEC

[StatTiger 3,188]

IMO, one of the best methods of rating the true value of a passing game is the production of the passing game, when the running game struggles. With this in mind, I sorted all the SEC teams from 2000-2008 that were involved in a game, where their running game was held to under 100-yards.

I sorted the data by win pct and I included each teams pass rating.

Team ................. Gms W L Pct Rating

Florida ................. 25 14 11 0.560 124.6

Georgia ............... 27 15 12 0.556 118.5

Tennessee ........... 36 15 21 0.417 123.7

S. Carolina .......... 32 11 21 0.344 121.0

Auburn ................ 22 7 15 0.318 106.6

LSU ..................... 19 6 13 0.316 113.1

Arkansas ............. 18 5 13 0.278 102.5

Ole Miss ............... 37 10 27 0.270 110.2

Kentucky .............. 44 7 37 0.159 111.8

Alabama .............. 20 2 18 0.100 98.6

Vanderbilt ............ 30 3 27 0.100 104.7

Miss State ............ 38 2 36 0.053 90.7

During this current decade, the Florida Gators had the highest pass rating in games, where they were held to under 100-yards rushing. Their rating of 124.6 translated to the highest win pct with the Gators posting a 14-11 record. Florida and Georgia were the only two teams within the conference to post a winning record.

Mississippi State had the worst record (2-36) and the lowest pass rating at 90.7. In the 38 games MSU was held to under 100-yards rushing, they threw for only 23 TD's and 72 interceptions , while completing only 48.8% of their passes. Alabama and Vanderbilt were tied for the second lowest win percentage (10%).

Auburn had the 5th highest win percentage in the conference with a 7-15 record. In the 22 games Auburn was held under 100-yards rushing, they threw 25 interceptions and only 13 TD passes.

Auburn's Ranking within the Conference:

Completion Pct ......... 5th

Avg per att ............... 7th

Avg per com ............. 11th

INT ratio ................... 6th

TD ratio .................... 11th

Pass Rating .............. 8th

SEC Leaders:

Completion Pct .......... Tennessee

Avg per Att ................ Florida

Avg per Com .............. Georgia

INT ratio .................... Tennessee

TD ratio ...................... Florida

Pass Rating ................ Florida

Observations:

Sorting the teams within the SEC on win pct, the top 5 teams came from the East Division. Florida was #1 in pass rating and South Carolina was #3 thanks to Steve Spurrier.

Teams in the West have been more reliant upon the running game than those teams in the East. Teams like Auburn, LSU, Alabama and Arkansas have built their offenses around a power running game supported by a play-action passing game. I was actually surprised that Auburn had a higher win pct than LSU.

As important as I believe a strong running game and solid defense are to any team in football, you will eventually be forced into passing the ball when you don't want to. It's no surprise the two teams with the highest win pct (Florida & Georgia) have accounted for 5 of the last 9 SEC Championships.

Thoughts?

[jw 4 au 548]

Thoughts?

Well, I like the way you are thinking Stat... always finding a new angle to evaluate the team. I was surprised to see Auburn in the top half of the SEC in this catagory after the past two years, I bet it would be even higher if you stopped looking after 2005. But I was also surprised to see Bama so low.

While I think xCTT did an amazing job while at Auburn, hated to see him go, was skeptical about the new hire, etc., in hindsight I think it was the right thing to do. Maybe even to go as far as to say it was forward thinking from JJ (for all you JJ haters out there). He (xCTT) was getting complacant and settled in what he was doing. The kick in the but from 2003 was not wearing on him anymore. I think CGC with CGM are just what we needed. And your postings on the running games over 200 yds and under 100 yds hopefully fit right in with CGM's offense. Throw in our new recruiting efforts and I think Auburn is back on the way to the top once again!!!

[auwallace 6]

I'm hoping we're going to be shocked by how good some of our current wideouts actually are. Can't wait to see some of these guys excel with decent position coaching and plays that actually have a chance to work.

[SouthLink02 8]

I would be surprised if we add too much to that except in the L section next season

Cox will throw but nowhere near the amount Stafford did and the running game will take on a HUGE meaning in 2009 so I expect us to rush TOTAL over 100 yards MOST games and if we don't, we are screwed