You know what’s fun? Looking at advanced stats on defensive lines. It’s funny how you and I had the same answer. I think we’re destined to be together forever.
In any event, on Thursday, Texas Tech hired their new defensive line coach, Terrance Jamison from Florida Atlantic. If anything, we can applaud Jamison for not wanting to coach with Lane Kiffin and that’s a plus in my book.
Florida Atlantic is obviously not a premier program, they went 3-9 last year and had to hire Kiffin, so things weren’t exactly going well. But what do the advanced stats say about the two defenses. And theoretically, Texas Tech “should” have a better defense because theoretically, they should have better players. Courtesy of Football Outsiders we have some advanced stats to take a look at:
| Florida Atlantic | Texas Tech | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adj. LY | 89.9 | 95.1 | (5.20) |
| Adj. LY Rank | 108 | 87 | 21.00 |
| Std. Downs Line Yards | 3.38 | 3.31 | 0.07 |
| Std. Downs Line Yards Rank | 118 | 109 | 9.00 |
| Pass Downs Line Yards | 3.63 | 3.79 | (0.16) |
| Pass Downs Line Yards Rank | 105 | 114 | (9.00) |
| Opp. Rate | 43.50% | 42.30% | 0.012 |
| Opp. Rate Rank | 114 | 101 | 13.00 |
| Power Success Rate | 75.60% | 73.30% | 0.023 |
| Power Success Rate Rank | 110 | 97 | 13.00 |
| Stuff Rate | 15.20% | 16.70% | -0.015 |
| Stuff Rate Rank | 114 | 101 | 13.00 |
| Adj. Sack Rate | 100.5 | 32.90% | 100.171 |
| Adj. Sack Rate Rank | 64 | 126 | (62.00) |
| Std. Downs Sack Rate | 4.70% | 1.90% | 0.028 |
| Std. Downs Sack Rate Rank | 72 | 123 | (51.00) |
| Pass Downs Sack Rate | 7.40% | 2.40% | 0.05 |
| Pass Downs Sack Rate Rank | 72 | 126 | (54.00) |
The difficult thing here is that Texas Tech and FAU are essentially the same defense for all intents and purposes, which says all too much about the Texas Tech defense.
The one place where there’s a noticeable difference is the sacks, where FAU was really pretty good at getting the passer. In fact, they were significantly better than Texas Tech, on standard downs and passing downs. But Texas Tech was simply awful at producing sacks, so this isn’t a high bar. Still, if you want to see pressure on the opposing quarterbacks, then I think this is a pretty good thing to look forward too.