EvilleIrish
Well-known member
- Messages
- 2,182
- Reaction score
- 1,336
FEI has us as a 5.7 point winner
Once we drop Notre Dame, it's all over for that program. Without us, Notre Dame is just another team floundering in a sea of mediocrity, clamoring to once again be welcomed through the gates of Michigan Stadium, where select heros are extended an opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Elite, an errand reserved for fcs teams only from hither onward!
Not sure who else has listened to the OFD podcast, but I suddenly feel A LOT better about this game after doing so lol
DYK: Shea Patterson has apparently never thrown for 300 yards in a game? Blew my mind.
Not sure who else has listened to the OFD podcast, but I suddenly feel A LOT better about this game after doing so lol
DYK: Shea Patterson has apparently never thrown for 300 yards in a game? Blew my mind.
Pick'em!
Pick'em!
SP+ has us as a four point loser.
I dont get it.
How does anyone justify this? Based on what? By losing to a PSU team that plays no one with a pulse other than their annual OSU beatdown? How can they possibly compare GA to PSU?
Can someone please justify anything here?
I dont get it.
How does anyone justify this? Based on what? By losing to a PSU team that plays no one with a pulse other than their annual OSU beatdown? How can they possibly compare GA to PSU?
Can someone please justify anything here?
Does SP+ hate Notre Dame?
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re familiar with Bill Connelly’s SP+ system. It’s great, Bill is great, and historically it’s been my favorite source of advanced stats as there’s been more transparency into its inner workings and produced a greater wealth of metrics than any other college football rating system.
This year though, SP+ is relatively down on Notre Dame, ranking the Irish 19th after the bye week. This is behind teams like Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri, and noticeably lower than other advanced rating systems – FEI has ND 11th overall, as does ESPN’s FPI. The Massey-Peabody composite, which takes a bunch of computer ratings (some you know like Sagarin and many you’ve never heard of) and averages things out, has Brian Kelly’s squad at 12th.
There’s a range of reasons for this, but the simplest explanation is that the Irish have yet to dominate a good team in 2019. Last season the Irish had strong yards per play advantages (at least two YPP advantage) against Wake Forest (4.17), Stanford (2.05), Virginia Tech (2.06), Northwestern (3.07) and Syracuse (3.28). This season, again excluding the thrashings of New Mexico and Bowling Green, the Irish haven’t had a yards per play advantage of more than 1.29 yards against Louisville.
![]()
While earlier I highlighted the regression in the passing game, this drop-off is coming from both sides of the ball. The defense is giving up 1.22 yards per play more than this sample a season ago, while the offense is averaging 0.78 yards per play less. There are many reasons for this – you could argue this four-game P5 sample is much more difficult than any four regular-season games Book started last season. But this team is yet to combine all the potential it has shown in a single game – uniting the dominating defense from UVA and the rushing attack against USC with the passing attack that was able to move the ball pretty well against a strong UGA defense in Athens or that wore down opponents with its efficiency last season. Ideally, it all comes together this weekend in Ann Arbor.
18 Stripes is publishing a regular Advanced Stats column that has been addressing this issue each week. Here's the blurb from the post-USC article:
And frickin Michigan has done ANYTHING at all this year????
BoHarbOctober 21st, 2019 at 11:55 PM ^
Once we drop Notre Dame, it's all over for that program. Without us, Notre Dame is just another team floundering in a sea of mediocrity, clamoring to once again be welcomed through the gates of Michigan Stadium, where select heros are extended an opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Elite, an errand reserved for fcs teams only from hither onward!
This one is hilarious. If there's one thing Michigan does better than Notre Dame, It's self deprecating humor.
That's the thing with advanced metrics. They aren't perfect, but they're sneaky good at exposing strengths and weaknesses that the Eyeball Test and "Who've You Beaten?" don't. Our YPP margin has been trending steadily downward for a while, mostly because we've been able to put together a complete performance against a P5 opponent. So SP+ thinks we're vulnerable to an upset by Michigan. Hopefully it's wrong and the team is finally ready to fire on all cylinders.
It's even more hilarious because that moron clearly forgot that scUM had a home and home scheduled in 2018 and '19 with Arkansas and dropped them to add us to the schedule. Clearly, scUM wants us on their schedule.
Plus want pansy says they want to drop ND and schedule only FCS teams. No one should every say they want to play FCS teams.
Which is somewhat bizarre because it's a little misleading when we compare it to last year. Our YPP differential last season was +1.3 and this year it's +1.9. We avg. 6 to 4.7 versus this year it's 6.9 to 5.
The team averaged 4.5 yds/carry last year while giving up 3.8. Through 6 games we are avg. 5.5 yds/carry and giving up 4. So, we're +1.5 versus +0.7. Rushing TD differential is up from 0.9 to 1.2.
Passing yards last year were, 257.5 to 207.9 for differential of +49.6. This year it's 262 to 195.2 for a differential of +66.8. Passing TD's differential is also up from 1 to 1.9. Book's YPA are basically the same at 8.3 and 8.4.
Also, total offense comparisons. Last year we avg. 440 yds/game to our opponents 347/game. A differential of +93. This season it's 454 to 348 for a differential of +106. Our turnover differential is up substantially. Over a full turnover/game at -1.6 versus -0.3. Our score differential is up dramatically. in 2018 we avg. 31.4 and gave up 18.2. This year it's 39.2 and 16.8.
The negative, Book's comp pct. is down from 68.2 to 63.2. Therefore our differential in comp pct. is down from 7.2 to 4.5. And that could have something to do with First downs being lower 21.3 versus 23.4 and the differential being down as well 1.5 versus 3.5.
I guess just kind of interesting that we seem to be better for the most part over this 6 games compared to the entirety of last years 13 games yet viewed by S&P+ much worse.
Which is somewhat bizarre because it's a little misleading when we compare it to last year. Our YPP differential last season was +1.3 and this year it's +1.9. We avg. 6 to 4.7 versus this year it's 6.9 to 5.
The team averaged 4.5 yds/carry last year while giving up 3.8. Through 6 games we are avg. 5.5 yds/carry and giving up 4. So, we're +1.5 versus +0.7. Rushing TD differential is up from 0.9 to 1.2.
Passing yards last year were, 257.5 to 207.9 for differential of +49.6. This year it's 262 to 195.2 for a differential of +66.8. Passing TD's differential is also up from 1 to 1.9. Book's YPA are basically the same at 8.3 and 8.4.
Also, total offense comparisons. Last year we avg. 440 yds/game to our opponents 347/game. A differential of +93. This season it's 454 to 348 for a differential of +106. Our turnover differential is up substantially. Over a full turnover/game at -1.6 versus -0.3. Our score differential is up dramatically. in 2018 we avg. 31.4 and gave up 18.2. This year it's 39.2 and 16.8.
The negative, Book's comp pct. is down from 68.2 to 63.2. Therefore our differential in comp pct. is down from 7.2 to 4.5. And that could have something to do with First downs being lower 21.3 versus 23.4 and the differential being down as well 1.5 versus 3.5.
I guess just kind of interesting that we seem to be better for the most part over this 6 games compared to the entirety of last years 13 games yet viewed by S&P+ much worse.
ND's only played six games this season and 2 of them were against the #120 and #127 (out of 130) FBS teams (also #s 5, 23, 35, and 63). I suspect the difference is strength of schedule.