Sawin' Wood: Checking in around the world

By Ryan Wood

Monday, April 14, 2008

One of the most fascinating analysis of the 2007 college football season was done recently by Terry Bowden over at Yahoo! Sports. I encourage everyone to click here and take a look.

Bowden took the top 10 teams in the final Associated Press Top 25 (that includes No. 4 Missouri and No. 7 Kansas) and put together a chart of 15 different categories he feels helps win football games. He then compiles statistics on where those 10 teams rank in those 15 categories, and comes to a number of conclusions based on that.

Among his findings? Well, it's very favorable to coach Mark Mangino and the Jayhawks: "Out of 119 teams and 119 coaching staffs, each trying to execute the same fundamentals of the game," Bowden writes, "Kansas finished in the top 10 in 10 of these 15 categories. No other team in the top 10 even comes close."

He also comes to the conclusion that two aspects of football are crucial in winning games: Stopping the run and winning the turnover battle. It's exactly what Mangino has preached for years now. For the record, Kansas ranked eighth nationally in rush defense and first in turnover margin.

Anyway, I just scratched the surface. Take a look for yourself if you need a football fix.

Now for some other Big 12 football links. Some of these are a few days old, but I'm sure many of you had other, non-football things on your plate the last week or so:

Graham Watson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Missouri-Illinois season opener on Aug. 30 could feature two top 15 teams. Accordingly, tickets could be scarce for the St. Louis showdown.

Jake Trotter, Oklahoman: After fuming to the media that the OU strength staff hurt his times, former OU wideout Malcolm Kelly apologized on a radio station. Also, OU's defense shined in Saturday's spring game, which was witnessed by 23,306 fans.

Tim Griffin, ESPN.com: Miami quarterback transfer Kirby Freeman found a new home at Baylor, and he was the Bears' first-team QB at the spring game.

Austin Meek, Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State is implementing a no-huddle offense this year (so is Oklahoma). I have to think the success of teams like Kansas is causing this offensive approach to spread so rapidly.

Tom Friend, ESPN.com: Former Oklahoma State quarterback Bobby Reid wasn't a fan of Mike Gundy's over-the-top rant at Jenni Carlson, a blow-up that was supposed to defend Reid.

If nothing else, Gundy's temper tantrum made thousands of more people aware of Reid's questionable toughness. That said, was anything accomplished now that we get to look back on it? When I first saw it, I remember thinking how Reid couldn't possibly feel vindicated.

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Sawin' Wood: Checking in around the world

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