Hello, Bulldawg Illustrated Fam. It’s been a minute since I’ve contributed to the community. I reached out to Vance and asked if I could help preview our Sugar Bowl matchup with Notre Dame and he was kind enough to oblige. Since I last published a stat piece, analytics has become quite the buzzword. The discussion mostly revolves around the decision to go for 4th downs over punts or choosing to go for 2 after a TD even when it’s not the obvious choice. But that is just what the media’s focus. Please allow me to share with y’all some advanced stats that I tracked to prepare you for what our Dawgs are facing versus the Fighting Irish.

    A down and dirty refresher on the Success Rate and EPA …

    • Success Rate: Percentage of plays that are “good.” It’s just a way to calculate an offense staying “ahead of the chains.” A higher number is good for the offense and lower is better for the defense.

    • EPA: Don’t worry about what it stands for, just know that it is a number that ascribes “value” to a play. This stat considers where the play is on the field and how impactful the result is. Again, a higher number is good for the offense and lower is good for defense.