re: Bo Pelini's Nebraska defenses in the Big Ten & Youngstown defenses in the MVC

I don’t get the whole “different decade” argument. People forget that Bo coached against Urban Meyer (with Tebow) in the SEC as well as Lincoln Riley, Mike Leach, Tom Herman, etc. in the Big 12. It’s not like the guy has never seen a spread offense.


Looking at LSU’s defenses under Bo vs. under Aranda..

Year: national rank (SEC rank)

Sacks:
2005: 5 (2)
2006: 7 (1)
2007: 29 (2)

2016: 42 (4)
2017: 18 (3)
2018: 49 (7)
2019: 30 (2)

Yards per play:
2005: 4 (1)
2006: 2 (1)
2007: 5 (1)

2016: 14 (3)
2017: 33 (4)
2018: 21 (2)
2019: 28 (7)

Points per game:
PPG is an awful stat to compare defenses, with overtime games, special teams/turnover scoring, etc.. points per play would be better but I don’t know of a very good database that goes back to 2005..
2005: 3 (2) (3 periods of OT)
2006: 4 (1) (1 period of OT)
2007: 17 (2) (6 periods of OT)

2016: 5 (2)
2017: 14 (4)
2018: 26 (7) (7 periods of OT)
2019: 31 (8)

Opp. completion %:
2005: 3 (1)
2006: 1 (1)
2007: 2 (2)

2016: 17 (2)
2017: 18 (2)
2018: 3 (1)
2019: 2 (2)

Opp. passer rating:
2005: 5 (2)
2006: 3 (1)
2007: 3 (1)

2016: 17 (4)
2017: 9 (3)
2018: 9 (2)
2019: 10 (4)

TL;DR, when you look at national and conference rankings, Pelini’s defenses were nothing short of fantastic by pretty much all metrics. And stats like yards per play, opp. QBR, etc. tell a story that goes beyond the time of possession argument.