11-12-2013, 03:57 PM
I posted the following on that other board today, and don't know your policy on stuff that posters here post elsewhere but I am sure I will learn soon and apologize if it's contra policy here.
This post was prompted by a thread that, in classic other board fashion, quickly became a debate between those who thought a player was at least an All Conference candidate and a minority nearing or at one that believed the player might not crack the two deep at WSU.
The two in question are the beloved Stepfan Taylor and Tyler Gaffney. The specific discussion focused on Tyler's seeming lack of breakaway ability and its contrast, or apparent contrast, to Taylor.Â
Here goes:
Good Stanford players always get better with our ages, and our memories of Taylor and his superiority over Gaffney may reflect this.
For his three seasons Taylor recorded 10+ runs on 10.3%, 14%, and 11.1% of his carries.
Gaffney this year?
10.5% of his rushing attempts.
But Taylor also has an advantage here because over his career, he carried the ball in short yardage (third and less than four or fourth down) only 53 times in 40 games, or 1.3 times per game. Gaffney already has 39 short yardage carries in just nine games, or 4.3 times per game--three more short yardage carries per game than Taylor.
So take those third and fourth and short attempts out of Taylor and Gaffeys stats and you get these career numbers for 10+ runs:
Taylor: 12.6%
Gaffney: 12.5%
Well, what about runs over 20 yards?
Taylor: 3.05%
Gaffney: 3.04% â¨
That coaxes me to one other comparison: the short yardage plays that I excluded from the calculations. How does Gaffney, and how did Taylor, fare on short yardage? Well:
Gaffney: 39 carries, 29 first downs, 159 yards, 4.4 ypc, 4 touchdowns, 80% conversion.
Taylor: 55 carries, 33 first downs, 169 yards, 3.1 ypc, 7 touchdowns, 62% conversion.
The explosive run numbers seem to favor neither Stanford stud.Â
The short yardage numbers, however, seem to strongly favor Gaffney.
And in any case, these numbers suggest that we may not have lost as much at running back as we feared.
This post was prompted by a thread that, in classic other board fashion, quickly became a debate between those who thought a player was at least an All Conference candidate and a minority nearing or at one that believed the player might not crack the two deep at WSU.
The two in question are the beloved Stepfan Taylor and Tyler Gaffney. The specific discussion focused on Tyler's seeming lack of breakaway ability and its contrast, or apparent contrast, to Taylor.Â
Here goes:
Good Stanford players always get better with our ages, and our memories of Taylor and his superiority over Gaffney may reflect this.
For his three seasons Taylor recorded 10+ runs on 10.3%, 14%, and 11.1% of his carries.
Gaffney this year?
10.5% of his rushing attempts.
But Taylor also has an advantage here because over his career, he carried the ball in short yardage (third and less than four or fourth down) only 53 times in 40 games, or 1.3 times per game. Gaffney already has 39 short yardage carries in just nine games, or 4.3 times per game--three more short yardage carries per game than Taylor.
So take those third and fourth and short attempts out of Taylor and Gaffeys stats and you get these career numbers for 10+ runs:
Taylor: 12.6%
Gaffney: 12.5%
Well, what about runs over 20 yards?
Taylor: 3.05%
Gaffney: 3.04% â¨
That coaxes me to one other comparison: the short yardage plays that I excluded from the calculations. How does Gaffney, and how did Taylor, fare on short yardage? Well:
Gaffney: 39 carries, 29 first downs, 159 yards, 4.4 ypc, 4 touchdowns, 80% conversion.
Taylor: 55 carries, 33 first downs, 169 yards, 3.1 ypc, 7 touchdowns, 62% conversion.
The explosive run numbers seem to favor neither Stanford stud.Â
The short yardage numbers, however, seem to strongly favor Gaffney.
And in any case, these numbers suggest that we may not have lost as much at running back as we feared.
