Charting the Miami Hurricanes: An Introduction

Some of the most common complaints among Miami Hurricanes fans are “the coaches need to blitz more” or “why are they calling zone running plays”. Generally these comments come from a game that has a lack of pass rush, or in a pivotal situation a certain run play was unsuccessful. That is not to say that there was a lack of blitzes called, or a certain run play is not as successful as another type however. To know for certain though, an in depth analysis of stats is required. While there are certain specific stats available, there is a lack of stats to answer these questions. To get these stats, every game for the Hurricanes this season was charted. Using this data, a fairly clear picture is painted for how the Canes do in certain situations and against certain plays. It can also show how individual players are performing.

Below is what an average line of data looks like for an individual play.

To explain the above, the play is from the Duke game, it is the 63^rd play of the game, ball is on the right hash, and the offensive formation has the QB under center with 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE). The play was a called run, specifically a power run with the play going to the left side of the offense. The defense was lined up in a 3-4 with two safeties deep, the defensive line was playing 1 gap technique and the strong side linebacker blitzed. The result of the play was a safety tackle, with Duke Johnson (number 8), gaining 16 yards on the play.

While this tells what happened on an individual play, it is only a part of the puzzle to fully show how the Hurricanes are performing. Combining this play with the data from the rest of the game shows that the average yards per carry on power plays was 6.33. On runs to the left the average was 5.42. The players on the field are also kept track of for each play. On the play above Standish Dobard was the second tight end on the field in the 12 personnel. The average for plays where Dobard is on the field is 5.56. Dobard is not directly responsible for that average, but this number can show how valuable having a certain player on the field can be.

For the offense, the data is fairly straight forward. The defense is slightly more complicated.

The data is presented the same, with the difference being Miami is under the defensive columns. Duke’s offense is running a drop back pass play in shotgun with one running back in the backfield and four receivers out wide. Miami is in nickel defense with two linebackers and five defensive backs. The complicated part comes from the defensive play and type. For a pass play, the play type will be one of “man”, “zone” or “M/Z” which is a man/zone combination from the cornerbacks. A vast majority of the time in man coverage one or both safeties will have deep zone responsibilities depending if there is a blitz or not, but these plays will still be labeled as man. The above has 5 DBs in man coverage with one safety playing the deep middle.

The other complication is the blitzers. Miami rarely if ever will blitz 6 defenders outside of goal line situations, so in the above where it shows “MLB/WLB” blitz, one of the down linemen will drop into coverage. In 3-4 alignments, this will often be the rush backer, who is considered a down lineman even though he is in a two-point stance. In nickel, it can be either of the outside rushers. In the above play, both off linebackers blitz, and Tyriq McCord drops into coverage. If a play shows just a “MLB Blitz” or “CB Blitz”, the rush backer still rushes, thus creating a 5 man pass rush. The result of the above play is an incomplete pass where Ladarius Gunter was targeted on an off target throw. The image below diagrams the play.

Using the data for the entire game, it shows Duke completed one of eight passes against man coverage for eight yards. Of the 23 of 54 plays where Miami blitzed, Duke averaged three yards per pass play. When Duke threw at Ladarius Gunter, zero of two pass were completed where one pass was intercepted.

To go along with the above data lines, each game has a passing chart for all of Brad Kaaya’s attempts. The chart breaks down the attempts into each part of the field, showing his completions, attempts, yards, touchdowns and interceptions in each area.

Each week will include the QB chart, along with a complete stat file (like this), a snap count for each player on offense and defense, targets for receivers and defenders, as well as running back yards after contact and broken tackles stats.