Where Texas excels and struggles in certain conventional stats
Five games into the 2024 season, the No. 2 Texas Longhorns are 5-0 and 1-0 in SEC play. Great teams tend to rank highly in the various statistical measures, and that holds true for Steve Sarkisian’s team.
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At the same time, there are some areas where Texas can improve as it goes through the rest of conference play following the bye.
Here’s where Texas is in the top-25 in conventional stats plus a look at where the Longhorns rank in the bottom half of college football.
Top 25 statistical rankings
Third down conversion percentage: No. 11 – 52.5%
- Pretty good, Texas’ pass game has helped the Longhorns convert at a good clip
Third down conversion percentage defense: No. 13 – 27.8%
- Similar applies, but teams aren’t converting 3rd-and-longs against Texas.
Blocked kicks: No. 23 – 1 blocked kick
Completion percentage: No. 9 – 71.4%
- Kudos to Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning here
Defensive touchdowns: No. 17 – 1 touchdown
First downs defense: No. 14 – 64
- Teams aren’t moving the ball, meaning they aren’t moving the sticks
First downs offense: No. 12 – 116
Passes intercepted: No. 10 – 7 interceptions
Passing offense: No. 10 – 322.0 ypg
- Kudos to Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning here, again
Passing yards allowed: No. 3 – 121.6 ypg
- A well-coordinated defense has done fantastic in an area of real weakness last year
Passing yards per completion: No. 23 – 14.0 ypc
Red zone defense: No. 12 – 66.7%
Sacks allowed: No. 21 – 1.0
Scoring defense: No. 2 – 7.0 ppg
- This one is pretty simple, teams are not scoring against Texas
Scoring offense: No. 11 – 45.0 ppg
- This one is also pretty simple, Texas is scoring
Tackles for loss: No. 9 – 38.0 TFL
Team passing efficiency: No. 8 – 185.30
Team passing efficiency defense: No. 4 – 88.42
- You’ll see some raw yardage stats in a couple of spots but the two above are truly impressive. Texas is not only passing for chunks of yardage, they’re doing so at a very efficient level and is preventing other teams from doing the same.
Total defense: No. 6 – 228.2 ypg
Total offense: No. 8 – 513.4 ypg
Turnovers gained: No. 16 – 9 turnovers gained
Rankings where Texas is in the bottom half of college football
Fourth down conversion percentage: No. 72 – 50%
Blocked kicks allowed: No. 82 – 1 blocked kick
Blocked punts allowed: No. 106 – 1 blocked punt
Fewest penalties: No. 83 – 32 penalties
- False starts, snap infractions, and occasional blocks in the back are the main culprits here. Eighty-two other teams are being flagged less than the Longhorns.
Fewest penalties per game: No. 71 – 6.4 penalties per game
- It’s not a whole lot better on a per game basis
Fewest penalty yards: No. 68 – 248 yards
- Nor on a raw yardage basis.
Fumbles lost: No. 81 – 3 fumbles
Passes had intercepted: No. 69 – 4 interceptions
- The context of these interceptions matters some, but Texas’ quarterbacks have indeed turned the ball over four times in five games.
Punt returns: No. 87 – 6.4 ypr
- Texas finished No. 11 in this metric last year at 15.88 yards per return
Time of possession: No. 72 – 29:56
Turnovers lost: No. 82 – 7 turnovers lost
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We’ll look at some advanced statistical measures shortly.
