SUC Runs it Up

by Barnes2JJ on Jan 6, 2009 1:04 PM PST Comment 4 comments

Pat Forde of ESPN wrote a good column the other day as to how and why running up the score (although, supposedly, not a factor in the BCS computer mishmash) pays off. Here is the link.

The entire column is good and is worth reading but this excerpt caught my eye (emphasis added):

Of the teams that finished the regular season in The Associated Press top five, only Alabama scored a smaller percentage of its points in the fourth quarter than Oklahoma -- the Crimson Tide scored 12.9 percent of their points in the final 15 minutes, Oklahoma 13.3 percent. Texas, whose fans were maddest at the Sooners because of their down-to-the-wire battle for a BCS berth, scored 21.8 percent of its points in the fourth quarter. Florida: 22.8 percent. And USC was the team most likely to pad its margin late at 23.6 percent.

The above except has nothing to do with SUC's defense (which was, admittedly, excellent). This has to do with padding the score when the game is nearly over and when it serves no purpose with respect to winning the game. Read the column and check out the examples of other teams which do this.

Running up the score shows a lack of class. Period.

The morons who worship at the altar of The Humanitarian won't let these or other facts confuse them. But this does say something as to the character of Petey and of the mindset across town.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Eh

I don’t put much stock into this. Forde always has had a anti-Pac 10 bias. In the ESPN basketball power rankings he has us at 17th and likes to take cheap shots at the Pac 10 whenever he can. While I am no Trojan apologist, Oklahoma and Bob Stoops probably are my second most hated football team in that they always do, contrary to what Forde says, run up the score. The fact that they score a lot more points each game than SUC did this year would make this percentage smaller, but the fact remains that OU constantly does run up the score against inferior teams. Needless to say, I will be rooting for Florida and Tebow (a guy who has enough character to be a Bruin) to show OU for what they really are. That said, Utah should be the champs this year as the only undefeated team.

But my main point is this: Forde is a midwest homer who writes for an east coast bias company and will take every chance he has to diminish the Pac 10.

by bruinponcho on Jan 6, 2009 1:44 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I have no problem with Forde in general

He has been pretty good with UCLA basketball. I don’t agree with number 17 ranking but I am not losing too much sleep for that. Forde has been one of the few national columnists calling out the Southern Cal football program. And anytime someone calls them out, its worthy of amplification specifically if its backed up by good arguments and data points.

by Nestor on Jan 6, 2009 7:09 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Writers and Statistic

Whether or not people have a problem with Forde’s possible bias, I do have a problem with the way he uses one statistic without any context whatsoever to conclude that USC runs up the score and others don’t. Even though I cannot stand the Trojans, that is a ridiculous assertion that finds no support other than one statistic viewed in a vaccuum. It is clear from this conclusion that Forde either doesn’t know how to use statistics or he cherry-picked one stat that would allow him to make the conclusion that he wanted to make. It would be relevant that Oklahoma scored more points than anyone in college football history (a staggering 214 more points than USC—about 17 points per game) and was ahead on average by much larger margins in the 4th quarter than USC was. Using a percentage of total points where one’s total is 702 and the other’s is 488 is going to lead to the percentage being higher for the lower-scoring team. Any meathead espn writer should know that.

If you look at the 4th quarters of all USC games, you would find that USC scored 21 points twice, 14 points once, 7 points 7 times and 0 points 3 times. That’s 10 games out of 13 in which USC scored one or zero times in the 4th quarter, and on average 8 4th quarter points. This doesn’t exactly look like a team that is trying to run up the score. But let’s look at the 3 games in which the Trojans scored in double digits:

-14 points against Virginia to turn a 31-point lead into a 45 point win. USC’s first TD was scored with 10 minutes remaining. The 2nd TD was on an 11-yard drive consisting only of runs after a turnover. USC attempted 3 passes in the entire quarter, and only on third and long or 4th down.

-21 points against Washington State. the first TD was on the first play of the quarter. USC didn’t attempt a single pass in the 4th quarter. One of the drives went 18 yards after a turnover. Washington State is awful.

-21 points against Stanford, but that was a 7-point game going into the 4th quarter. You can hardly fault USC for turning a tie into a 3 TD win, especially when the first TD made it a two-score game, the 2nd TD was a result of a 43-yard run and a 50-yard screen on back to back plays that Stanford couldn’t stop and the screen was USC’s only pass in the last 12 minutes of the game.

Look, I am not doing this to defend the Trojans. They are useless, bad apples running amok in South Central. But Forde is either a moron or has an agenda. In either case, he should be taken to task.

I would welcome anyone searching what Florida has done int he 4th quarter. Surely more than 20% of its total points would be a lot more total 4th quarter points than USC scored. It is quite possible that Forde allowed his agenda to miss the real story, which might be that Urban Meyer likes to run up the score.

by BruinsRule on Jan 7, 2009 10:35 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

what about the kids?

As much as I dislike SUC, they have a football team that dominates most of its oponents. Most of their 4’th quarters are garbage time. Their third and fourth stringers are getting playing time and it is their only opportunity to put some stats in the box score. On their team the third and fourth stringers are pretty damn good so they play. They could have been starters at other schools where they would have had lots of playing time.

In this day and age, it’s rare to see a college athlete in a big money sport that is just playing for their education (AA2 being one of those rare few), they are playing for a future in professional sports and they have got to have those stats.

I can’t blame the kids for playing when they get the opportunity. I haven’t watched many SUC games but when I have it does not look like the coaches are trying to run up the score. But if I saw a coach tell his third and fourth stringers to go in and play soft I would feel very sorry for those kids.

by layout on Jan 7, 2009 11:28 AM PST reply actions 0 recs