Today’s blog will continue with my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown total offensive yards.

There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in total offense. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters including their quarterback from a team that was relatively inexperienced the year before. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their quarterback, running back and receivers from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in total offense.

Another factor may be a coaching change. Usually a coach is more experienced at one side of the ball than the other (especially if they were just a coordinator in their previous job) and this could lead to a change in total offense. An “offensive” minded coach could come in an improve the offense as a whole by possibly being more wide-open offensively while a “defensive” minded coach may be more conservative on the offensive side of the ball and the total offensive ypg could suffer.

Whatever the case may be here are all the teams that improved by at least 125 ypg of total offense compared to the prior season. Quick note for many of the smaller schools in the WAC, MAC and Sun Belt: my data only goes back to 1995 for those teams so it would include the last 15 years instead of the last 20.

Most Improved Total Offense YPG L/20 years

Just like yesterday the 1997 Kentucky Wildcats come in at #1 with a 247 ypg improvement. The Wildcats maintained their 100 ypg rush avg from the year before and improved their passing yards from just 118 ypg in ’96 to 365 ypg in ’97 thanks to new head coach Hal Mumme and his wide-open passing attack.

At #2 is the 1992 Maryland Terrapins who like the Wildcats hired in a new coach (Mark Duffner) and returned 8 starters from a year before. With more reliance on the passing attack (165 ypg-330 ypg) the Terrapins avg 199 ypg more in ’92.

At #3 is the 2000 Northwestern Wildcats who went to a spread formation in head coach Randy Walker’s 2nd season. Led by QB Zak Kustok and RB Damien Anderson, the Wildcats avg 184 ypg more in 2000 and improved from 3-8 to 8-4 while sharing the Big 10 championship.

Now here is a look at all of the teams who averaged at least 125 total offensive yards less than the prior year. Keep in mind again that my data only goes back to 1995 for some of the smaller schools.

Least Improved Total Offense YPG L/20 Years

Coming in with the least improved offense of the last 20 years is the 1993 Pitt Panthers who returned just four starters and lost their starting quarterback from the previous year. They also were learning new schemes under new head coach Johnny Majors and avg 197 ypg less in 1993.

The #2 least improved offense is the 1996 Rutgers Scarlet Knight who returned just 3 starters and featured a new coach in Terry Shea. The Scarlet Knights went from avg 427 ypg in ’95 to just 231 ypg in ’96 a 196 ypg decrease.

Finally at #3 is the 2008 Washington St Cougars who just like Pitt and Rutgers had a new head coach (Paul Wulff) and lost their starting QB and returned just 5 starters. The inexperienced Cougars would avg just 241 ypg which was far less than the 436 ypg they avg in ’07.

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I will be back tomorrow with a look at the most/least improved rush defenses from the last 20 years.

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