Two-Minute Drill: Coaches Versus Zombies - jmik58's Blog

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Two-Minute Drill: Coaches Versus Zombies Stuck

Posted on October 12, 2012 at 03:27 PM.

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College football randawesomeness packed into 120 seconds or less (reading levels not checked); getting you up to speed on the weekend ahead and dropping you off on a gravel road three miles outside of town.

TAKING A PASS ON THE PASS

When I was in high school I remember one specific film session from the football season. The head coach stood up and exclaimed that our opponent that week really liked to run out of a certain formation, but if they didn't -- they would probably throw. My best friend and I snorted in an attempt to stop the laughs that had simultaneously erupted. No one else in the room got what had just happened, but then again no one else in the room went on to coach at any level.

If they would have decided to dawn the headset, however, they would have struggled to figure out the less-than-complex approaches of the SEC's South Carolina Gamecocks and Florida Gators last week. Between the two teams (who defeated #5 Georgia and #3 LSU, respectively) they attempted fourteen passes -- South Carolina (6) and Florida (8).

COACHES VERSUS ZOMBIES

Washington State head coach Mike Leach is enjoying his existing players as much as Lamar basketball's Pat Knight did in 2011. Referring to Cougars seniors, Leach compared them to "empty corpses" and "zombies". Maybe Wazzu just isn't hungry enough? The comments may have put off many around college football but Notre Dame's Brian Kelly feels his pain.

EIGHT DOWN, FIFTEEN TO GO

Finally, the number of unbeatens has dropped below twenty teams -- thanks in large part due to conference schedules picking up. Eight victims were claimed including a devastated TCU Horned Frogs squad and their estranged quarterback, Casey Pachall. So now only fifteen remain.

None remain from the ACC, two in the Big-12 and PAC-12, one from the Big-10 (Ohio State), four from the SEC (Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi State), and the surprising Big East has three (Louisville, Rutgers, and Cincinnati). I'll play it safe this week and predict only three more drop from the ranks to leave us with an unlucky -- yet lucky -- thirteen.

COIN FLIPPING SKILLS

Like many people, I'm really good at predicting the team that somehow loses on a last-second collapse or is narrowly edged out. The only problem is that I predict them to win. Last week I went a boring two-and-three, nailing Florida's win over LSU and South Carolina's romp over the Georgia Bulldogs. Navy surprised me, Geno Smith did just enough to ruin the day, and Penn State defied the odds again.

This week I'm taking #24 Boise State over Fresno State, #7 Notre Dame over #17 Stanford, #11 USC over Washington, #3 South Carolina over #9 LSU, and #15 Texas over #13 Oklahoma.

CRIMSON BALL-HOGS

If Alabama football has a mother she obviously skipped the lesson on sharing. Offensively, it's well known that quarterback AJ McCarron is having a Heisman-like season with his twelve touchdowns and zero interceptions. But it's the rest of the offense that is having the hardest time with reciprocity.

Not only has Alabama not lost a fumble -- they haven't even fumbled, period. Not a single time have they put the ball on the turf. No stray helmets have connected with the pigskin. Not a single sweaty or rain-soaked ball has disconnected the epidermal gridlock of a Tide player.

LACES OUT, DAN!

Last but not least, welcome again to the caboose of TMD's football train. Whether for good or bad, long snappers need lovin' too.

This week it's less about the big fellas and more about what happens after they let fly with a perfectly placed snap. More specifically, what the heck is up with college kickers?

So far, sixty-one teams have missed extra points. Sixty-one! That's essentially half of all college football teams. We're not talking field goals; simply extra points. Among the teams who have missed, 1,205 PATs have gone up and only 1,109 have gone through - a 92% success rate. If you include all of college football, the chances only improve to 95.9%. We're talking extra points folks. Essentially, one out of the next ten probably won't go through.

Field goals aren't much better. So far, 990 attempts have resulted in 699 footballs splitting the uprights -- that's only a 70.6% success rate. The next time your favorite team settles for the field goal instead of going for it on fourth down, feel free to shake your head at the end results.

Perhaps teams should start going for two, eventually accumulating an extra three points, cancelling out the need to kick that field goal later in the game? But what do we know -- we just snap the ball.

Justin Mikels is a staff writer for Operation Sports. Follow him on Twitter: @long_snapper

Comments

# 1 Bmore Irish @ Oct 12

i feel as though i have finally ascertained that you must have been a long snapper in college. the kicking woes have been comical. i think notre dame might have been one of the teams to miss a PAT. id say some of the most unfortunate have been the penn st and byu kicking debacles

# 2 jmik58 @ Oct 16

@Bmore Irish 69 .... Your ascertainment skills have not failed you.