Quick reminder that the Senator used to opine that a championship team needed to hit the +2.0 barrier to be considered elite. Net Yards Per Play is a measure of the yards per play of the offense measured against the yards per play allowed by the defense. A positive number generally means your defense is holding opponents (not the penalty type, Alabama fans) while your offense moves the ball well.

Here’s the Top 30, per BCF Toys.

I’d say we’re doing well…good for 3rd nationally, 7th offensively and 2nd defensively.

Serious question here…how is Indiana not Top 5? With 8.07 yards per play on offense, and playing against literally no one, I would expect them to be the best at this. Notable that Iowa is 30th…and one step below? Texas. That’s not speaking wonders about Steve Sarkisian or Archduke as offensive wizards, as their 5.23 yards per play on offense is good for 93rd in the nation, while their defense is 9th at 4.33. You know that’s gotta frustrate someone who’s known for not having the best of dispositions:

Even more interesting is that, especially after all the talk about the Alabama defense leading up to the Georgia game, the Tide is 63rd in defense in this metric.

Some other interesting observations from this data:

• Speaking of frustrated coordinators, Buster Faulkner has to be looking at his defensive counterpart and asking why they have the 106th ranked defensive ypp in the nation. I think Mike Bobo is looking forward to that game more than anyone knows, especially with all the talk about Buster v Bobo.
• Kentucky is living on borrowed time. 9th in Net YPP for the SEC at .95, they are decent but not great in either offensive (46th in the Nation) or defensive (56th) ypp. But they are still somehow finding a way. The way? Turnover margin…at +7, they are tied for tops in the SEC with Alabama. Georgia is 2nd at +6. We’ve seen this happen before in previous years where some teams like Oklahoma were thriving in the win-loss column (really the only place it matters) while struggling in net ypp, only to implode at season’s end when the turnover machine stalled.
• Just a hair above Kentucky is Ole Miss, who may, in fact, be missing Lane Kiffin or Charlie Weis, Jr., this year, as they are 36th in offensive ypp. They finished 9th in offensive ypp last year. Couple this with the 60th defensive ypp this year, and Ole Miss might be regressing.
• Speaking of missing people, Clark Lea is really missing Diego. Vandy finished in 2025 with one of the higest net ypp in the SEC of close to 3, and had the 3rd best offensive ypp metrics in the nation at season’s end. This year? 102nd in offensive ypp and coming in at a -.61 in the net ypp. I wonder if Nate Bargatze can make a joke about that. Money well spent, Admiral.
• For our upcoming game, the heralded offensive transfers at Auburn aren’t yielding great results, coming in at 77th in ypp on offense, but they do have a stout defense at 21st. THey are missing a key linebacker this weekend, so let’s hope we make both of these numbers plummet even further, because, you know, Auburn sucks.