Championship Kicks

The only scoring in the first matchup between LSU and Alabama came via the legs of the field goal kickers. Drew Alleman has been much more reliable than Alabama’s duo of Jeremy Shelley and Cade Foster this season, but it isn’t like Alleman has a big leg. Neither team made a single field goal this year on an attempt of 47 yards or more. The four missed attempts by Alabama on November 5th represent four of the eight longest attempts of the Crimson Tide’s entire season. On kicks attempted from 30 yards or less, Shelley/Foster were 10/10 on the year. Alleman was 9/10, three for three on attempts in the first LSU-Alabama game.

FEI Data Update

At Football Outsiders this weekend, I published the overall, offensive, defensive, and special teams ratings tables for FEI data from the 2007 through 2010 football seasons. Links to each table are available using the drop down menus from the overall FEI stats page and can be found in the FEI ratings page on this site as well. The correlation of each metric to win percentage, and the correlation of each stat from year to year are visualized in the graphic below.

The Cloud 2011

The regular season is in the books and the LSU Tigers are the No. 1 team in the country. But even the undisputed No. 1 team doesn't play like an elite team every weekend of the year. This week's FEI commentary at Football Outsiders focuses on the cloud of opponent-adjusted game data we have to sift through to rank teams in college football. Below is the accompanying graphic.

Brad Wing vs. Joe Adams

This week on ESPN Insider, I discussed the crucial special teams matchups that will decide the game of the weekend, No. 1 LSU hosting No. 3 Arkansas. LSU has an elite punter and punt coverage team, while Arkansas' Joe Adams leads the nation in punt return scores. At Football Outsiders, I discussed the fourth down matchup a little more and published the following graphic representation of every LSU punt and opponent punt against Arkansas (FBS games only) to visualize the head-to-head showdown.

SEC Showdown

The LSU Tigers (FEI No. 1) and Alabama Crimson Tide (FEI No. 2) play this weekend in what has the potential to be the game of the year. The winner will in all likelihood claim the SEC West Division title, go on to win the SEC Championship and play for the BCS championship. The loser may be relegated to spectator status in the national title race, or possibly be elevated by season's end to set the stage for a rematch in January.

At Football Outsiders this week, I broke down field position factors that will influence the game's outcome and published a graphic representation of every offensive and defensive drive played to date this year by each team.