By Doug Samuels
College GameDay is making their first ever trip to Pullman, Washington this weekend for the Washington State vs. Oregon game, so we seem destined to get some good Mike Leach content this week, and that started yesterday at his presser.
Leach is a believer that looking at stats should give a good feel for what a team feels is important, however, there are a few exceptions to that. At the podium yesterday, Leach went off on a few stat-related things, like how sacks shouldn’t count against rushing yardage because that’s a stat between the quarterbacks and offensive line. While they don’t in the NFL, they certainly do at the college level, and Leach prefers the NFL’s way of measuring that particular stat.
However, the NFL seems to put a premium on the QB efficiency stat, and Leach spent some time going off on the uselessness of that one in particular.
“It’s like the quarterback efficiency rating. Over the course of my career it has been explained to me three times, and then I briefly, briefly understand it, but after that it just doesn’t make any sense. Because that is utterly useless. Virtually, and completely, and utterly USELESS.”
“I don’t know one coach, whatsoever, who pays any attention to it.”
“I’m sure it’s a little bit like crossword puzzles and Sudoku because it’s got so many variation that they toss in there, with this and that, and they stir it all up and they come out with a number and think that it’s brilliantly done.”
“I do not know one coach who looks at that thing,” Leach shared. “That doesn’t allow me to evaluate anything when we’re going to play somebody – ‘What does this mean? Not very much.’”
Leach goes on to share a few stats that are important to him when looking at the stat sheets heading into a game (none of which will surprise you) including completion percentage, touchdown to interception ratio, and overall yards because it serves as a barometer as to what portion of the offense the quarterback represents.
See the full response in the clip.
