When I think of Michigan State over the past few years, the terrible images of the beast known as Jehuu Caulcrick, the former Spartan running back, come to mind. And make it hard to sleep. Jehuu, as mental-prototypes of Spartan running backs tend to do, has/had thighs so massive that the surface area would make emperors day-dream of colonization. And when I think of such big-bruising running backs, I get a mental picture of a conservative, clock controlling offensive system that would make blue-hairs with overly romantic notions of time-of-possession swoon. But to paint Michigan State in wide swaths of a color called “Clock Chomp Glow” would be ill-fitting, as MSU, even in their “BCS-quality” season of 2010, are hardly time eliminating, dust creating machines.



A not particularly strong Spartan team of 2009 went 6-7 and actually ranked just 94th in time of possession. At the same time, they ranked 28th in passing offense and 73rd in rushing offense.

Now, before you go thinking that the 2010 edition “brought the sexy back” if you’re the type who finds running-game proficiency to be sexy, guess again. While making massive improvements in their record (11-2) they barely budged their rushing offensive ranking up to 64th and actually saw their passing offense drop to 46th. And their time-of-possession rank was a middling 45th.

Now, heading into the contest between the Spartans and the Irish, MSU has a major lead in TOP: claiming a full 35:39 of the clock per game and ranking 7th. But the bulk of the advantage in either of those numbers arrives by virtue of their game last week against FAU, where they claimed 42:26 of game clock. It was a much different story against Youngstown State, when YSU actually beat out MSU for game-clock superiority, 31:09 to 28:51.

One element of the game I’m becoming more and more curious about is the time an offense spends on the field in the act of scoring. In other words, how much of a team’s time of possession is spent running plays that ultimately contribute to a scoring drive? Let’s call this stat, which is probably better named by someone else who tracks it better than I, “Time Well Spent.”

Opponent Time of Possesion Time Well Spent % Well Spent YSU 28:51 12:48 44% FAU 42:26 33:14 78% Totals 71:17 46:02 65%

So as you can see, the cumulative numbers seem to tell the sort of story you’d expect. Michigan State tends to hold onto the ball on long drives punctuated by scores. But the really interesting thing is that rep, at least this season, is earned via one performance against FAU. Who, if you hadn’t heard, was playing a “home game” against Sparty last week. In Detroit.

Bonus Fun With Numbers: Notre Dame’s Time Well Spent!

I know and you know that, by and large, the 2011 Irish have dominated every category save for the one that matters in the first 2 games of the season, but it was still a little startling, while researching MSU, to come across the Irish at #27 in Time of Possession. At first it was just weird to see them that high. But then I got to wondering why they weren’t higher. They’ve racked up more than 500 yards per game, afterall. But in indeed they’re averaging about 32 minutes of possession time per game, with 28:54 vs. South Florida and 37:01 vs. Michigan. And then, of course, given all the red-zone turnovers this year, I couldn’t help but figure out their Time Well Spent. So here it is…

Opponent Time of Possesion Time Well Spent % Well Spent South Florida 28:54 6:49 24% Michigan 37:01 16:51 46% Totals 65:55 23:40 35%

Yeah. Granted, the Irish haven’t spent the first 6th of the season playing Youngstown State and FAU, but the Irish’s best game for TWS is against Michigan, with 46% of their time possessing the ball actually being spent scoring. Which is just 2 points better than MSU’s worst game. And the Irish’s average TWS thus far is a full 30 points below MSU’s average. See, wasn’t that fun?

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