ATHENS, Ga. — A few years ago, Bill Connelly, the noted college football stats guru, was doing his annual projections when something jumped out. The best indicator for how an offense would perform the following season was an overlooked data point: Percentage of receiving yards back from the previous season.



That surprised Connelly, who was at SB Nation at the time and is now at ESPN. So he re-ran the numbers, as he has each year since then, and the theme keeps returning: Receiving yards mattered more than what a team also had coming back in rushing and passing yards or starts on the offensive line.



“That wouldn’t have been the first thing we thought of in what we thought would be most important,” Connelly said.



Actually, those who follow the Georgia football team may now understand that more than anybody.



The riddle of what went wrong with this year’s Georgia offense has been endlessly debated. The scheme? The...