Halfway mark...

What can you say about the first half of the 2020 season? Miserable, awful, terrible come to mind. But, this is the year of no spring ball, adjusted schedule with two non-conference games removed, players held out due to contact with positive cases, Pooka leaving(!) etc. This is not a typical year for anyone, but KU was in year two of a major reconstruction

Here are some stats that tell the story for the first five games:

Total Scores: KU 75/Opponents 225 (Avg. KU 15/Opponents 45)
Total Yards: KU 1365/Opponents 2188 (Avg. KU 273/Opponents 438)
Turnovers: KU 8/Opponents 3
Time of Possession: KU 148:25/Opponents 153:04 (Avg. KU 29:41/Opponents 30:36:48)
First Downs: KU 80/Opponents 120 (Avg. KU 16/Opponents 24)

Link to the backup info and calculations: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CxybHjOn...56FYMO10g/edit#gid=0

The coaching staff does seem to be (sometimes out of necessity) using the underclassmen more and more looking to the future.

Little late, but thought I share these Defense stats from the first 5 games.

Total Tackles: KU 323/Opponents 314 (Avg. KU 64.6/Opponents 62.8 )
Total Solo Tackles: KU 227/Opponents 231 (Avg. KU 45.4/Opponents 46.2)
Sacks: KU 5/Opponents 24 (Avg. KU 1/Opponents 4.8 )
Tackles for Loss: KU 30/Opponents 50 (Avg. KU 6/Opponents 10)
Quarterback Hurries: KU 4/Opponents 8 (Avg. KU .8/Opponents 1.6)

Raw data can be found at link in last post.

What stands out with these stats?
Let's start with offense. KU isn't doing well in the red zone or getting into the red zone. They are almost even on time of possession, but have 1/3 of the points as opponents. A few of those are punt/kick returns for TD's, but KU has a little over half the total yardarge of opponents. Not terrible on turnovers.

The two things that stick out are sacks, tackles for loss, and quarterback hurries. Part of that is we aren't able to make penetration against opponents O-lines, but it also shows KU's O-line is not able to stop those things from happening.

Quick note on Iowa State, it was pretty competitive through the 3rd quarter with some flashes of greatness (Kenny Logan's kickoff return for a TD) and potential from a TON of freshmen playing.

Let's see how the last four games go...

Interesting breakdown of individual O-Line stats by Shane Jackson at LJW (through 7 games)...

www2.kusports.com/weblogs/jacksons_journ...wn-of-kus-offensive/

Did a quick chart based on that LJW O-Line blog post creating an index across total snaps for each stat. Using an index (individual stat/total stat) makes it easier to compare since none of the players have played the exact same number of stats.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CxybHjOn...g/edit#gid=539257248