I did a bit of stat digging on ESPN.
Rutgers is #1 in the FBS for Special Team Efficiency*** and we'll need some help on kick returns vs MSU. As we saw in our last B1G game, if we don't get the opportunity to return kicks our scoring chances are hard to come by.
The last three games MSU opponents had just -1 yard in punt returns. Oregon however fared much better with an 81 yard TD.
In kicking I couldn't find the touch back stat for the MSU kicker, but it looks like about 70% are returnable.
We'll see how the drives play out, but let's hope Grant goes 1 for 1 on kickoff returns and gets 4 or 5 touches on punts!
***Team efficiencies are based on the point contributions of each unit to the team's scoring margin, on a per-play basis. The values are adjusted for strength of schedule and down-weighted for "garbage time" (based on win probability). The scale goes from 0 to 100; higher numbers are better and the average is roughly 50 for all categories. Efficiencies update daily during the season.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings/_/sort/stEfficiency/tab/efficiency
Rutgers is #1 in the FBS for Special Team Efficiency*** and we'll need some help on kick returns vs MSU. As we saw in our last B1G game, if we don't get the opportunity to return kicks our scoring chances are hard to come by.
The last three games MSU opponents had just -1 yard in punt returns. Oregon however fared much better with an 81 yard TD.
In kicking I couldn't find the touch back stat for the MSU kicker, but it looks like about 70% are returnable.
We'll see how the drives play out, but let's hope Grant goes 1 for 1 on kickoff returns and gets 4 or 5 touches on punts!
***Team efficiencies are based on the point contributions of each unit to the team's scoring margin, on a per-play basis. The values are adjusted for strength of schedule and down-weighted for "garbage time" (based on win probability). The scale goes from 0 to 100; higher numbers are better and the average is roughly 50 for all categories. Efficiencies update daily during the season.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings/_/sort/stEfficiency/tab/efficiency
