Alabama Crimson Tide: Comparison of returning experience for top teams

Returning experienced players drives success. Check out data for the Alabama Crimson Tide, its top six opponents, plus top teams from the SEC and other conferences.

Alabama Crimson Tide data-junkies are going to enjoy this post. It has numbers and numbers and more numbers. The source is Pro Football Focus (PFF). For those who don’t know, their data collection includes college and professional statistics.

The number-crunching from PFF has zero bias. It simply calculates the amount of playing experience returning in eight different categories. PFF is well-suited for the task because during the season it tracks “every single player on every single play.”

The eight measured categories are: returning passing snaps; returning rushing snaps; returning pass-route snaps; returning pass-blocking snaps; returning run-blocking snaps; returning coverage snaps; returning run-defense snaps and returning pass-rush snaps. Every school is listed in the above link.

In this review, besides the Alabama Crimson Tide, nine other teams are compared. Six are 2020, Crimson Tide opponents: Southern California; Auburn; LSU; Georgia; Texas A&M and Tennessee. Also included are Florida, Clemson and Ohio State.

This comparison uses the PFF data and draws a general conclusion. The stated PFF premise is “less roster turnover is critical to future team success.” PFF cites LSU last season as an example. The Bengal Tigers returned 100 percent of passing snaps and 80 percent of pass-route and pass-blocking snaps.

Looking forward to the 2020 season, two benchmarks are used in our general conclusion. They are: strong returning numbers are 80 percent and above; weak returning numbers are 50 percent and less. The data results and category comparisons are listed below. An overall summary shows the teams with the strongest returning numbers are, in order: Texas A&M; Southern Cal; Clemson and Tennessee (tied). The teams with the weakest returning numbers are LSU and Ohio State (tied); Alabama, Georgia and Florida (tied).

PFF Data Passing Snaps

• Texas A&M and Southern Cal – 100 percent
• Tennessee – 99.5 percent
• Auburn – 97.6 percent
• Ohio State – 88.9 percent
• Clemson – 83.8 percent
• Florida – 83.6 percent
• Alabama Crimson Tide – 38.6
• Georgia – 6.9 percent
• LSU – 6.6 percent

PFF Data Rushing Snaps

• Clemson – 97.5 percent
• Tennessee – 95.6 percent
• Alabama Crimson Tide – 92.5 percent
• Texas A&M – 88.7 percent
• Southern Cal – 64.7 percent
• Florida – 54.6 percent
• Auburn – 49.9 percent
• Ohio State – 46.5 percent
• LSU – 35.9 percent
• Georgia – 32.4 percent

PFF Data Pass-Route Snaps

• Clemson – 73.6 percent
• Texas A&M – 67.6 percent
• Auburn – 65.8 percent
• Alabama Crimson Tide – 57.2 percent
• Southern Cal – 52.1 percent
• Georgia – 50.9 percent
• Ohio State – 49.6 percent
• Tennessee – 46 percent
• Florida – 43.8 percent
• LSU – 43.1 percent

PFF Data Pass-Blocking Snaps

• Texas A&M – 81.4 percent
• Tennessee – 63.8 percent
• Ohio State – 61.8 percent
• Southern Cal – 60.4 percent
• Auburn – 55.9 percent
• Clemson – 47.5 percent
• Alabama Crimson Tide – 43.2 percent
• Georgia – 37.4 percent
• LSU – 30.8 percent
• Florida – 21.5 percent

PFF Date Run-Blocking Snaps

• Texas A&M – 79.9 percent
• Ohio State – 64.3 percent
• Clemson – 62.3 percent
• Southern Cal – 61.2 percent
• Tennessee – 57.1 percent
• Auburn – 51.4 percent
• Alabama Crimson Tide – 49.2 percent
• Georgia – 40.6 percent
• LSU – 40.5 percent
• Florida – 36.6 percent

PFF Data Coverage Snaps

• Southern Cal – 84.7 percent
• Georgia – 79.7 percent
• Texas A&M – 78.8 percent
• Florida – 71 percent
• Tennessee – 70.4 percent
• Auburn – 55.2 percent
• LSU – 54.2 percent
• Alabama Crimson Tide – 48.3 percent
• Clemson – 45.5 percent
• Ohio State – 43.5 percent

PFF Data Run-Defense Snaps

• Southern Cal – 81.8 percent
• Texas A&M – 80.5 percent
• Georgia – 73.4 percent
• Tennessee – 72.6 percent
• Clemson – 61.6 percent
• Florida – 59.6 percent
• Auburn – 57.8 percent
• LSU – 55 percent
• Alabama Crimson Tide – 53.7 percent
• Ohio State – 48.3 percent

PFF Data Pass-Rush Snaps

• Texas A&M – 82.5 percent
• Clemson – 78.8 percent
• Tennessee – 78 percent
• Southern Cal – 76.8 percent
• Georgia -75.3 percent
• LSU – 54.9 percent
• Auburn – 54.4 percent
• Alabama Crimson Tide – 50.9 percent
• Ohio State – 46.4 percent
• Florida – 44.5 percent

Crimson Tide fans will quickly identify a weakness in numbers for the Tide’s 2020 defensive returners. 2019 injured players, LaBryan Ray and Dylan Moses bring considerable experience to the 2020 roster.