As spring practices wind down, coaches are implementing strategies for the fall. As a fan, sometimes we might wonder what things are important in building a championship team. I’m sure you have always heard the phrase, “Defense wins championships.” Is that true? LSU had a pretty good defense last year. Florida’s was good the year before. Does it take more? What about offense? Doesn’t it need to be balanced? How about special teams?

Terry Bowden wrote an interesting article for Yahoo! Sports. Terry “crunched” the numbers, so to speak, of vital statistics for the best teams in the nation last year. His conclusions? Well there are several, but defense against the run was at the top of the list. Kind of interesting when you realize that LSU struggled at times last year to stop the run including against Arkansas in the season finale. LSU also gave up the big run to open the National Championship game to Ohio State’s Chris Wells. Nevertheless, the article is worth taking a look.

Terry Bowden’s Article: Coaching by Numbers