Coach Diaz has had quite the week already, from letting go the entire offensive staff, to saying "we didn't work hard enough" right after firing the S & C coach, he walked into an office and demoted his two protege's before the ink was barely dry from their promotions under Richt. Now, Diaz has made it official that Blake Baker will be the new DC for the University of Miami and will be calling the plays defensively.
My goal in this article is to analyze Blake Baker by the numbers and gain a better understanding of the job that he did as the DC while at Louisiana Tech University. In order to gain an order of context, I am looking at Baker in a way other than simply looking at where his defenses rank overall in the nation. I want to look at the defense's performance relative to peer organizations and the resources available to him to field a quality defense.
Methodology
In order to provide this context, here is the methodology for which I started this endeavor:
Results
I calculated how each offense fared against the La Tech defense on a per-play basis and then calculated how each opponent fared in their games against other Group-of-5 opponents and then calculated the standard deviation of their performances over the course of the season. The larger the deviation, the more variance in performance that team had offensively.
When you look at the numbers of the defense in aggregate, they do not appear overly impressive, but when you break them down to compare them to how the teams fared elsewhere, and the results are quite impressive. Out of the 10 games against Group-of-5 competition, only three teams performed better than their norm against La Tech (UTSA, UTEP, and Rice). While those three teams performed better than their norms, it was only slightly so, and it was all in games that La Tech won.
In each of the other seven games, La tech held their opponents under their season averages against other G5 teams. They significantly held Western Kentucky and Hawaii under their season norms to end the season (nearly two standard deviations). Overall, La Tech allowed the following results:
In regards to resources spent on the sport, I also believe it is important to take that into consideration as well. After all, while Alabama and Iowa State may both be Power-5 programs, you would not hold them to the same standard of results due to the wide disparity of resources at their disposal. This past season, La Tech finished 106th out of 113 FBS programs in revenue from football. They had the second lowest athletic budget in Conference-USA). It is safe to say La Tech is getting a king's return on its investment on the football side of things as they have now won four straight bowl games despite having a pauper's budget.
As far as recruiting goes, Baker was rated the #4 recruiter in the conference last season, pulling in three commitments. Overall, La Tech is rated to have the second best talent in the conference (behind FAU) with mush of the defensive talent being recruited by Baker.
Overall
When you consider the limitations placed on La Tech due to a lack of resources, to have the defensive results that Baker had at the school is quite encouraging. He has experience with calling plays, he has a philosophy that aligns with Coach Diaz' approach (attacking and aggressive), and he has helped recruit and develop some of the best talent in a conference where some schools are spending twice the amount of money that La Tech is.
This hire shows well from a data standpoint. It also shows well from a standpoint that Coach Diaz didn't simply settle for promoting from within, but rather made the hard decision to demote his two proteges and not entrust them with the defense as first time play callers at this time.
Look for another article referencing how the defense looks on film at a later time.
My goal in this article is to analyze Blake Baker by the numbers and gain a better understanding of the job that he did as the DC while at Louisiana Tech University. In order to gain an order of context, I am looking at Baker in a way other than simply looking at where his defenses rank overall in the nation. I want to look at the defense's performance relative to peer organizations and the resources available to him to field a quality defense.
Methodology
In order to provide this context, here is the methodology for which I started this endeavor:
- How did La Tech fare against peer teams in comparison to how those teams fared against other peer teams. Peer teams in this instance means other Group-of-5 teams, so no FCS or Power-5 teams were included in the data.
- I wanted to look at the resources given to the football program at LA Tech in comparison to their peers. In this case, resources means spending on football.
- Recruiting in comparison to peer institutions.
Results
I calculated how each offense fared against the La Tech defense on a per-play basis and then calculated how each opponent fared in their games against other Group-of-5 opponents and then calculated the standard deviation of their performances over the course of the season. The larger the deviation, the more variance in performance that team had offensively.
When you look at the numbers of the defense in aggregate, they do not appear overly impressive, but when you break them down to compare them to how the teams fared elsewhere, and the results are quite impressive. Out of the 10 games against Group-of-5 competition, only three teams performed better than their norm against La Tech (UTSA, UTEP, and Rice). While those three teams performed better than their norms, it was only slightly so, and it was all in games that La Tech won.
- UTSA put up these results: 5.03 yards per pass play, 3.70 yards per rush, 4.54 yards total per play. Against other G5 teams, UTSA was terrible offensively and only averaged 4.93 yards per pass play, 3.13 yards per rush, 4.10 yards per play overall. They had no TD's against La Tech and two turnovers.
- UTEP put up these results: 8.61 yards per pass play, 1.95 yards per rush, 5.09 yards per play. Against other G5 teams, UTEP averaged 7.55 yards per pass, 3.24 yards per rush, 4.97 yards per play overall.
- Rice had these results: 6.46 yards per pass, 3.45 yards per run, 5.09 yards total per play. Against other G5 teams, Rice averaged 6.74 yards per pass, 3.68 yards per run, 5.03 yards per play overall.
In each of the other seven games, La tech held their opponents under their season averages against other G5 teams. They significantly held Western Kentucky and Hawaii under their season norms to end the season (nearly two standard deviations). Overall, La Tech allowed the following results:
In regards to resources spent on the sport, I also believe it is important to take that into consideration as well. After all, while Alabama and Iowa State may both be Power-5 programs, you would not hold them to the same standard of results due to the wide disparity of resources at their disposal. This past season, La Tech finished 106th out of 113 FBS programs in revenue from football. They had the second lowest athletic budget in Conference-USA). It is safe to say La Tech is getting a king's return on its investment on the football side of things as they have now won four straight bowl games despite having a pauper's budget.
As far as recruiting goes, Baker was rated the #4 recruiter in the conference last season, pulling in three commitments. Overall, La Tech is rated to have the second best talent in the conference (behind FAU) with mush of the defensive talent being recruited by Baker.
Overall
When you consider the limitations placed on La Tech due to a lack of resources, to have the defensive results that Baker had at the school is quite encouraging. He has experience with calling plays, he has a philosophy that aligns with Coach Diaz' approach (attacking and aggressive), and he has helped recruit and develop some of the best talent in a conference where some schools are spending twice the amount of money that La Tech is.
This hire shows well from a data standpoint. It also shows well from a standpoint that Coach Diaz didn't simply settle for promoting from within, but rather made the hard decision to demote his two proteges and not entrust them with the defense as first time play callers at this time.
Look for another article referencing how the defense looks on film at a later time.
