Last year's Hetherman/Minnesota defense...

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More specifically, that safety tandem was the most abysmal pair of safeties that I have seen wear a Miami uniform.

Again, people are just obsessed with claiming that the last thing they saw is the worst/best that they've ever seen.

Last year's defense was better than the 2012 defense in every aspect/metric. To say otherwise is delusional.
 
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No stat is perfect but if you’re going to look at just one, I think yards per play is the best one. Points obviously is the name of the game, but your defensive points allowed can be skewed by return TDs, and short field TDs.

Here is where Minnesota ranked in yards per play, and what that team did for the season

North Carolina - 3.94 YPP allowed - finished at 5.84 a game (55th)

Nevada - 3.25 YPP allowed - finished at 5.74 a game (65th)

Iowa - 5.22 YPP allowed - finished at 5.48 a game (81st)

Michigan - 3.95 YPP allowed - finished at 4.69 a game (125th)

USC - 5.65 YPP allowed - finished at 6.32 a game (17th)

UCLA - 5.31 YPP allowed - finished at 5.36 a game (89th)

Maryland - 6.19 YPP allowed - finished at 5.17 a game (102nd)

Illinois - 5.68 YPP allowed - finished at 5.80 a game (59th)

Rutgers - 4.92 YPP allowed - finished at 5.34 a game (90th)

Penn State - 5.92 YPP allowed - finished at 6.54 a game (7th)

Wisconsin - 2.96 YPP allowed - finished at 5.31 a game (94th)

So, they played some objectively awful offenses. A lot of them. Two ranked in the top 10, but no one else in the top 50. Six ranked in the 80s or worse. But, for the whole year, they only allowed one team to get better than their season average. Maryland. And they only gave up 23 points. The two top 20 offenses they played, Minnesota did hold them under their season average.

I wish we’d have been able to see them play some better offenses but you can only play who’s on your schedule, and in 11 of 12 games, Minnesota did hold their opponent under their season average. That’s impressive.
Are those averages including games against their FCS opponents?
 
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