Two-Minute Drill: Hairy ballerinas, stats, greek letters, and parentheses
Man, oh man, the CFB blogosphere has been hopping lately. I’ve been eagerly anticipating the follow up to EDSBS’s excellent post on the intricacies of the 4-3 defense, and today Orson propped former lineman for California and the Dallas Cowboys Jim Richards up behind the podium so he could clue us in to what the “hairy ballerinas,” as Orson calls them, are really doing up there. an excerpt:
Defenses are able to key the [three-point] stance to determine whether it’s a run to the right or left, or if it’s a pass play, by the amount of weight distributed to the fingertips. The whiter the fingernails, the higher the butt in the air bringing more weight forward, usually tips off a run play. The less weight on the fingertips, and a little more chest exposure, along with the butt a little lower, usually tips off a pass play.
See, this is why I love football. Everybody knows about macro-level strategy, that of the offensive coordinator mastermind vs. the wiley defensive guru, but dig deeper and you’ll find that it’s also eleven ferocious individual battles between men analyzing each other down to the degree of blanching in their index finger. Good stuff.
Burnt Orange Nation is also tearing it up, both compiling and critiquing the ever-important college football music, and posting a couple of charts on the before and after years of past national champions. Tennessee was ranked No. 7 the year prior to its 1998 national championship run and No. 9 the following year. Also of note to Volunteer fans, since 1980 five teams have gone on to win it all after completing the prior season unranked. You know, like Tennessee this year. Those five are 1980 Georgia, 1981 Clemson, 1983 Miami, 2000 Oklahoma, and 2002 Ohio State.
And speaking of numbers, mgoblog removes the scientific calculator from his shirt pocket to comment on Smart Football’s latest post on run/pass balance. Both bloggers apparently have an affinity for Greek letters and parentheses and stuff.
Finally, Paul Westerdawg at the Georgia Sports Blog has located and posted a video of Lee Corso explaining some of the new features of NCAA 2007, which hits the stores in just a couple of weeks.
