The other night I went through College Football Reference to see if a notion that I had was true. I’d mentioned on another thread that the ST had been regressing since Jay Hill stopped being in charge of it. Then I thought to myself, it also seems like turnovers have been more infrequent since around the same time which would also be when Sitake left.
Turnovers per game based on DC since 2000 (no reliable stats for fumble recoveries before then):
Whittingham (2000-2004) – 1.3, 1.6, 2.2, 2.4, 2.4
Andersen (2005-2008) – 1.9, 2.2, 2.5, 2.4
Sitake (2009-2014) – 1.9, 1.9, 2.5, 1.8, 1.3, 1.6
Pease (2015) – 2.6
Scalley (2016-2023) – 2.3, 2.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.6 (covid), 1.1, 1.7, 1.2 and 1.3 so far in 2024
Turnovers are never going to be consistent from year to year but it’s clear that the last 6 non-covid seasons under Scalley are among the bottom 10 from the last 25 seasons. Taking the ball away one more time a game (on average) could be something that takes the current Utah defense from top 20 to truly elite. RSNB needs to be more than a catchprhase.