ESPN Football Power Index - Are our special teams a strength?

[LiterallyPolice]

ESPN updated their FPI yesterday:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings

You'll notice two tabs: "Football Power Index", and "Team Efficiencies". We are ranked high in both: #10 and #9, respectively.

Our high rankings are good discussion topics in themselves... but what I found most interesting is on the "Team Efficiencies" tab (http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings/_/tab/efficiency). You'll notice that it basically scores the Offense, Defense, and Special Teams on how much they contribute to a scoring margin (schedule adjusted). So the higher the better.

Our special teams score very high compared to other teams (+8.32). How could this be? I know it isn't our return game.... right? Maybe Punting/Kickoffs? Is this ranking just garbage? Interested in hearing y'alls opinion.

[messageboardsuperhero]

I'd imagine the blocked FG for a TD probably skewed that statistic somewhat.

[LiterallyPolice]

I'd imagine the blocked FG for a TD probably skewed that statistic somewhat.



Oh snap.... yeah, very good point. Didn't think of that. I bet you're right.

[Todd4State]

At this point, I'd have to play the sample size card. I do think it's something that will be interesting to monitor over the course of the year.

KO- The kick it high and then cover the kick thought that Dan employs isn't conventional, but I'd be interested to hear if he has a stat or something on that. We covered kicks pretty well against USM aside from one.

KO return- we only returned one kick against USM and we got out to the 13. That's not good, but we only had one opportunity.

FG kicking- 0 for 1 because of a bad snap, and then 7/7 on extra points.

FG Block- We blocked USM's only FG attempt and took it to the house. This is probably helping our ranking right now.

Punt- Devon Bell did a good job. He had a 39.8 average and 3 of his four punts were inside the 20. That helps our ranking.

Punt return- We bobbled some, but we didn't lose any punts. Not great, but it also didn't hurt us in the ranking I bet.

[curmudgeon]

We're also the fifth most likely to win the SEC, behind Georgia, Alabama, Auburn and A&M.