It's game week! Here are the stats for opener against Cal. These statistics reflect the 2016 season since no 2017 stats are available yet.
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Click any image to enlarge.
Week 1 Stats: California at North Carolina
- Thread starter Raising Heel
- Start date
Not sure how much we can deduce from last year's stats other than very general trends. I'm hoping our defense will be better, it really needs to because we lost so much of our offense. I'm excited to get the season rolling.
I'm going to copy and paste what I wrote on the premium board below. The bottom line is that I'm not entirely sure. It's the first game of the season, Cal has an entirely new coaching staff, and both offenses have suffered significant losses from last season. My gut tells me that UNC has better players at most positions and this is a home game, but there are just so many unknowns.
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Cal's new offensive coordinator, Beau Baldwin, was the head coach at FCS Eastern Washington last season (EWU is the school with the red turf). Baldwin was there for 9 years and they won an FCS Championship in 2010. Last season, EWU was 1st nationally in passing offense and 2nd nationally in total offense among FCS schools. Actually, their offense was top 5 nationally in passing almost every season he was there. Baldwin will be installing his scheme with Sonny Dykes' personnel, which makes me think it will be a smooth transition. That could be bad news for us. Our secondary is going to get a workout.
On the plus side, Cal will be breaking in a new quarterback. They were last year, too, but it was Davis Webb, a guy who had started 14 games at Texas Tech before transferring to Cal as a graduate student. I don't think any of the guys in the running to start this season have much experience. I wouldn't be surprised to see Papuchis mix up coverages and apply some pressure early to try to force mistakes.
Also, note that Cal's yards and points last season came while running over 86 plays per game. They were a good offense, but not terribly efficient. UNC's offense averaged more yards per carry, yards per pass attempt, and yards per play, plus Cal's 3rd down conversion percentage was only 39.1% compared to our 45.5%.
Forecast has really lightened up in the past 24 hours. Now it doesn't look like weather will be much of a factor, although it will probably be muggy as hell
RH's take is pretty spot on. Looks like they were a high volume short/intermediate air raid team that just ran the ball enough to try and keep defense honest. They weren't particularly efficient running or throwing, just ran a ton of plays. Based on their returning personnel and Baldwin's offenses at EW I'd expect a similar look, which I think plays to our strengths somewhat. Our secondary should be pretty good. I wouldn't be surprised of we surpass our INT total from all of last year in one game.
Our offensive line should be considerably bigger than their defensive line. Fed will try to establish the run early in order to take some pressure off our QB's. Conversely, I think Cal will load up to stop the run and try to force our inexperienced QB's and receivers to make some plays.
I believe our OL vs their DL will be the deciding factor. I think we cover the spread 35-21.
BTW, even though I don't think he'll start, I would love to see Surratt grab the QB position by the balls and not relinquish it.
I believe our OL vs their DL will be the deciding factor. I think we cover the spread 35-21.
BTW, even though I don't think he'll start, I would love to see Surratt grab the QB position by the balls and not relinquish it.
