Getting Things Started: Kickoffs in U Sports

1. Abstract

Kickoffs in U Sports are examined according to their net, gross, and spread yardage, as well as their EP values, considering both the point estimates of the mean and the overall distributions. Kickoffs from the 75-yard line, associated with safeties, are found to behave differently from other kickoffs, generally associated with touchdowns. This leads to the creation of the “good team hypothesis,” discussed in further detail below. The impact of rouges is also discussed, especially vis-à-vis their value in punting situations, owing to differing rules for kicks out-of-bounds. Rouges are much more desirable for kickoffs, where a “coffin corner” kick is not an option. While gross kick yardage varies with field position, kick return distance is only minimally impacted by field position, and is much more stable across field position. This is consistent with extant domain wisdom, that a longer kick allows a longer return before the coverage team can meet it.

New Year, New Data: Additions to the Passes and Patterns Knowledge Base

1. Abstract

An update on the developments affecting the various articles previously published in this space, covering both the analyses of other work and original research. Datasets for original research have been updated with 2018 data for both the CFL and U Sports. Previously written state of the art pieces that have seen new work in the field include a postscript to the original work to fold in the new research. Finally, original research previously done has been updated with the new data brought in.

The critical developments covered here include an American P(1D) (Pelechrinis and Papalexakis 2016b) model that shows non-linearity for 3rd down in a manner similar to that previously found in Canadian football (Clement 2018e, [g] 2018), and the development of a WP model for Canadian football (Thiel 2019).

Given the Boot: The Analytics of Kickoffs

1. Abstract

The third piece in a series on the current state of affairs regarding analytical research into football’s kicking plays, this piece looks at kickoffs. The broad conclusions to draw from the corpus are that the rule changes regarding touchbacks have had a major impact in reducing the number of kickoff returns and negatively impacting the starting field position after a kickoff; and that onside kicks are underutilized. Their success rate is almost entirely dependent on whether or not the kicking team is obliged by game situation to attempt an onside kick, and non-necessary onside kicks have a far higher success rate, high enough that their use is currently an under-exploited area of opportunity.