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Mike Leach was unusually reliant on the pass in 2012, even for him

Just how dependent on the pass was 2012 WSU? Very. So how uncommon was WSU's reliance on the pass? Very.

By Brian Anderson
WSU is bizzaro Georgia Tech
WSU is bizzaro Georgia Tech
Scott Cunningham

This data was compiled using the tables from cfbstats.com. Over at Football Study Hall, Bill Connelly has released a "boatload" of data. If you're a stat nerd, I'd highly recommend downloading some of it and after playing around, post whatever you find interesting. Visuals are fun. I was looking for trends between conferences and happened to stumble upon this gem.

Runpassconferences_medium

This figure charts data for every team in the major five conferences. The X-axis is the percentage of the time they run or pass the ball, the Y-axis is the percentage of total yards from either running or passing. Passing data are triangles and circles are rushing data.

Most teams lump between 60-40, ranging from running 60% to throwing 60%. Not WSU and not Georgia Tech. The Cougs are essentially the exact opposite of the Yellow Jackets and both teams are the only notable outliers.

And yes, you are reading that figure correctly, less than 10% of offensive yardage came from the running game. The new Pistol stuff can't get here soon enough.

Here's the data if you want to look through the numbers, all stats are a per game average for the season.

PAC-12


 Rush Att Rush Yard Pass Att Pass Comp Pass Yard %RUN %TOTALrun %PASS %TOTALpass
Washington State 21.0 29.1 52.0 30.3 330.4 28.8 8.1 71.2 91.9
Washington 35.8 142.4 33.7 20.5 212.8 51.5 40.1 48.5 59.9
Oregon 52.8 315.2 28.7 19.2 222.2 64.8 58.7 35.2 41.3
Oregon State 34.0 124.4 38.8 24.2 307.1 46.7 28.8 53.3 71.2
California 37.6 183.0 30.5 17.7 208.3 55.2 46.8 44.8 53.2
Stanford 39.2 174.3 28.5 17.1 200.1 57.9 46.5 42.1 53.5
UCLA 42.8 190.8 35.4 23.1 275.7 54.7 40.9 45.3 59.1
USC 30.2 150.6 35.5 21.8 282.3 46.0 34.8 54.0 65.2
Arizona 41.8 227.8 41.4 25.1 298.4 50.3 43.3 49.7 56.7
Arizona State 46.1 205.3 31.8 21.2 259.2 59.2 44.2 40.8 55.8
Colorado 35.5 109.8 33.6 18.6 192.4 51.4 36.3 48.6 63.7
Utah 37.2 133.8 29.3 18.3 190.7 56.0 41.2 44.0 58.8
AVERAGE
 37.8 165.5 34.9 21.4 248.3 51.9 39.1 48.1 60.9

B1G

Rush Att Rush Yard Pass Att Pass Comp Pass Yard %RUN %TOTALrun %PASS %TOTALpass
Illinois 36.9 127.8 29.5 18.6 168.8 55.6 43.1 44.4 56.9
Indiana 33.2 130.0 44.8 27.5 312.0 42.6 29.4 57.4 70.6
Iowa 33.7 123.0 32.4 18.6 187.4 50.9 39.6 49.1 60.4
Michigan 38.6 183.8 24.5 13.0 199.3 61.2 48.0 38.8 52.0
Michigan State 37.8 149.4 35.8 18.8 209.9 51.4 41.6 48.6 58.4
Minnesota 39.8 151.9 25.4 13.5 169.5 61.0 47.3 39.0 52.7
Nebraska 47.3 253.4 27.0 16.6 207.4 63.7 55.0 36.3 45.0
Northwestern 45.8 225.5 28.4 17.8 169.1 61.7 57.2 38.3 42.8
Ohio State 46.6 242.3 23.2 13.4 181.5 66.8 57.2 33.2 42.8
Penn State 39.6 143.9 38.0 22.7 273.6 51.0 34.5 49.0 65.5
Purdue 36.5 164.2 37.1 22.8 238.5 49.6 40.8 50.4 59.2
Wisconsin 45.4 236.4 20.8 12.1 156.9 68.6 60.1 31.4 39.9
Rutgers 33.2 121.4 30.2 17.2 208.5 52.4 36.8 47.6 63.2
Maryland 39.3 103.0 25.3 13.8 181.8 60.8 36.2 39.2 63.8
AVERAGES 39.5 168.3 30.2 17.6 204.6 57.0 44.8 43.0 55.2

SEC

Rush Att Rush Yard Pass Att Pass Comp Pass Yard %RUN %TOTALrun %PASS %TOTALpass
Texas A&M 41.0 242.1 37.8 25.3 316.5 52.0 43.3 48.0 56.7
Arkansas 30.6 118.7 38.3 22.7 301.5 44.4 28.2 55.6 71.8
LSU 40.5 173.7 27.4 16.0 200.5 59.7 46.4 40.3 53.6
Mississippi State 32.6 144.2 32.6 19.2 237.8 50.0 37.7 50.0 62.3
Mississippi 42.5 174.0 31.5 19.9 249.8 57.5 41.1 42.5 58.9
Alabama 40.7 227.5 23.4 15.6 218.0 63.5 51.1 36.5 48.9
Auburn 36.5 148.4 21.4 12.3 156.6 63.0 48.7 37.0 51.3
Missouri 37.8 138.5 34.5 19.0 217.9 52.2 38.9 47.8 61.1
Vanderbilt 40.3 166.3 26.9 15.9 213.4 60.0 43.8 40.0 56.2
Kentucky 33.6 138.8 32.3 18.3 176.3 51.0 44.0 49.0 56.0
Tennessee 34.4 160.3 39.8 23.8 315.6 46.4 33.7 53.6 66.3
South Carolina 37.8 138.5 28.1 17.3 238.1 57.4 36.8 42.6 63.2
Georgia 37.5 182.6 28.5 18.1 285.1 56.8 39.0 43.2 61.0
Florida 41.5 187.7 22.2 14.1 146.3 65.2 56.2 34.8 43.8
AVERAGES 37.7 167.2 30.3 18.4 233.8 55.6 42.1 44.4 57.9

Big 12

Rush Att Rush Yard Pass Att Pass Comp Pass Yard %RUN %TOTALrun %PASS %TOTALpass
Baylor 45.9 231.7 36.5 22.6 340.5 55.7 40.5 44.3 59.5
Iowa State 35.8 150.1 35.2 20.5 214.1 50.4 41.2 49.6 58.8
Kansas 46.5 211.7 26.1 12.3 148.7 64.1 58.7 35.9 41.3
Kansas State 40.5 194.0 24.2 15.6 207.8 62.5 48.3 37.5 51.7
Oklahoma 33.4 161.8 43.9 28.9 336.8 43.2 32.4 56.8 67.6
Oklahoma State 39.9 215.3 38.1 24.0 331.7 51.2 39.4 48.8 60.6
Texas 37.9 174.6 30.6 20.5 260.0 55.3 40.2 44.7 59.8
TCU 39.4 152.1 30.9 18.2 236.5 56.0 39.1 44.0 60.9
Texas Tech 30.7 139.9 45.7 32.2 355.9 40.2 28.2 59.8 71.8
West Virginia 36.1 170.9 40.9 28.8 329.6 46.9 34.1 53.1 65.9
AVERAGES 38.6 180.2 35.2 22.4 276.2 52.5 40.2 47.5 59.8

ACC

Rush Att Rush Yard Pass Att Pass Comp Pass Yard %RUN %TOTALrun %PASS %TOTALpass
Boston College 28.8 90.9 39.4 21.3 258.5 42.2 26.0 57.8 74.0
Clemson 45.2 191.5 36.5 24.5 321.2 55.4 37.3 44.6 62.7
North Carolina 38.1 193.8 36.8 23.9 291.8 50.9 39.9 49.1 60.1
North Carolina State 36.2 111.1 43.8 25.4 310.1 45.3 26.4 54.7 73.6
Syracuse 42.7 187.0 36.5 22.8 289.3 53.9 39.3 46.1 60.7
Wake Forest 33.5 100.5 35.6 19.9 200.8 48.5 33.4 51.5 66.6
Duke 33.8 125.2 42.4 27.1 283.9 44.3 30.6 55.7 69.4
Georgia Tech 57.7 311.2 13.9 7.3 129.9 80.6 70.6 19.4 29.4
Miami (Florida) 30.9 144.8 37.3 22.0 295.4 45.4 32.9 54.6 67.1
Pittsburgh 37.6 133.1 30.4 19.8 257.0 55.3 34.1 44.7 65.9
Virginia 34.8 128.5 39.5 23.0 268.0 46.8 32.4 53.2 67.6
Virginia Tech 39.0 145.8 33.6 17.2 230.9 53.7 38.7 46.3 61.3
Louisville 35.5 122.7 35.1 23.6 296.1 50.3 29.3 49.7 70.7
AVERAGES 38.0 152.8 35.4 21.4 264.1 51.7 36.2 48.3 63.8

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