The 'grit' factor, the intangibles, whatever you want to call these statistics … they're what many times makes a good football team. Not surprisingly, many FCS Playoff participants are good at doing the 'little things' very, very well. So we decided to quantify it.
[divider]MORE: Compare Any Two FCS Players or Any Two FCS Teams
PREDICTIONS: HERO Sports' Staff Predicts bracket
REACTION: To the FCS bracket announcement[divider]
There are things coaches talk about all the time — Turnover Margin, 3rd Down Efficiency (both offense and defense), Red Zone work (both offense and defense), our Special Teams ranking (see here), Fewest Penalties Per game and lastly, Time of Possession — and we put all 24 playoff teams side-by-side and put a ranking together.
The No. 1 team in each stat category earned one point, second place earned two, and so on down to 24, and the team with the fewest points won — kind of like golf without the Mulligans, club tossing, swearing and alligators (I'm in Florida).
PODCAST: Staff Talks Playoffs
Who does it well? Who doesn't do it as well? We'll give you answers.[divider]
DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP SIX
| RK | FCS TEAM | TOP CATEGORY |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | UNI | 6th in TO marg. |
| 7 | James Madison | 2nd in few. Penal. |
| 8 | Eastern Wash. | 4th in Spec. Tms |
| 9 | Elon | 1st in two categ. |
| 10 | UC Davis | 4th in Red Zone O |
| 11 | Jacksonville St. | 1st in 3rd Dwn D |
| 12 | Lamar | 3rd in Red Zone O |
| 13 | SDSU | 3rd in two categ. |
| 14 | Duquesne | 4th in 3rd Dwn O |
| 15 | Wofford | 4th in T.O.P. |
| 16 | SEMO | 1st in TO marg. |
| 17 | San Diego | 5th in Spec. Tms |
| 18 | ETSU | 2nd – Red Zone O |
| 19 | Stony Brook | 3rd – Red Zone D |
| 20 | Delaware | 4th – few. Penal. |
| 21 | Montana St. | 6th – few. Penal. |
| 22 | Towson | 7th in T.O.P. |
| 23 | Maine | 6th in 3rd Dwn D |
| 24 | Incarnate Word | 9th in TO marg. |
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NOS. 5 THROUGH 2
| RK | FCS TEAM | THE SKINNY |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Colgate | Time of Poss. (33:41), Red Zone D (50%), etc – they're good |
| 3 | Kennesaw | No. 1 special teams unit in the playoffs |
| 4 | Nicholls | Only one category not in top half of teams |
| 5 | Weber St. | Five top 10 performances in 'grit' world |
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1. NORTH DAKOTA STATE
THE SKINNY: Why is this not surprising? Let's face it, North Dakota State doesn't do what many Power Five teams do and go get the fastest defensive lineman, the big 5-star quarterback, the wide receivers who run near 4.2-second times … in contrast, NDSU builds its roster from the ground up, does the 'gritty' stuff well and wins because it is good at the categories we used above.
That is NDSU Bison football, the gritty intangible stuff. So it was no surprise to me that they popped up at the No. 1 spot.
Whether its turnover margin (1.45), red-zone work (91.1% conversion on O, only 45% allowed on D), handling third downs well on offense and defense, keeping the penalties to a minimum and doing a great job with the clock (32:00 mins TOP avg) — these are all things NDSU prides itself on.
