Grambling’s offense is marginally better, statistically, than it was at this time last year — primarily on the strength of its running game. And the team is putting up more points.
Here’s a breakdown by TheDerisoReport.com of this September’s numbers. Let’s compare them to the same month a season ago — and then see where they might lead us.
Grambling is ranked No. 4 in the 10-team Southwestern Athletic Conference for total offense, averaging 304 yards a game and nearly 4.5 yards per play. That’s helped along by a No. 4 SWAC rank in rushing, as GSU — powered by a breakout first month for Frank Warren — has been running 160 yards a night.
Grambling’s pass offense, traditionally a strength over the last decade, has slipped to No. 9 in the league — totalling 576 yards over four games. To put that in perspective, four years ago in a single game against Saturday’s opponent Prairie View, Bruce Eugene put up 618 passing yards. (GSU averaged 227 more passing yards a night in 2005, on its way to the program’s 21st conference championship.)
Of course, no Grambling passer has matched that level of numerical productivity since, and I can’t imagine anyone will. So, let’s look more closely at how this year’s stats compare over the two seasons of offense under the current coaching staff.
GSU is averaging 75 more yards of total offense per game in 2009 than it was going into this same conference play-opening Prairie View matchup last year. That breaks down to 74 more rushing yards and 4 more passing yards per game this season.
The team had a similar record, too, at 3-2 in 2008.
Difference: That was a largely remade unit, with an unsettled situation at quarterback, a hole in the receiving corps with the departure of record-breaking phenom Clyde Edwards and a remade offensive line.
This year, the group returns 10 of 11 starters, including every player up front.
Statistically, the 2009 offense is also lagging behind the 2007 edition — which, in its first month, was learning a new system under a new staff and returned just six starters — and only two of them linemen.
Going into this Prairie View game two seasons ago, Grambling was passing for 89 more yards per game, while rushing for 25 less a night. The sum total difference in total offense per game between that offense and this one is 63 ypg more for the 2007 squad — though, again, the records were similar.
GSU arrives in Dallas this year at 2-2; the Tigers were 2-1 in 2007.
Extrapolating the current numbers over an 11-game regular-season schedule, Grambling would finish with 1,584 yards of passing (worst since Michael Kornblau in 1997) and 1,760 yards of rushing for the year (second best, after last year’s 2,000 team yards, under Broadway).
But you certainly couldn’t chart out last year’s success based on how the team looked in September. Grambling began a winning streak in Dallas that carried it all the way to a 22nd SWAC Championship in Dallas in 2008.
And it did that averaging just 6 more yards of total offense a game than this offense is averaging right now.
You read that right. Yes, 6.
Difference: Grambling, putting up 18 points a night before Prairie View in 2008, learned how to score. GSU averaged nearly 10 more points per game through the rest of the season, and never lost again.
Fast forward one year and, for all its apparent struggles, we find this: Grambling is actually scoring at its fastest September rate since Rod Broadway arrived, though some of the credit for that goes back to the defense.
GSU averaged 24 points a night going into this Prairie View contest in 2007, 18 in 2008 and, so far, 26 points per game in 2009.
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