What can yards do for you?

A look at one of the key numbers from Dana Holgorsen's past, which could now be Nebraska's future.

Courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Let’s say State Tech Ag. & Mech.—a hypothetical team I love dearly—is playing a hypothetical game against University College.¹ Every offensive drive for STAMU starts at its own 25-yard line and there are 10 of them. The maximum yards STAMU can gain in this game is 750, but it stops at 745, kneeling on the ball at UC’s 5-yard line while up 63-0 with 20 seconds left. The Agmechies gained 99.3% of the available yards in this game.

Points are the only currency that matters on fall Saturdays, but points are a binary proposition—a team either scores or it doesn’t—and as we all know it’s possible to play effective football without scoring (or, defensively, even while allowing a score). A stat like Available Yards is one that can help measure some of what’s happening between points, and I like it because it’s intuitive. I think of it as some combination of how efficient, threatening and consistent an offense or defense is

It's also one I’ll be monitoring closely in 2025 as a way to track Nebraska’s offense, which should be and needs to be drastically better than what we’ve seen during the first two seasons of the Matt Rhule era.

That’s why Dana Holgorsen’s been in Lincoln since November.