I used this site, which goes back to 2000:
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/2000-team-defe...

Year, Avg Points, Total Defense
2000 18.9 349.3
2001 29.4 444.6
2002 31.2 377.8
2003 31.0 369.8
2004 24.6 319.6
2005 30.5 452.5
2006 18.1 302.9
2007 29.9 362.8
2008 27.2 348.6
2009 21.3 348.5
2010 23.8 353.4
2011 22.1 361.4
2012 24.8 388.8
2013 27.5 405.8
2014 24.8 394.3
2015 25.3 377.7
2016 22.6 360.2
2017 24.2 371.6
2018 24.6 390.9
2019 30.7 460.0 (through 7 games)

2006 defense was no joke!! We kept everything underneath and rallied. No real big deep shots and explosive plays.

My question would be can Ohio get back to its historical mean DPG under Solich over the second half of the season? Does the second half of the season favor Ohio with a veteran coaching staff?

This is year 15. but it's year 1 with this defensive coordinator.

Give Ohio that defense, they win the MAC this year, and it's not even close.


It's not going to get easier the next three weeks, at Ball State, then Miami and WMU. All three have winning records in the MAC, and are in the running for the MACC. Ohio needs to win at least 2 of those three, so I hope the defense plays well. The offense is clearly improving, but I'm not convinced they can score 45+ every week.

In thinking about it, the game has changed a lot over the last ten year, and a lot more points are being scored these days, so a simple comparison makes things look worse than they are. I decided to go back and add one more column to this table, a comparison between the points given up per game and the median for other teams that year:

Year, Avg Points, Total Defense, Comparison to Median team that year
2000 18.9 349.3 -24%
2001 29.4 444.6 +15%
2002 31.2 377.8 +21%
2003 31.0 369.8 +24%
2004 24.6 319.6 -3%
2005 30.5 452.5 +19%
2006 18.1 302.9 -20%
2007 29.9 362.8 +12%
2008 27.2 348.6 +10%
2009 21.3 348.5 -16%
2010 23.8 353.4 -8%
2011 22.1 361.4 -15%
2012 24.8 388.8 -11%
2013 27.5 405.8 +5%
2014 24.8 394.3 -7%
2015 25.3 377.7 -7%
2016 22.6 360.2 -19%
2017 24.2 371.6 -9%
2018 24.6 390.9 -1%
2019 30.7 460.0 +14% (through 7 games)

By adding the third column, the best defenses relative to other defenses that year was 2000 (-24%). The best under Solich were 2006 (-20%), 2016 (-19%), 2009 (-16%) and 2011 (-15%). Those four years are also his four MAC East Championships. 2018 does not do that well, at -1% despite their strong finish because they started the year horribly.

As for 2019, by this measure it is better than 2005. If they finish strongly this year, as last year's defense did, they could improve their rank considerably.

The defense continues to make other offenses look like world beaters. That’s got to stop to even make a bowl. Talk of a MAC East berth in Detroit is on life support if we don’t win this week.
And this is against the 110 ranked schedule so far by Sagarin. With Akron on the schedule it’s bound to go down for that one unless we’re just playing out the schedule by then.

Last year's team gave up 33.8 points per game over the first six games and then 16.7 the rest of the way. We can hope this year's team figures things out in the same kind of way.

+1

Go OHIO!

Yes agree as hope the Cats keep all teams below 30 the rest of the way. Last season they found a way to improve after midway through the year, so maybe they will find their groove in 2019.