Skip to main content

College Football Overtime Strategy

Upon winning the coin toss for overtime in a college football game, I have never witnessed a team choosing to go on offense first. Every single time I've seen such a game, the team who won the coin toss has elected to go on defense first. The reason for this is it gives them the last chance in the first overtime and through that, provides them with the necessary information on what they will need to do on their possession in order to either win the game or move it to a second overtime. If the opposing team scores a field goal on their possession, the team who elected to go on defense first will then know they'll need a field goal to send the game to a second overtime or a touchdown to win in the first overtime. 

I understand that, but think I would go about things differently if I were a college coach. It depends on location. If my team were playing at home, I would elect to go on defense first. I'd trust that the crowd would add extra pressure on the opponent on their first (and hopefully only) possession in the extra session, and provide my team with a significant advantage due to that. If my team were playing on the road, however, I may opt to go on offense first. I'd want to ease the pressure off my team and place it on the opponent. In a tough road environment, if I elected to go on defense first and my opponent scored a touchdown, it'd be doubly difficult for my team to tie the game and send it to a second overtime. 

It's like in baseball. Is it nice being the home team and if the game is tied in the 9th inning, to be given the final at bats in the game before potentially heading to extra innings? Of course. However, if I had a choice between being up a run going to the bottom of the 9th inning on the road or being down a run going to the bottom of the 9th at home, I'd choose the former over the latter. To all these college football coaches, it's just about numbers in terms of scoring and knowing what they need to win the game or send it to another overtime. From my perspective, it's about numbers in terms of odds and probability of winning. I'd be very curious to see such numbers in overtime games - how teams have fared when playing defense in the first overtime, and if the results differed any on the road versus at home.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first book review of "Penetrating the Heart of Life: Ambiguous In Thought, Ambivalent In Feeling"

Well, I received my first book review on this poetry-compilation book I completed and published late last year, but have finally gotten around to marketing now. The reviewer gave it 5 out of 5 stars and said: "I enjoyed the poetic journey the writer has taken me on. From darkest days and hopeful optimism to the conclusion of hope realized. The visual images that the poem titled "Room Temperature" elicits, made me think of the song, "Horse With No Name" sung by the band America. In a similar manner, another poem – "Deafening Sigh-lence" reminded me a great deal of Simon & Garfunkel’s song, "The Sound of Silence". There are so many poems in this book that I related to, that I felt a connection to the author and felt that we were traveling on this journey together." http://www.lulu.com/shop/craig-rozniecki/penetrating-the-heart-of-life-ambiguous-in-thought-ambivalent-in-feeling/paperback/product-18677501.html
Post a Comment
Read more

A closer look at the Scramble With Friends power-ups

I am unashamed to admit that I'm a nerd. My idea of a good time is playing a word game like Boggle or Scrabble. Thankfully, I (and many others) can play such games via Facebook and/or my (our) cell phone(s). While it seems that cheating has become more commonplace in these games (Words With Friends in particular) than San Diego has had nice weather, I've yet to give in to that craze. One element present with the game Scramble With Friends (Boggle) not present in Words With Friends (Scrabble) are legal boosts called "power-ups," which cost a number of tokens from the 15 available. I've now tried all five power-ups, including the latest one which costs money. So, in case anyone's curious about playing the game or giving these power-ups a gander, here's a rundown of them all: Freeze - I think this is probably my favorite of all the power-ups. With the freeze, time stands still for a matter of seconds, which allows you more time to find words and improve...
Post a Comment
Read more

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...
2 comments
Read more