Introducing the points per drive chart for the first time in 2025.

For folks that are new, I view points per drive as the most important statistic when evaluating offenses and defenses. Of course, field position plays a factor on both sides of the football, but over the course of a season, this is the best indicator of whether or not one side of the ball is truly playing well.

Obviously these numbers don't mean a ton, given most teams have played East-West Blind State for three weeks while some have a top-25 matchup or two already on the slate. As the season progresses, these graphs will look significantly different.

A few takeaways:

– Tennessee and Arkansas each sit with top 25 offenses but are the only two teams with defenses outside of the top 100 in the SEC.

–There is a strong bunch of teams with top 25 offenses and defenses ranging from 27th to 56th. Those are competitive teams. 

Of that group, Auburn has the best offense at 4.00 points per offensive possession. The Jackson Arnold experiment is working... for now.

– The best defenses in the conference belong to Texas and Oklahoma.

Texas allows 0.73 points per possession, Oklahoma sits at 0.78.

On that same note, LSU's defense is more than legit through three weeks and two tests against Cade Klubnik and DJ Lagway.

 

– The worst offenses in the conference are led by LaNorris Sellers, DJ Lagway, Garrett Nussmeier and Arch Manning. Who would have seen that coming through the first three weeks of the season.

– Pleasantly surprised with the defensive performance from Mississippi State so far this year. They rank 25th.

Those were pretty much the consensus top 4 QBs in the league preseason. Hope Arch figures it out.

@CJ Vogel Do you have one of these charts from late last season (or the end of the season)? It would be interesting to compare where these teams finished last year vs where they are starting entering the beginning of conference play.

I'll wait until Oklahoma plays a team with a pulse before I give them their flowers. They've played Illinois State, a crap Michigan team and Temple. 

Auburn at OU this weekend 👀