Explosive plays go hand in hand with winning football games. If you make more big plays than your opponent, you have a pretty good shot.
In 2023, LSU’s offense was one of the most explosive in college football history. Jayden Daniels, along with Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr, were big plays waiting to happen.
We haven’t seen the same level of major threat from LSU in 2024 and that’s a big reason for LSU’s three-game losing streak.
Today we’ll rank the most explosive offenses in the SEC to see where LSU stands and evaluate which offenses are best at generating the big play. We’ll first look at the overall offense, then focus on some passing and running divisions.
Let’s get straight to it.
SEC Offensive 20+ Yard Game Rates
|
Team |
20+ yard play rate |
Range of play over 20 yards |
|---|---|---|
|
Ole Mademoiselle |
10.72% |
1 |
|
Texas |
10.58% |
2 |
|
Alabama |
10.02% |
3 |
|
Arkansas |
9.74% |
4 |
|
Georgia |
9.22% |
5 |
|
Auburn |
9.21% |
6 |
|
Florida |
8.85% |
7 |
|
South Carolina |
8.62% |
8 |
|
LSU |
8.13% |
9 |
|
Kentucky |
7.24% |
10 |
|
Tennessee |
7.21% |
11 |
|
Texas A&M |
6.74% |
12 |
|
Mississippi State |
5.97% |
13 |
|
Vanderbilt |
5.03% |
14 |
|
Missouri |
4.97% |
15 |
|
Oklahoma |
4.29% |
16 |
Take away
LSU is closer to the bottom than the top of the conference with an explosive play rate of 8.13%. That’s nearly five points below LSU’s 2023 mark.
We saw this impact across the entire operation. A lack of explosive plays puts pressure on LSU to execute perfectly in the red zone, something this offense is not capable of doing.
It also forced LSU to be nearly perfect on third down. This is an area LSU has excelled at, but relying on third-and-long conversions is not a sustainable way to win games.
Without a consistent deep threat, defenses can stack the box and take away LSU’s running game and short passing attack.
It’s no surprise that Lane Kiffin’s offense sets the standard this year. Ole Mademoiselle, TexasAnd Alabama are the only three infractions above 10%.
At the bottom of the SEC are Missouri and Oklahoma. That wasn’t the case last year, but both offenses took a significant step back in 2024.
Arkansas is a name that stands out among the top five. THE Razors aren’t consistent, but when activated, few units are as explosive as Bobby Petrino’s.
This article was originally published on LSU Wire: Ranking the SEC’s most explosive offenses. Where is LSU?
