Mailbag question:

It seems like these days you hear a lot in college football press about owning "time-of-possession." I think that a lot of commentators make a little bit too much of a deal about it, but you can tell that teams that consistently have better possession times than their opponents usually have great records.

It makes sense to me that you want to let your more conditioned offense tire out the other team's less-conditioned defense, plus every minute you have the ball the other team doesn't. But given how much the past couple posts on your blog have talked about the no-huddle and hurry-up offense, doesn't this kind of emphasis hurt time-of-possession? Or, is it the argument that you want more possessions of less time rather than less possessions of more time?

Love your blog keep up the good work, I will keep reading!

LTR
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Thanks for the question. Time of Possession is more important to some offenses/teams than to others. Teams like Old Michigan, LSU, or Ohio State who play a field position game and the time of possession is huge. To a team like Boise State, or Appalachian State time of possession is less important.

There philosophy is constantly stress or challenge a offense. This philosophy also includes making teams change their offensive game plan because they have opponents playing from behind. In first half of App. State game, and second half of Oregon game, Michigan was unable to use their superior size and strength advantage on offense because they were so far behind. In first two series against Oregon where Michigan could pound the ball and mix in the passing game, Oregon could not stop them.

So you are correct that some times time of possession can be very misleading, but if you playing an Ohio State type team, and you let Coach Tressell control the clock and field position, he will win a large percentage of those games.

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