Game Stats Worth Tracking

Welcome back to another Leech Letter,

Last week in a staff meeting we got talking about a stat called the Daily Double.

Win the turnover battle and win the explosive play battle in the same game. Hit both legs, and the research says you win 93 percent of the time.

I got curious. So I pulled five years of our game data. 61 games.

When we hit the Daily Double, we are 14 and 1.

Then I ran a second stat our defensive staff loves called the Middle 8. Outscore your opponent in the four minutes before halftime and the four minutes after. Halftime is a momentum point and a multiple possession point. Score before the break, take the second half kickoff, and a 14 point swing is sitting right there.

We are 22 and 6 when we win the Middle 8. Eighty percent.

I broke down all five years of the data in this week's Insiders film study. But here is the part I want you to take with you.

Neither of those stats has ever won us a game.

You cannot walk into Monday's meeting and say "we need to win the Daily Double this week." That is not coaching. That is announcing.

Winning the turnover battle means ball security work in your practice plan. It means punch and strip drills for your defense. Winning the explosive play battle means you scheme shot plays and you build the speed to hit them. Winning the Middle 8 means you rep your two minute situations until they are boring.

The stat is a scoreboard for the details. It measures the work. It does not replace it.

So track them both. They will tell you the truth about your team. But a metric is only as good as your ability to coach what is underneath it.

The whiteboard does not win games. The details do.

Keep the Fire Burning,

Leech

P.S. If you want to watch the full video where I break down these stats in detail, come join Gridiron Warrior Insiders. First month is $1. We have over 40 coaches in the group, over 150 posts to learn from, and tools and resources that will make you better today.