There has been much discussion regarding Arkansas offense on the various message boards. I thought it would be interesting to see how the “era of Houston Dale” looked in the record books.
All information taken from the 2005 Arkansas Media Guide.
During the time of Houston Dale, we’ve seen . . . .
- 5 out of the top 12 individual yardage rushing games.
- 2nd and 7th highest individual yardage rushing seasons.
- The 3rd, 5th and 6th leading career yardage rushers.
- 5 out of the top 12 passing yardage games
- 5 out of the top 12 passing yardage seasons
- Top 2 career passers in yardage, Clint and Matt. 2 of the top 4 if you want to eliminate Clint’s “non-Houston” years.
- 5 of the top 6 touchdown passes seasons, and the top 2 career touchdown passing leaders.
- Clint Stoerner holds the top three positions in number of passes attempted in a season, while Matt hold position 6.
- Clint is number 1 in career passing attempts, Matt is number 3.
- Clint and Matt hold 3 of the top 4 games with most passes completed.
- Pass completions for a season, Clint hold positions 2 and 4 (and 3, 1997), while Matt holds positions 6, 10, and 11.
- Career pass completions, Clint is number 1, Matt is number 3.
- Career total offense, Matt is number 1, Clint is number 2.
- Career touchdowns. Matt is number 1, Clint is number 2
- Clint and Matt combined had 9 games over 250 yards passing under Houston.
Looking at defense versus offense, and wins and losses in the Houston Dale era to date:
1998 — Yards given up per game, 306.4 total, 95.5 rushing
1998 — 9 wins, 3 losses, 4,333 yards total offense, 9th in school history (12 games)
1999 — Yards given up per game, 302.5 total, 100.8 rushing
1999 — 8 wins, 4 losses
2000 — Yards given up per game, 292.1 total, 139.1 rushing
2000 — 6 wins, 6 losses
2001 — Yards given up per game, 376.2 total, 148.7 rushing
2001 — 7 wins, 5 losses
2002 — Yards given up per game, 348.1 total, 113.6 rushing
2002 — 9 wins, 5 losses, 4,950 yards total offense, 2nd in school history (14 games)
2003 — Yards given up per game, 344.0 total, 157.0 rushing
2003 — 9 wins, 4 losses, 5,607 yards total offense, 1st in school history (13 games)
2004 — Yards given up per game, 397.2 total, 180.3 rushing
2004 — 5 wins, 6 losses, 4,337 yards total offense, 7th in school history (11 games)
29 conference wins versus 27 conference losses.
Overall record, 53 – 33.
You can draw your own conclusions. Not bad from where I sit. Obviously the poor defense in 2004 was the key stat. Average yards per game of offense in 2004 of 394 compares ok to 431 in 2003, 353 in 2002, and 361 in 1998.
You will note that the year 2000, the bridge year between Clint and Matt, had a great defensive performance but obviously the offense was lacking. Having a quarterback that can generate offense is certainly a key to success.
2005′s success will depend greatly on the play of the quarterback and the improvement we see on defense. It’s just that simple.