The Utes had to make do at one time or another without running backs, tight ends, quarterbacks, and wide receivers. While there’s no excuse for not being prepared for inevitable injuries, it’s fascinating to look at which players were critical to the Utes’ offensive success.
To analyze the Utes’ offensive production, I turned to comparative yard per play averages. This compares the Utes’ performance in the game in question against the average performance of the team’s defense and creates a score where 1 is average. I call it YDS+, after the similar OPS+ statistic used in baseball.
For example: over the 2015 season, Michigan allowed 3.