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Which college football spread offenses played the fastest?

Finding HUNH offenses by the numbers

Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Since we have data on which offenses spread defenses out and on average pace of play, it's fairly easy to combine these two datasets to see which offenses are the most prototypically hurry up no huddle (HUNH).

A while back, Bill C. used solo tackle percentages to get a read on which offenses were spreading defenses out the most.

Whether a team is actually doing it well or not, the spread is designed to create numbers advantages and get the ball-carrier away from a mass of tacklers. That often leads to solo tackles. So which offensive systems led to the most solo tackles?

Meanwhile, you can compare the number of plays to the number of expected plays to get a strong look at pace:

When you take those raw pace numbers and adjust them based on how often teams ran the ball (since running plays naturally burn more clock than passing plays; see more on Bill Connelly's Adjusted Pace stat here), they all still occupy positions in the top 10.

But that adjustment shows some run-heavy teams like Air Force use more tempo than it appears. Air Force used a somewhat average number of seconds per play (23.1), but moved four seconds per play faster than it would be expected to. Adjusting the seconds-per-play figure ranks the Falcons as the country's eighth-fastest offense.

Combining these datasets was pretty quick, methods-wise. I simply did 1-% solo tackles for all offenses, then multiplied that value by a team's Adjusted Pace score.

The resulting list of teams seems to pass the eye test, with lightning-fast spread teams like Baylor, Arizona, and Oregon near the top, and slower-moving pro-style teams like LSU, Arkansas, and Stanford near the bottom. There's a statistically significant relationship between the HUNH variable and Offensive S&P+, with an R-squared of around 8%.

Rank Team Off S&P+ Pace 1-% solo HUNH?
1 Bowling Green 25.7 -4.7 33.60% -1.5792
2 Oregon 46.1 -4.7 27.60% -1.2972
3 Air Force 29.8 -3.9 28.50% -1.1115
4 North Carolina 35.7 -4.4 22.40% -0.9856
5 Baylor 41.4 -5.8 16.90% -0.9802
6 Marshall 39.6 -2.8 34.60% -0.9688
7 New Mexico State 21.5 -2.8 34.00% -0.9520
8 Mississippi State 40.0 -2.9 32.20% -0.9338
9 BYU 31.7 -4.4 21.20% -0.9328
10 Northern Illinois 28.0 -3.3 27.10% -0.8943
11 UAB 28.2 -3.1 27.80% -0.8618
12 Arizona 34.8 -4.9 16.10% -0.7889
13 West Virginia 32.4 -3.9 19.20% -0.7488
14 Memphis 26.7 -3.9 16.80% -0.6552
15 Texas State 26.6 -3.1 19.70% -0.6107
16 Massachusetts 21.7 -1.7 34.10% -0.5797
17 Texas A&M 37.6 -1.9 28.60% -0.5434
18 TCU 37.8 -2.5 21.40% -0.5350
19 California 35.2 -1.9 27.90% -0.5301
20 Indiana 27.7 -2.1 24.40% -0.5124
21 East Carolina 29.6 -1.7 29.30% -0.4981
22 Duke 27.6 -1.4 34.90% -0.4886
23 Arkansas State 31.4 -3.2 14.90% -0.4768
24 Auburn 44.7 -1.8 25.00% -0.4500
25 UNLV 23.5 -1.9 23.50% -0.4465
26 Northwestern 21.1 -1.7 25.50% -0.4335
27 Washington 26.0 -2.1 20.50% -0.4305
28 Fresno State 23.7 -2.3 18.30% -0.4209
29 Western Kentucky 40.1 -2.0 20.60% -0.4120
30 Utah 30.7 -1.6 25.70% -0.4112
31 Nebraska 35.4 -1.4 28.50% -0.3990
32 UCLA 41.0 -2.0 18.00% -0.3600
33 Cincinnati 35.1 -1.1 31.60% -0.3476
34 Georgia 41.8 -1.1 30.60% -0.3366
35 Texas Tech 36.3 -2.2 14.70% -0.3234
36 Arizona State 35.4 -2.1 14.90% -0.3129
37 Kentucky 27.7 -0.9 32.30% -0.2907
38 Tennessee 32.5 -1.3 21.20% -0.2756
39 Florida 27.9 -0.9 27.80% -0.2502
40 Middle Tennessee 29.2 -1.2 20.70% -0.2484
41 Toledo 34.4 -0.8 30.00% -0.2400
42 Oklahoma State 28.1 -1.1 21.50% -0.2365
43 Hawaii 16.5 -1.6 14.30% -0.2288
44 Navy 35.5 -0.7 29.00% -0.2030
45 Ole Miss 34.5 -0.7 28.90% -0.2023
46 Houston 23.1 -0.7 28.50% -0.1995
47 Oklahoma 39.1 -0.7 26.70% -0.1869
48 Iowa State 28.7 -0.8 23.20% -0.1856
49 Appalachian State 21.8 -0.7 25.20% -0.1764
50 Ohio State 47.6 -0.6 27.50% -0.1650
51 Idaho 26.4 -0.7 22.50% -0.1575
52 USC 37.6 -0.6 24.00% -0.1440
53 Syracuse 21.2 -1.0 14.20% -0.1420
54 South Alabama 24.5 -0.5 26.60% -0.1330
55 Tulsa 24.0 -0.4 30.00% -0.1200
56 Clemson 27.7 -0.7 16.90% -0.1183
57 Boise State 39.3 -0.5 23.10% -0.1155
58 Ball State 22.0 -0.2 42.00% -0.0840
59 Colorado 32.2 -0.4 18.40% -0.0736
60 Nevada 28.7 -0.1 28.80% -0.0288
61 N.C. State 32.1 -0.1 24.60% -0.0246
62 Missouri 31.9 -0.1 24.10% -0.0241
63 Eastern Michigan 16.0 0.0 38.20%
64 Maryland 28.1 0.0 20.30%
65 Notre Dame 36.9 0.0 25.00%
66 Old Dominion 29.9 0.0 28.70%
67 Temple 18.8 0.2 17.90% 0.0358
68 Troy 21.8 0.4 23.40% 0.0936
69 Georgia Tech 45.5 0.5 19.50% 0.0975
70 Akron 19.0 0.5 22.30% 0.1115
71 North Texas 15.1 0.5 26.20% 0.1310
72 San Jose State 20.0 0.5 26.30% 0.1315
73 Florida State 37.9 0.7 20.30% 0.1421
74 Georgia State 25.8 0.7 20.60% 0.1442
75 Ohio 21.5 0.5 31.30% 0.1565
76 Kansas 21.8 0.8 20.70% 0.1656
77 South Carolina 36.9 0.8 22.70% 0.1816
78 Louisiana Tech 31.6 0.8 23.50% 0.1880
79 Georgia Southern 34.5 0.6 31.40% 0.1884
80 Virginia Tech 25.8 0.6 33.90% 0.2034
81 Florida International 15.4 1.3 16.40% 0.2132
82 Alabama 43.1 0.8 27.10% 0.2168
83 Texas 26.4 1.4 17.10% 0.2394
84 Illinois 29.3 0.9 27.00% 0.2430
85 UL-Lafayette 30.6 1.5 17.20% 0.2580
86 UL-Monroe 19.9 0.9 32.80% 0.2952
87 Penn State 21.3 1.3 23.60% 0.3068
88 Virginia 28.5 0.9 34.30% 0.3087
89 Army 21.1 1.3 24.00% 0.3120
90 Iowa 27.9 1.2 26.70% 0.3204
91 Southern Miss 21.9 1.4 23.70% 0.3318
92 Colorado State 34.4 1.3 25.80% 0.3354
93 Washington State 32.5 1.6 21.30% 0.3408
94 Florida Atlantic 25.8 1.1 32.30% 0.3553
95 Kansas State 36.8 3.1 11.50% 0.3565
96 Tulane 19.3 1.6 23.60% 0.3776
97 Central Florida 22.6 1.3 30.00% 0.3900
98 Rutgers 30.2 2.2 17.80% 0.3916
99 Miami 34.9 2.3 18.50% 0.4255
100 Purdue 24.5 2.0 21.40% 0.4280
101 Buffalo 21.4 1.6 26.90% 0.4304
102 Miami (Ohio) 24.6 2.1 20.50% 0.4305
103 Wisconsin 35.4 1.9 23.10% 0.4389
104 Michigan State 40.1 1.5 29.30% 0.4395
105 Louisville 31.7 2.3 19.70% 0.4531
106 UTSA 15.4 1.7 26.80% 0.4556
107 South Florida 19.5 3.4 14.60% 0.4964
108 New Mexico 31.7 1.6 31.20% 0.4992
109 San Diego State 25.4 2.3 23.30% 0.5359
110 Minnesota 32.1 1.7 31.60% 0.5372
111 Boston College 31.9 2.2 27.50% 0.6050
112 Utah State 26.8 1.9 32.90% 0.6251
113 Wake Forest 11.1 2.6 24.60% 0.6396
114 SMU 15.5 2.7 23.80% 0.6426
115 Rice 29.1 2.6 24.80% 0.6448
116 Pittsburgh 36.1 2.5 26.80% 0.6700
117 Oregon State 28.6 3.3 23.10% 0.7623
118 LSU 32.9 1.6 48.50% 0.7760
119 Central Michigan 25.3 3.9 22.30% 0.8697
120 Kent State 20.5 3.4 26.60% 0.9044
121 Connecticut 14.4 3.2 28.30% 0.9056
122 Stanford 32.0 3.8 24.40% 0.9272
123 Western Michigan 31.5 3.6 25.90% 0.9324
124 Michigan 26.3 4.7 22.90% 1.0763
125 Wyoming 24.5 4.0 28.30% 1.1320
126 Arkansas 38.7 3.1 37.00% 1.1470
127 Vanderbilt 19.0 4.8 35.80% 1.7184
128 UTEP 25.4 5.1 40.40% 2.0604