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Sunday Morning Hangover: Moar Alabama Football Stats

Alabama’s prolific offense lit up scoreboards in 2020-21.

Mississippi State vs Alabama
Alabama fans aren’t done celebrating yet.
Photo by UA Athletics/Collegiate Images/Getty Images

Just because football the Alabama Crimson Tide football season ended two weeks ago does not mean the party is over. Today, we’ll take another look at the scoring machine that was the Crimson Tide this past season.

Touchdowns Per Game

One of the most amazing stats for Alabama was how many touchdowns per game they scored - not to mention that the opponents were 11 SEC teams and two playoff foes. That number was 84 in 13 games. That total exceeds the next closest team, BYU who had 69 in only one less game by 15 touchdowns.

Rk Name G TD Points Points/G
1 Alabama 13 84 630 48.5
2 BYU 12 69 522 43.5
3 Clemson 12 67 522 43.5
4 North Carolina 12 66 500 41.7
5 Florida 12 60 478 39.8
5 Coastal Carolina 12 60 446 37.2
7 Oklahoma 11 58 473 43
8 Tulane 12 56 416 34.7
9 UCF 10 55 422 42.2
9 Liberty 11 55 420 38.2

Granted, Bama was one of only two FBS teams to play 13 games this season (Georgia Southern was the other). Even still, when broken down as an average per game, Alabama was still 0.71 touchdown ahead of the next closest Power 5 team, BYU, and 0.88 ahead of Clemson. The sixth place teams are almost a full touchdown per game behind the Tide’s pace.

Below is a list of select FBS teams that played more than four games in the category of TD/G .

Rk Team G TD Points Points/G TD/G
1 Alabama 13 84 630 48.5 6.46
2 Buffalo 7 43 304 43.4 6.14
3 BYU 12 69 522 43.5 5.75
4 Western Michigan 6 34 250 41.7 5.67
5 Clemson 12 67 522 43.5 5.58
6 Ohio State 8 44 328 41.0 5.50
6 UCF 10 55 422 42.2 5.50
6 North Carolina 12 66 500 41.7 5.50
9 Texas 10 54 427 42.7 5.40
9 Mississippi 10 54 392 39.2 5.40
11 Oklahoma 11 58 473 43.0 5.27
12 Cincinnati 10 51 375 37.5 5.10
13 Liberty 11 55 420 38.2 5.00
13 Florida 12 60 478 39.8 5.00
13 Coastal Carolina 12 60 446 37.2 5.00
16 SMU 10 48 386 38.6 4.80
17 UCLA 7 33 248 35.4 4.71
18 Tulane 12 56 416 34.7 4.67
19 North Texas 10 46 344 34.4 4.60
20 Toledo 6 27 210 35.0 4.50
OTHERS
21 Louisiana-Laf 11 49 370 33.6 4.45
28 Notre Dame 12 51 401 33.4 4.25
28 Iowa State 12 51 395 32.9 4.25
30 Texas A&M 10 42 326 32.6 4.20
32 Southern Cal 6 25 200 33.3 4.17
33 Oregon 7 29 219 31.3 4.14
34 Miami (FL) 11 45 374 34.0 4.09
35 Georgia 10 40 323 32.3 4.00
42 Michigan 6 23 170 28.3 3.83
45 LSU 10 38 320 32.0 3.80
58 Oklahoma State 11 40 332 30.2 3.64
64 Indiana 8 28 231 28.9 3.50
66 Arkansas 10 34 257 25.7 3.40
77 Wisconsin 7 23 176 25.1 3.29
82 Northwestern 9 28 222 24.7 3.11
83 Missouri 10 31 267 26.7 3.10
92 South Carolina 10 29 235 23.5 2.90
92 Tennessee 10 29 215 21.5 2.90
98 Auburn 11 31 276 25.1 2.82
99 Kentucky 11 29 240 21.8 2.64
99 Mississippi State 11 29 235 21.4 2.64
117 Vanderbilt 9 17 133 14.8 1.89

By comparison, LSU scored 95 touchdowns in the 2019-20 season in 15 games played for a 6.33 TD per game average - still lower than Alabama’s 2020-21 clip. However, when you eliminate the three cupcake games against Georgia Southern (7 TDs scored), Northwestern State (9 TDs), and Utah State (6 TDs), the Bayou Bengals scored 73 touchdowns against nine SEC teams, Texas, and two playoff games. That average comes to 6.08 touchdowns per game versus those 12 Power-5 foes.

If you want to take it a step further and remove the nine touchdowns from of the equation that LSU scored on godawful Vanderbilt, the average dips to 5.82 TD/G.

Imagine the numbers Bama would’ve put up had they played Georgia State, Kent State, and UT-Martin as originally scheduled.

Points Per Minute

Watching the National Championship game, there were a few times when Bama fans were actually concerned that the offense was TOO prolific. The defense would just get off the field when the Crimson Tide would score again - sending the D right back out there. #BamaProblems

Below is a representation of how fast the Tide was scoring in the form of points scored per time of possession.

Rk Team G Points Mins Secs Pts/Min
1 Alabama 13 630 401 58 1.57
2 Texas 10 427 277 59 1.54
3 UCF 10 422 275 03 1.53
4 Western Michigan 6 250 169 31 1.47
5 BYU 12 522 359 25 1.45
6 Clemson 12 522 365 25 1.43
7 Buffalo 7 304 215 39 1.41
7 Ole Miss 10 392 278 34 1.41
9 North Carolina 12 500 370 16 1.35
10 North Texas 10 344 256 15 1.34
11 Oklahoma 11 473 355 18 1.33
12 Florida 12 478 366 01 1.31
13 SMU 10 386 295 57 1.30
14 Wake Forest 9 324 250 48 1.29
15 Ohio State 8 328 258 34 1.27
16 Miami (FL) 11 374 304 07 1.23
16 UCLA 7 248 202 06 1.23
18 Tulane 12 416 343 38 1.21
19 Oregon 7 219 183 14 1.20
20 Louisiana-Laf 11 370 313 05 1.18
OTHERS
21 Cincinnati 10 375 319 59 1.17
22 Liberty 11 420 362 31 1.16
28 Southern Cal 6 200 180 36 1.11
28 Michigan 6 170 153 44 1.11
30 Coastal Carolina 12 446 405 55 1.10
35 Georgia 10 323 301 24 1.07
42 LSU 10 320 314 04 1.02
42 Arkansas 10 257 252 49 1.02
47 Oklahoma State 11 332 329 35 1.01
48 Iowa State 12 395 396 55 1.00
50 Notre Dame 12 401 407 09 0.98
59 Texas A&M 10 326 348 06 0.94
64 Indiana 8 231 250 04 0.92
71 Auburn 11 276 316 00 0.87
76 Missouri 10 267 307 54 0.87
86 South Carolina 10 235 293 27 0.80
87 Minnesota 7 191 238 41 0.80
93 Tennessee 10 215 279 26 0.77
101 Kentucky 11 240 341 40 0.70
103 Mississippi State 11 235 340 35 0.69
118 Vanderbilt 9 133 267 19 0.50

Alabama’s possession time looks high since they had one more game than all but one other team. Yet, their time of possession per game average was 44th in FBS. Despite playing 12 games each, Army, Notre Dame, and Coastal Carolina all had more total time of possession on the season than the Crimson Tide did.

Numbers You Don’t See

Let’s don’t forget that Nick Saban has a tendency to take the air out of the ball in several games after building a big lead - something LSU rarely did in 2019. This Alabama team could have surely scored several more times in most games if they had so desired.