045: Week zero tick tock, plus 100 wins at two schools
Week zero game durations and Mack Brown nearing 100 wins at two programs.
First look at new rule changes
As a reminder, this season’s rule changes are not about expediting the game. The intention, and messaging, is improved player safety.
Week zero featured seven games with an average of 63.3 plays per game. The average game duration was three hours and 24 minutes.
Over 896 games last season, there was an average of 68.7 plays per game. The average game duration was three hours and 27 minutes.
About five fewer plays. About the same game length, sans three whole minutes.
Caution: The sample size of seven games is irresponsibly small.
But to take it a step further, if you remove the Navy and Notre Dame game from the sample, the average duration is three hours and 30 minutes (209.7 minutes) across the other six games and an average of 64.5 plays per game.
There is less of a change when comparing it to only the 2022 week zero games too. Over 11 week zero games last season, the average duration was three hours and 30 minutes. The average plays per game was 69.8 plays.
My plan is to try to track and surface this data over the course of the season, so stay tuned1.
Return of the Mack (once again)
Almost four years ago to the day, North Carolina beat South Carolina 24-20 in Charlotte. The Tar Heels were 12.5 point underdogs.
It was the first win of the Mack Brown 2.0 era, and the 70th career win for Brown as the head coach of North Carolina.
Brown has a chance to earn his 100th career victory at Carolina on Saturday against that same team in that same stadium in Charlotte.
The win would mean Mack Brown has won at least 100 games at two different schools. Brown won 158 games as the head coach at Texas from 1998 to 2013, including a perfect 13-0 record en route to the 2005 National Championship.
It took Brown around nine seasons (124 games) to reach 100 victories at Texas. It will take 16 seasons scattered over 35 years to do it at North Carolina.
The 2.0 version of Mack Brown at North Carolina has come with its ups and downs.
The ups include . . .
a 2020 appearance in the Orange Bowl
a 2022 ACC title game appearance
two NFL caliber quarterbacks that were planning to go elsewhere
Sam Howell, who was originally committed to Florida State, broke a ton records at UNC, and will start for the Washington Commanders this fall.
Drake Maye, who was originally committed to Alabama, was the 2022 ACC Player of the Year. Maye is expected to be a top pick in the next NFL Draft too.
And the downs include . . .
five outright losses as a double-digit favorite, including a 38-21 drubbing by South Carolina in the 2021 Mayo Bowl in Charlotte as a 12-point favorites
a comically bad defense, which brought a coordinator change full of
chizdomwisdomdouble-digit transfers after a 9-4 season
This season is crucial for Carolina because time is finite.
Maye is expected to be playing on Sunday next year. Mack Brown is 72 years old.
While last season featured a new defensive coordinator, this season brings a new offensive coordinator. And that’s a big deal because it’s never quite felt like the Tar Heel offense and defense have complemented each other under Brown 2.0.
The time is now.
Brown has brought some stability to the program over the past four seasons.
Consider under Mack Brown 2.0, Carolina has won three more games than it did under John Bunting’s tenure of six seasons.
Brown has also already coached more game games than Butch Davis at Carolina too. And that’s just in his 2.0 era alone.
Given Brown’s age, it’s normal for the fanbase to wonder who will be the program’s next head ball coach2. This season may be Brown’s last whether it’s successful or not.
Either way, 100 plus wins at two different FBS programs is one hell of an accomplishment.
You can find the code for the chart in the post and all previous posts here. If you’re looking for game duration data, check out the game length report from the NCAA. And as always, please subscribe if you found this useful.
I’ve started a new project, fbs-logs.blessyourchart.com, to track game durations during the 2023 season. The plan is to build it out over the next couple weeks and surface more data on pace of play.
72 years is a lot of years. It’s still fascinating that the last two presidents in this country were 70 plus years old when they took office.
I believe Mack Brown would be the only coach with 100-wins at two major college programs.