Florida State Returning Starters 2011

do count kickers and punters. When they say 18 return, they don’t follow that usually with “out of 22” or “out of 24”.

I don’t see why it is a big deal to list 16 or 14 or 22 “starters” returning. If we list “all players who started a game at some point”….then you’d also add more players, and can even say we are returning a “Starting QB” since EJ started the ACC Championship and Clemson game last year….so, technically, he IS a “returning starter”.

The real key is the amount of experience that returns, and the # of “starters” is just a representation of that… It is also good to consider what positions they are…. if we return 17 (out of 22) starters, but lost 5 O-linemen, that would make a difference as to what that number would implicate.

You may ‘over-count’ if you’re trying to pump up a team to make them look possibly better than they are, giving a more optimistic preseason outlook on a team…. Luckily we can be consistently reminded how it is much more logical to take the most pessimistic viewpoint as a starting point…and then find more to worry about.

It is like poll rankings: every writer has a different criteria and/or a different source (or at least the ones that think about it and don’t just crib what everyone else is saying). Some like to count players if they started the last game. Some like to count players if they started above X number of games. Some will count two guards as returning starters even if they split starts at the same spot on the line. A lot of the writers, because they don’t have the time or inclination to intimately study all 120 FBS programs to determine who should rationally be deemed a “returning starter,” just take the bowl game list of starters and count the number of underclassmen on the list. They won’t go above the 22 or 24 numbers, of course, but anything within that is open to interpretation. To say whether they are correct or incorrect depends entirely on the criteria they are using.

I seem to recall that the NCAA does publish participation reports for schools – or at least they used to – which list the number of plays in which each player participated. It would only be a very rough number, and perhaps someone has already thought of this, but it might make a useful and easy tool for writers to simply report the percentage of total snaps returned rather than even getting into starts (which can get warped by situational issues – e.g., discipline, injuries). This would allow us to compare teams with numbers that factor in experience for backups as well as starters. For example, given the relative playing time each has had, it is different for FSU to be replacing its QB starter with EJ Manuel (played decent amount of snaps) vs. Virginia Tech replacing its QB starter with Logan Thomas (few snaps). WRs is a great example of a position where the unit’s percentage of snaps returned is probably far more important than the raw number of starters returning.

Could also add on a stat for a two year “super experience” measurement, which factors percentage of snaps the returning players have played over the past two years. This would allow us to find out whether there are some true veteran squads out there.

It would still be a lot of work, of course…