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UCLA Football: How did the 2018 spring game compare to the regular season?

By Chris Osgood

PASADENA, CA - SEPTEMBER 15: Head coach of the UCLA Bruins Chip Kelly reacts after a Fresno State Bulldogs touchdown to trail 31-14 during the third quarter at Rose Bowl on September 15, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA - SEPTEMBER 15: Head coach of the UCLA Bruins Chip Kelly reacts after a Fresno State Bulldogs touchdown to trail 31-14 during the third quarter at Rose Bowl on September 15, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

How did the 2018 spring game compare to the regular season? (cont.)

With that out of the way, it’s time to start jumping to definite and lasting conclusions!

Overall, the Spring game offense was 12% less successful (42% SR in the regular season, 30% successful in Spring) while gaining 1.1 fewer yards per play (5.6 YPP in the regular season, 4.5 YPP in spring). The run-pass balance was actually pretty similar for both cases with a slight 5% tilt towards more passing (44-45% run, 55-56% pass). I think it’s fair to project a similar improvement from 2019 Spring to 2019 regular season in terms of success rate and YPP, and should expect that the 2019 run-pass emphasis will be generally telegraphed in the 2019 Spring game.

When you start to compare the run and pass YPP and success rates between Spring and the regular season, there is an interesting inversion. The Spring run game had a similar Success Rate and much worse YPP than the regular season.  The Spring pass game had a similar YPP, but much worse Success Rate than the regular season.  The decent pass YPP in the spring game is attributable to a low number of sacks and some big chunk catches by Damian Alloway and Demetric Felton.

The Spring game used a huddle to call all plays (resulting in a very plodding tempo) and played exclusively with 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE) without any pre-snap motion.  Spring WR formations were practically limited to Spread (2×1 w/ attached TE) and Trips (3×1 with detached TE).  The regular season offense went on to never huddle and used twelve different classes of WR formations along with seven personnel groups.