Just eight teams are left remaining when it comes to the national title race. We’re down to eight teams left. That’s it. Admittedly, as someone who grew up watching the BCS, that still feels like a lot. But there are just eight teams that have a shot at winning a national title right now (and that’s a heck of a lot less than the 134 teams that currently exist at the FBS level).
Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders are among the teams left competing for a shot at the national championship this season and the Red Raiders have demonstrated that they are deserving of being here.
Heck, Texas Tech’s offense has shown that it is one of the most effective offenses in the country when it comes to gaining yards. The Red Raiders are better than just about every other CFP contender at that, actually.
Texas Tech Red Raiders rank No. 2 in total offense among the remaining College Football Playoff contenders
Here’s where the remaining contenders in the College Football Playoff stand in terms of total offense ahead of the CFP quarterfinals:
- Ole Miss Rebels - 498 yards per game - No. 2 overall
- Texas Tech Red Raiders - 480.3 yards per game - No. 5 overall
- Indiana Hoosiers - 472.8 yards per game - No. 8 overall
- Oregon Ducks - 468.9 yards per game - No. 11 overall
- Ohio State Buckeyes - 429.5 yards per game - No. 24 overall
- Miami Hurricanes - 414.5 yards per game - No. 35 overall
- Georgia Bulldogs - 406.9 yards per game - No. 43 overall
- Alabama Crimson Tide - 380.1 yards per game - No. 74 overall
It really is impressive that the Crimson Tide is ranked so low here given the way that Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb are known to build offenses. I mean, total offense is hardly the end all be all in terms of evaluating how productive an offense is, but it is truly remarkable that Alabama is sitting at No. 74 in the country right now.
I was also shocked to see Georgia and Miami so far outside of the top 25 in this stat. Without getting lost in the weeds of digging into all of the stats for all three of those teams, I think it’s safe to say that their defensive coordinators deserve a ton of credit for the work that they’ve done to offset offenses that have likely underachieved a little bit this season.