Category Archives: Ramblings

A few weeks ago, before the season officially got going, I was on KNYN radio in Evanston with Jake Hibbard to talk about the 2018 season (the program is here in case you want to listen). We got to talking about programs and coaches and all kinds of fun stuff, and I made the point that, most of the time, it takes about three years for a new coach to really put their mark on a program and win with their approaches.

But then I got to thinking about it and started to wonder — statistically, is that actually the case? Do coaches really do their best, in terms of winning games, in their third season? And did I just lie to a bunch of radio listeners in Uinta County????

To test this hypothesis, I tracked down the results of every Wyoming high school football coach who spent at least four consecutive years in their position since 1980 and looked at which of the first three years was the best. (Why four years? You’ll see soon.) I found 194 coaches who fit this description. Of those 194:

• 58 (29.9 percent) had their best year in their first year
• 64 (33 percent) had their best year in their second year
• 72 (37.1 percent) had their best year in their third year*

So, yes, there is a connection here — teams get better as the coach stays longer, at least through the first three years. My hypothesis was right — but not by the margin I thought. I thought it’d be much higher.

But I wasn’t done thinking about this topic. If it really takes three years to get up to speed, then shouldn’t the fourth year be the best of them all? So I decided to look at the fourth year, trying to answer the question of how many coaches have a season in their fourth year that’s better than any one of their first three years.

The answer: 46 of those 194 coaches (23.7 percent) had that fourth year be better than any of the previous three.

Even at random, a fourth-year coach should have a 25-percent chance of having their best year be their fourth year. Fourth-year coaches are below that. I’m not totally sure what that means, but I found it interesting nonetheless.

Finally, some light statistical breakdowns help show the (weak) trend that I inherently believed to be true but had never tested.

The third year really is the best — at least 37.1 percent of the time. That’s 37.1 percent good news for the nine head coaches starting their third year in 2018: Dan Gallas at Cheyenne South, McKay Young at Star Valley, Matt McPhie at Thermopolis, Mitch Espeland at Pinedale, Richard Despain at Rocky Mountain, Curtis Cook at Guernsey-Sunrise, Matthew Cornelius at Lingle, Doug Spriggs at Rock River and Trent Aagard at Burlington.

Answering the question WHY the third year is the best, though, is much more difficult. Still working on that one. 🙂

*-Note that in cases of ties, I went with the first year in which a record was reached. Rankings were by winning percentage.

–patrick

One of my favorite purchases every summer is my copy of Phil Steele’s College Football Preview. I discovered the Phil Steele preview about 15 years ago and refer to it often throughout the season, and it’s the only college football preview I buy.

I love it because it flips a lot of conventional wisdom on its head to make its preseason predictions, looking not only at the win-loss record and who’s back but other factors like two-deep returners, turnover ratio, close games and, one of my favorite stats, yards per point.

Entering the 2018 season, I decided to break down the yards-per-point stat for Wyoming high school football teams, both on offense and on defense. The formula is simple: number of yards gained (or allowed) divided by the number of points scored (or allowed).

On offense, you want a LOWER YPP — that means you’re scoring a lot of points in comparison to the number of yards you’re gaining. A higher YPP means usually means one of two things: you’re gaining yards but not scoring points, or you’re not gaining yards and scoring basically zilch.

On defense, you want a HIGHER YPP — teams may get their yards, but they won’t get their points. High YPPs on defense show either a team that bends but doesn’t break or a team that is on lockdown and doesn’t allow many yards OR many points.

In Phil Steele’s preview, he mentions that YPP is fluid. YPP measures efficiency, not strength. It’s a ratio, not a cumulation. Because of the fluidity of the stat, it’s also often a predictor of how well a team will do the following season. Teams that have really high (or low) YPPs usually have a tough time maintaining that (in)efficiency from year to year; exceptional outliers tend to indicate a particularly lucky (or unlucky) team that either succeeded or struggled because of bad breaks and inefficiency, which are more easily rectified than, say, a lack of talent.

When I dug into Wyoming’s high school football statistics from last season, I found six teams ripe for turnarounds, because they were in the bottom 10 statewide of both YPP offense and YPP defense: Shoshoni, Cheyenne South, Gillette, Burns, Wright and Jackson.

Conversely, seven teams were in the top 10 of both categories, and may have a tough time maintaining that efficiency (and success) in 2018: Pine Bluffs, Sheridan, Natrona, Cokeville, Star Valley, Torrington and Mountain View.

I also found a few weird outliers worth discussing.

One weird outlier — and potentially a team ready to benefit from better luck — is Powell. The Panthers finished dead last statewide in Offensive YPP, at 23.93. However, Powell’s defense checked in with a YPP of 12.4, dead smack in the middle of the statewide ranks. So Powell’s defense was solid, but its offense was horrendously inefficient at scoring points; looking at it that way, it’s no surprise they finished 1-7 despite having a good defense. A few more breaks go the Panthers’ way, and maybe they’re in the hunt in the 3A West. (Other programs with efficient defenses but inefficient offenses in 2017: Lusk, Lander and Kemmerer.)

Another weird outlier is Wind River, which finished 3-6 last year. The Cougars were seventh in the state in offensive YPP last season (10.31). But they were sixth-to-last statewide in defensive YPP (9.62). So the Cougars had one of the state’s most efficient offenses and one of its least efficient defenses, all in the same season. Will the real Wind River please stand up? (Other programs with efficient offenses but inefficient defenses in 2017: Saratoga, Tongue River, Thunder Basin and Rock Springs.)

Here’s a quick glance at the leaders statewide….

Top and bottom 10 in YPP Offense:

Top 10: Pine Bluffs (8.85), Sheridan (8.91), Natrona (9.32), Cokeville (9.44), Star Valley (9.66), Torrigton (9.73), Wind River (10.31), Big Piney (10.49), Mountain View (10.89), Glenrock (10.99).

Bottom 10: Powell (23.93), Shoshoni (23.53), Cheyenne South (23.1), Kemmerer (21.34), Lander (20.81), Lusk (19.83), Gillette (19.31), Burns (17.65), Wright (15.55), Jackson (15.13).

Top and bottom 10 in YPP Defense:

Top 10: Cokeville (32.85), Star Valley (26.86), Sheridan (23.04), Mountain View (22.13), Pine Bluffs (20.93), Cody (19.14), Buffalo (18.3), Natrona (18.11), Rocky Mountain (17.87), Torrington (17.24).

Bottom 10: Jackson (6.29), Cheyenne South (6.94), Gillette (7.06), Saratoga (8.12), Shoshoni (8.6), Wind River (9.62), Wright (9.73), Burns (9.95), Tongue River (10), Thunder Basin (10.61).

(These numbers include 11-man teams only. Six-man stats were too inconsistent to apply these methods.)

And here’s an unsponsored link to go buy Phil Steele’s college football preview.

–patrick

Want to know who’s going to win the Wyoming state football champions this year? Here’s how to do so, in decreasing order of necessity, based on how that team finished last year:

1. They had at least two victories last year: Only one team since 1990 has won a title with fewer than two victories the previous year — and even that comes with an asterisk. Lingle won the nine-man state championship in 1990 after going 1-7 in 1989, but that 1989 season was played at the 11-man level. In short, it’s exceedingly rare for a team to win zero games or one game in one season and turn around to win a state championship the next year.

2. They were in the playoffs last year: Pine Bluffs proved to be the exception to this rule in 2016, winning the 1A 11-man state title despite missing the playoffs in 2015. Before the Hornets, the last state champion that missed an eight-team playoff bracket the year before? Cokeville in 1993. (In 1992, Cokeville finished 4-3 but missed out on a playoff spot; the Panthers won it all in 1A the next season.)

3. They have the same coach: Only eight of the past 115 state champions have won titles with a coach in his first year as head coach at the school. But the trend is changing, as it’s happened five times the past six years with Lyman’s Dale Anderson in 2012, Meeteetse’s Matt Jensen in 2013, Kaycee’s Lee Kremers in 2015, Star Valley’s McKay Young in 2016 and Kaycee’s Tony Rouse in 2017.

4. They had a winning record last year: Only 14 of the 120 state champions since 1994 had a losing record the previous season; nine of those occurrences were between 2005 and 2010. And it’s happened three time in the past three years. Those teams: Rocky Mountain in 1995, Kemmerer in 2005, Jackson in 2007, Cheyenne East in 2007, Burns in 2008, Gillette in 2008, Guernsey-Sunrise in 2009, Thermopolis in 2009, Snake River in 2010, Natrona in 2010, Star Valley in 2015, Pine Bluffs in 2016 and Cody in 2017.

5. They reached at least the semifinals the previous season: Only 26 of the 120 state champions since 1994 were not in the semifinals of the playoffs the year before. However, two of those 26 were last year: Cody in 3A and Mountain View in 2A.

6. They played in the state title game the year before: Of the past 120 state champs, 53 played in the state title game the previous season. However, just two years ago, this trend was busted up pretty well: None of the 2015 state champs played in the title game in 2014… the first time that’s happened since 1997.

So, to those 13 teams who had one win or fewer: Your title chances are basically zilch, based on historical precedent. Sorry.

To those 24 teams who missed the playoffs last season: Your title chances are basically zilch, based on historical precedent. Even though there’s a Pine Bluffs-in-2016-style chance, it happens rarely. The Hornets may have been the one exception granted by this rule for the next 20 years. Sorry.

To those 30 teams who had losing records: Your title chances are slim, slim, slim (about 1.7 percent) — but not zilch — based on historical precedent. Sorry.

To those 20 teams who reached the semifinals last year: Your title chances are actually pretty good, based on historical precedent! Hurray for you!

To those 10 teams who played in the title games last year: Your title chances are EXCELLENT, based on historical precedent! Hurray for you.

And to those 14 teams with new head coaches: Your title chances, oddly, are better than they’ve ever been. Congratulations?

–patrick

In Week 4 of the 2016 season, Rocky Mountain picked up a milestone victory when it beat Cokeville 26-0 in Cokeville.

It marked the first time in 12 tries that Rocky Mountain had beaten Cokeville, and (obviously) the first time the Grizzlies beat the Panthers in Cokeville in seven trips to Lincoln County.

That victory got me thinking: Which teams always lose on the field of one particular foe? I quickly realized the Grizzlies’ ability to put an end to those streaks pales to another home winning streak Cokeville has against another foe — Shoshoni.

Cokeville has beaten Shoshoni 17 consecutive times in games in Cokeville, tied for the largest advantage of any series between active schools in any one location; Cheyenne Central has beaten Torrington 17 times in games in Cheyenne, while Rock Springs beat Superior 17 straight times at home before that series ended in 1947.

Shoshoni gets its 18th chance to beat Cokeville in Cokeville on Sept. 21 this season.

The tougher list — winning every time against a certain opponent on the road — is topped by Natrona. The Mustangs have beaten Riverton all 12 times the two teams have played in Riverton. Torrington holds down second in this category with 10 victories without a loss on the road against St. Mary’s, a streak that will never be stopped due to St. Mary’s closing. Cokeville and Kelly Walsh split third place; Cokeville’s beaten Dubois all nine times that the Panthers have made the trip to Dubois, while Kelly Walsh is 9-0 in games against Lander in Lander.

Meanwhile, the overall series that’s been the most one-sided is Torrington-St. Mary’s, in which Torrington holds — and will always hold — a 21-0 advantage. The biggest shutout streak between currently open schools is in the 20-game series between Cokeville and Dubois, in which Cokeville has won all 20 games.

The longest overall streaks that have a chance of falling in 2018 are a pair of 8-0 streaks: Riverside’s 8-0 record against Ten Sleep and Lovell’s 8-0 mark against Wind River. Lovell hosts Wind River in Week 1 (Aug. 31), while Riverside faces Ten Sleep in Week 3 (Sept. 15).

No unbeaten road records of six games or greater are on the schedule in 2018.

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Here are the series in which one team has never lost to (or tied) the other (in-state programs only, at least six games, series involving at least one closed school in italics, games on the 2018 schedule noted with an *):

Home series
Cheyenne Central: 17-0 at home against Torrington
Cokeville: 17-0 at home against Shoshoni*
Rock Springs: 17-0 at home against Superior
Big Piney: 13-0 at home against Saratoga
Cokeville: 11-0 at home against Dubois
Torrington: 11-0 at home against St. Mary’s
Burlington: 10-0 at home against Wyoming Indian
Cokeville: 10-0 at home against Burlington
Cheyenne Central: 9-0 at home against Douglas
Sheridan: 9-0 at home against Midwest
Big Piney: 8-0 at home against Hanna
Byron: 8-0 at home against Manderson
Newcastle: 8-0 at home against St. Mary’s
Byron: 7-0 at home against Morton
Cheyenne Central: 7-0 at home against Wheatland
Glenrock: 7-0 at home against Manville
Hanna: 7-0 at home against Farson
Lusk: 7-0 at home against Saratoga
Meeteetse: 7-0 at home against Worland Institute
Torrington: 7-0 at home against Guernsey (not Guernsey-Sunrise)
Cokeville: 6-0 at home against Pine Bluffs
Jackson: 6-0 at home against Big Piney
Lander: 6-0 at home against Gebo
Lingle: 6-0 at home against Manville
Lusk: 6-0 at home against Guernsey (not Guernsey-Sunrise)
Lusk: 6-0 at home against Manville
Meeteetse: 6-0 at home against Hulett
Sheridan: 6-0 at home against Sundance
Southeast: 6-0 at home against Hanna
Star Valley: 6-0 at home against Thermopolis
Star Valley: 6-0 at home against Torrington
Thermopolis: 6-0 at home against Gebo

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Road series
Natrona: 12-0 on the road against Riverton
Torrington: 10-0 on the road against St. Mary’s
Cokeville: 9-0 on the road against Dubois
Kelly Walsh: 9-0 on the road against Lander
Big Horn: 7-0 on the road against Ranchester
Byron: 7-0 at on the road against Morton
Cheyenne East: 7-0 on the road against Rawlins
Mountain View: 7-0 on the road against Jackson
Riverside: 7-0 on the road against Wyoming Indian
Cheyenne Central: 6-0 on the road against Wheatland
Cheyenne East: 6-0 on the road against Wheatland
Cokeville: 6-0 on the road against Rocky Mountain
Greybull: 6-0 on the road against Wyoming Indian
Jackson: 6-0 on the road against Big Piney
Meeteetse: 6-0 on the road against Wyoming Indian
Pine Bluffs: 6-0 on the road against Huntley
Riverton: 6-0 on the road against Wheatland
Sunrise: 6-0 on the road against Huntley
Torrington: 6-0 on the road against Lingle

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Total series
Torrington: 21-0 vs. St. Mary’s
Cokeville: 20-0 vs. Dubois
Byron: 14-0 vs. Morton
Cheyenne Central: 13-0 vs. Wheatland
Jackson: 12-0 vs. Big Piney
Pine Bluffs: 11-0 vs. Huntley
Torrington: 11-0 vs. Guernsey (not Guernsey-Sunrise)
Sheridan: 10-0 vs. Midwest
Lovell: 9-0 vs. Wyoming Indian
Evanston: 8-0 vs. Thermopolis
Glenrock: 8-0 vs. Saratoga
Riverside: 8-0 vs. Ten Sleep*
Southeast: 8-0 vs. NSI
Lovell: 8-0 vs. Wind River*
Big Horn: 7-0 vs. Wheatland
Cheyenne Central: 7-0 vs. Midwest
Cokeville: 7-0 vs. Pine Bluffs
Cokeville: 7-0 vs. Wyoming Indian*
Kelly Walsh: 7-0 vs. Cheyenne South*
Lingle: 7-0 vs. NSI*
Natrona: 7-0 vs. Cheyenne South*
Rawlins: 7-0 vs. St. Mary’s
Sheridan: 7-0 vs. Cheyenne South*
Superior: 7-0 vs. Hanna
Big Horn: 6-0 vs. Dubois
Big Horn: 6-0 vs. Rocky Mountain
Big Horn: 6-0 vs. Wind River
Big Piney: 6-0 vs. Wind River
Glenrock: 6-0 vs. Goshen Hole
Guernsey-Sunrise: 6-0 vs. Bow-Basin
Hanna: 6-0 vs. Encampment
Lander: 6-0 vs. Basin
Lander: 6-0 vs. Gebo
Laramie: 6-0 vs. Worland
Lingle: 6-0 vs. Bow-Basin
Lovell: 6-0 vs. Wright
Pine Bluffs: 6-0 vs. Bow-Basin
Sheridan: 6-0 vs. Sundance
Thermopolis: 6-0 vs. Gebo
Wheatland: 6-0 vs. Manville

–patrick

When the 2017 season started, three schools had a chance to three-peat as state football champions.

Sheridan and Kaycee played up to the challenge, each going undefeated on their way to winning their respective titles — Sheridan in Class 4A, Kaycee in Class 1A six-man.

Star Valley did not. The Braves lost their first game of 2017 in the wrong spot, the Class 3A semifinals, and failed to win their third consecutive championship.

Historically speaking, though, Kaycee and Sheridan are the anomalies in three-peat attempts, not Star Valley.

Of the 46 teams in state history who have been in a position to win three consecutive championships (not including streaks of more than three), 19 succeeded like Kaycee and Sheridan did. But 27, like Star Valley, did not. That means just more than 41 percent of teams trying for a three-peat actually succeeded.

Some of those three-peat attempts came even closer than Star Valley’s did last year.

Of those 27 teams who failed to win their third consecutive championships, four teams reached the title game only to lose (Cheyenne Central in 1990, Star Valley in 1997, Lusk in 2001 and Snake River in 2012). Eight others lost in the semifinals, including three teams — Rocky Mountain in 1999, Cokeville in 2012 and Star Valley last year — who were undefeated until reaching the semis.

Seven of those 27 teams finished with one loss.

Granted, some teams rode a wave of great talent to repeat titles only to fall off quickly once that talent graduated — six teams who were trying to win their third consecutive title actually finished with losing records in their three-peat bid seasons. The steepest of those declines was in Green River, where the Wolves won the 1949 and 1950 Class A championships but went 1-8 in 1951. The most recent team to have this happen to them was Glenrock, which won titles in 2002-03 but had a losing record in 2004.

We know what happened to Sheridan, Kaycee and Star Valley in 2017; Pine Bluffs, the two-time defending Class 1A 11-man champion, will have a chance for a three-peat in 2018.

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Meanwhile, going from a three-peat to a four-peat — like Sheridan and Kaycee are trying to do in 2018 — is even more difficult than going from a repeat to a three-peat, with just more than 35 percent of four-peat attempts ending in success.

Of the 17 teams (so far) who have gone for a four-peat, six succeeded — Cokeville in 1989 and 1996, Sheridan in 1993, Southeast in 2009, and Worland in 1927 and 1955. But of the 11 who failed, all 11 finished with records of .500 or better the next season, and three teams (Byron in 1959, Cokeville in 2004 and Douglas in 2011) saw their four-peat attempts end in state title games.

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When the 2018 season starts, three schools have a chance to continue the championship streaks they’ve already begun.

While past success definitely helps future success, as we can see, a winning streak comes with no guarantees of continuation.

The challenges Sheridan, Kaycee and Pine Bluffs will face go beyond the history of other programs at other times. Nevertheless, one way or another, their attempts at titles this year will be interesting to see unfold, especially under the context of past successes.

–patrick

More than a million yards from scrimmage have been gained in 11-man football in Wyoming since 2009.

But how many of those were through the air? And how many were on the ground?

And which teams were the best at what they do?

An analysis of statistics from 2009 to 2016 shows certain teams have varied only slightly in their attacks the past eight seasons, while others have completely changed their approaches based on the talent of the players or the philosophies of coaches.

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A cloud of dust (or black rubber): The best at the running game

In 2016, the trend was clear: Keep it on the ground.

Statewide, coaches and players in 2016 gave us a season that focused on the run — much more so than any season since at least 2009. In 2016, 65.06 percent of all yards gained were gained on the ground, a total higher than 2015 (61.07 percent), 2014 (60.92), 2013 (61.4), 2012 (62.71), 2011 (61.86), 2010 (61.95) and 2009 (64.55).

That was shown most clearly in the approach of the Glenrock Herders.

The most run-heavy team since 2009 was last year’s Glenrock team, which gained 99.08 percent of its yards via the rush (3,757 rushing yards to 35 passing yards.) In second was Lingle’s 2015 team, which got 95.79 percent of its yards on the ground (3,322 rushing to 146 passing).

Overall, from 2009 to 2016 combined, the most run-heavy program was Lingle, with 93.37 percent of its yards coming on the ground in that time. Glenrock was next at 89.11 percent of its yards gained on the ground, while Lusk was third at 86.38. Others above 80 percent were Cokeville (82.43), Burlington (80.8) and Kemmerer (80.32).

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Air it out: The best at the passing game

Oddly enough, the teams that have gained the highest percentage of their yards through the air got there by accident.

For example: The most pass-heavy team since 2009 was NSI’s 2011 team, which gained just 4.46 percent of its yards on the ground (40 rushing yards to 856 passing yards). But that came in part because of two factors — (1) NSI was a horrible rushing team that year, and (2) lots of negative rushing yards came via quarterback sacks. A similar fate befell Rawlins in 2010, when the Outlaws gained 4.99 percent of their yards on the ground (35 rushing yards, 667 passing yards) after taking a bunch of negative yardage on QB sacks.

Of teams that weren’t just sacked into oblivion, the lowest percentage of rushing yards came with Riverside in 2013; the Rebels got 22.58 percent of their yards on the ground (466 rushing yards to 1,598 passing yards).

In the past eight seasons combined, NSI was the most pass-happy team, with only 37.86 of its yards coming on the ground. Rawlins was second at 39.4 percent, while Riverside (44.51), Wheatland (48.17), Cheyenne Central (48.74) and Laramie (49.89) were all more pass-heavy than run-heavy.

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Always the same… or always different

Some teams take the Remember the Titans approach and run just six plays.

For an example of that, look no further than Lingle, the team that varied its offensive approach the least over the past eight seasons.

The Doggers’ yardage percentages had a standard deviation of 2.48, the lowest in the state; Lingle’s percent of yardage gained on the ground, from 2009 to 2015, was 94.96, 92.86, 90.35, 95.1, 94.22, 89.45 and 95.79.

Of programs with at least four years of data, Upton-Sundance, Lusk and Lovell also had standard deviations below 5, meaning they had the most consistent offensive approaches.

The programs with at least four measured seasons with the highest standard deviation was Mountain View, which had a deviation of 20.23. From 2009 to 2016, Mountain View’s percent of yards gained on the ground were 86.43, 87.72, 75.45, 45.19, 51.61, 72.17, 35.89 and 46.1. Rock Springs, Rawlins and Greybull also had high standard deviations. The changes came in part because those programs saw coaching changes in those spans and offensive gameplans adjusted accordingly — Mountain View, Rawlins and Greybull toward more pass-heavy approaches and and Rock Springs to a more run-heavy style.

Of programs that retained the same coach from 2009 to 2016, the one that saw the highest standard deviation — or, in layman’s terms, the most ability to be flexible with the talent of the players it has — was Newcastle. Coach Matt Conzelman has had percentage of run yardage be as low as 36.43 in 2009 and as high as 87.35 in 2015.

If you want to dive into the data and explore teams’ rushing and passing yardage totals from 2009-16, click here. What sticks out to you?

Note: Six-man play was not included due to the lack of consistency in six-man statistics from 2009 to 2016. Seasons were excluded if team statistics were missing from three or more games. The following 11-man seasons were excluded due to lack of consistent statistics: Burlington 2015, 2013, 2010 and 2009; Rocky Mountain 2015; Wyoming Indian 2015, 2014 and 2010; Wind River 2010; Shoshoni 2015 and 2009; Riverside 2010; NSI 2009; Upton 2009.

–patrick

The scoring records page, where the top season totals for both offense and defense are listed, shows the top defensive performances over one season are mostly populated by team efforts from before World War II. In fact, of the 10 seasons where a team gave up one point per game or less, seven came prior to World War II — and the other three are clustered in the early 1970s. Those eras are historically low points for scoring statewide.

Many teams gave up only a handful of points in the game’s early days, where scoreless ties were common and 6-0 finals the standard. Since World War II, scoring has gone up considerably, thereby making a dominating season-long defensive effort pretty rare.

I went back and found all the defensive efforts since 1946 in which a team allowed 4 points per game or fewer.

The top two defensive outputs in the past 70 years both came in the same season: 1974. Torrington gave up just six points in nine games, while Saratoga gave up six points in eight games. In all, six teams from the 1974 season gave up fewer than 4 ppg — in addition to Torrington’s 0.67 and Saratoga’s 0.75 ppg, Worland gave up 2.63 ppg, Tongue River 3.33 ppg, Kemmerer 3.89 and Rawlins 4.0 ppg that season. But the 4 ppg threshold was only reached six other times in the 1970s, making 1974 the true anomaly of defensive performances in Wyoming high school football. (I still don’t know why. Any theories?)

More recently, seven squads from this millennium have given up 4 ppg or fewer. The most recent is Lyman in 2012, which gave up 3.17 points per game. The others are Lusk in 2000 (1.3 points allowed per game), Wright in 2004 (2.6), Gillette in 2000 (3), Cokeville in 2008 (3.5), Lusk in 2002 (3.5) and Cokeville in 2011 (3.9).

Meanwhile, only two teams from the 1990s — Lusk in 1992 and Mountain View 1997 — gave up fewer than 4 ppg over their season, while seven teams were under the 4 points per game allowed threshold in the 1980s: Lusk 1986, Big Horn 1985, Kelly Walsh 1981, Cokeville 1988, Cokeville 1984, Sundance 1981, Greybull 1986.

Fifteen teams from the 1960s gave up 4 ppg or fewer; however, only four from the 1950s met that threshold. And the four teams that accomplished this defensive feat from the second half of the 1940s all did so in the 1947 season.

For perspective, the top scoring defense in the 2016 season was Tongue River, which gave up exactly 10 points per game.

Here’s the list of all teams since 1946 who gave up 4 ppg or less during a season, in order of average points allowed:

Torrington 1974: 9-0, 6 points allowed, 0.67 average points allowed

Saratoga 1974: 8-0, 6 pa, 0.75 apa

Upton 1971: 7-0-1, 8 pa, 1 apa

Lusk 2000: 10-0, 13 pa, 1.3 apa

Byron 1960: 10-0, 13 pa, 1.3 apa

Glenrock 1972: 9-0, 12 pa, 1.33 apa

Sheridan 1953: 9-0, 14 pa, 1.56 apa

Worland 1956: 10-0-1, 18 pa, 1.64 apa

Mountain View 1962: 6-0, 12 pa, 2 apa

Green River 1963: 10-0, 21 pa, 2.1 apa

Evanston 1964: 9-0, 20 pa, 2.22 apa

Pinedale 1975: 10-0, 24 pa, 2.4 apa

Shoshoni 1953: 4-1, 12 pa, 2.4 apa

Lusk 1992: 8-0, 20 pa, 2.5 apa

Wright 2004: 9-1, 26 pa, 2.6 apa

Lusk 1986: 10-0, 26 pa, 2.6 apa

Worland 1974: 7-1, 21 pa, 2.63 apa

St. Stephens 1962: 8-0, 21 pa, 2.63 apa

Glenrock 1969: 7-1-1, 24 pa, 2.67 apa

Mountain View 1997: 10-0, 28 pa, 2.8 apa

Laramie 1960: 9-0, 26 pa, 2.89 apa

Gillette 2000: 10-0, 30 pa, 3 apa

Glenrock 1967: 9-0, 27 pa, 3 apa

Lusk 1963: 8-0-1, 27 pa, 3 apa

Midwest 1947: 7-0-1, 25 pa, 3.13 apa

Lyman 2012: 12-0, 38 pa, 3.17 apa

Byron 1963: 8-0, 26 pa, 3.25 apa

Kemmerer 1947: 6-1-1, 26 pa, 3.25 apa

Big Horn 1985: 10-0, 33 pa, 3.3 apa

Rawlins 1947: 8-0-2, 33 pa, 3.3 apa

Tongue River 1974: 9-0, 30 pa, 3.33 apa

Kelly Walsh 1981: 10-0, 34 pa, 3.4 apa

Laramie 1962: 9-0, 31 pa, 3.44 apa

Cokeville 2008: 8-2, 35 pa, 3.5 apa

Lusk 2002: 10-0, 35 pa, 3.5 apa

Pinedale 1973: 8-2, 35 pa, 3.5 apa

Shoshoni 1947: 4-0, 14 pa, 3.5 apa

Cokeville 1988: 10-0, 36 pa, 3.6 apa

Cokeville 1984: 9-1, 36 pa, 3.6 apa

Tongue River 1972: 8-1, 33 pa, 3.67 apa

Laramie 1964: 9-0, 33 pa, 3.67 apa

Sundance 1981: 7-1, 30 pa, 3.75 apa

Pine Bluffs 1950: 7-0, 27 pa, 3.86 apa

Byron 1966: 7-1, 31 pa, 3.88 apa

Kemmerer 1974: 9-0, 35 pa, 3.89 apa

Star Valley 1962: 9-0, 35 pa, 3.89 apa

Cokeville 2011: 11-0, 39 pa, 3.9 apa

Greybull 1986: 7-1, 32 pa, 4 apa

Rawlins 1974: 9-1, 40 pa, 4 apa

Lingle 1970: 6-2, 32 pa, 4 apa

Greybull 1962: 8-0, 32 pa, 4 apa

Which one of these seasons do you think is the most impressive defensive effort? Leave a comment below and let’s chat about the best work you’ve seen in stopping other teams from scoring.

–patrick