% of Yards Returning

Phil Steele has released his newest chart for our viewing pleasure.  This time he breaks down the percentage of offensive yards returning.  Here’s how he figured out the numbers: “I took all of the yards each QB threw for as well as all of the individual rushing yards and receiving yards for each team.”

How does the Pac-10 stack up? Well,

-Washington returns the most yards, 85.5%, good for 24th nationally.

-101st ranked Arizona State is last for the Pac-10 with 40.3%.

We also love this stat.  It tells you if the playmakers are back or if they moved on to bigger and better things.  Arizona lost Wille Tuitama and Mike Thomas, contributing to their low ranking.  Washington didn’t lose anyone significant (did they have anyone significant?) so they have a strong base for improvement this year (how can you not improve, 0-12).  

Here’s the complete Pac-10 list:

Washington 85.5%

Stanford 83.8%

UCLA 81.7%

Oregon State 74.4%

California 73.0%

Oregon 70.5%

Washington State 70.3%

USC 55.1%

Arizona 51.4%

Arizona State 40.3%