College football offenses continue declining in key categories resulting in lowest-scoring season since 2009

We pause this offensive revolution for a rebuttal from the other side of the ball. Not only was scoring down again across college football at the FBS level in 2023, it was down for the third consecutive year. That has never happened previously since the NCAA started tracking statistics in 1937.

Behold a revealing statistical wrap for 2023:

Average scoring was down to 27.78 points per team, lowest since 2009. Total offense was down for the fifth consecutive year (385.70 yards), lowest since 2010. Average yards passing (229.55) were the lowest since 2010, average yards rushing (156.15) the lowest since 2009 and average touchdowns per game (3.47) the lowest since 2008.

“That’s a wild stat that you just said,” responded Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jayden Daniels of LSU upon learning of the trends. “There were times we were putting up 50 points, 40 points. It didn’t really seem like scoring was [down].”

LSU led the nation in scoring, yet at 45.5 points per game, it posted the lowing scoring average for the top team in that category since Houston in 2009 (42.2 points). It was the second time in five seasons that the Tigers led the country in scoring with a Heisman winner leading the charge.

Something is happening. The question: Why?

“If you look at all the numbers in both the NFL and college football, points per game is down, yardage is down. No question,” Chip Kelly said recently while he was still UCLA’s head coach. “Because I think football is cyclical. That’s the beauty of the game. It’s not always going to be one way.”

The 2023 numbers continue to interrupt what was a 30-year trend. From 1993 to 2002 scoring increased each year, and the top 10 scoring seasons have all occurred since 2012. However, since the all-time high of 30.08…

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