Introducing Data-Driven College Football Analysis

Gathering a small group of college football-hungry writers and stats junkies, Marshall Stephens launched Down Field Stats in August 2019 to create statistical analyses of college football players, coaches and teams.

The idea for the website was sparked by an ongoing argument between a group of college friends who couldn’t agree if University of Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano was an effective SEC quarterback.

After an entire offseason of debate, Marshall decided to analyze Guarantano’s 2018 season by charting the quarterback’s passes from all 12 games that year. Using that data, Marshall created a series of graphs that highlighted Guarantano’s strength (the short passing game) and weakness (the long passing game).

The charts were posted on the college football and UT subreddits, where they generated a great deal of interest. The analysis was picked up by a 247 Sports writer, who used it in an article on Guarantano posted on CBSSports.com and 247 Sports.