Clemson/USF vs Miami (FL) in 2010 (Part I:Team Statistics)

I was browsing through these two games and thought it may be an iteresting post, so forgive the haste thrown into this please.  Clemson and USF have one opponent in common, Miami (FL).  These two games (and the subsequent box scores) do not tell the whole story between the Clemson Tigers and South Florida Bulls but are the common thread between the two teams in the 2010 season.  As we discussed in earlier posts, we are tinkering with the presentation of data, hence these are not presented in the usual jpeg fashion so feel free to comment on the presentation so that we can try to present our articles in the best fashion possible.  Also, I did not have time to make the individual stats presentable this morning but plan to roll those out this evening or tomorrow as they were interesting as well.

Below is a brief box score summary (again, thanks www.espn.com for the stats).  The Clem/Miami game stats are on the left, the USF/Miami on the right. 

The number that should really stand out here is the six turnovers that Clemson committed in the Tigers' contest vs the Canes, putting the Tigers at a -4 margin for the day.  USF took better care of the football and was +2 in the turnover battle.  Overall, Clemson was able to gain 17 more total yards against Miami than USF but gave up 65 more yards than South Florida.  Clemson ran the ball better but USF was more efficient through the air, though only 10 overall yards better.  Each team held the ball for over 29 minutes, with the Tigers TOP just over 1:30 better than USF.

Not counting the turnovers, these two teams' overall statistics vs UM were pretty close.  You cannot, however, discount giving the opponent the ball on six turnovers AND cannot overemphasize how important USF's domination in the turnover margin was in their game.  It is pretty obvious that winning the TO battle puts you in a much better position to win AND ending up -4 in such a battle puts you in a tough, tough spot.