Does anyone know what the record for turnovers in a year is?

Submitted by victors2000 on

Teamwise? Perhaps I should branch out to conference-wise, or even nationally; surely we must be closing on this dubious mark...

GoBlueInNYC

November 13th, 2010 at 9:33 PM ^

I don't know, turnovers weren't really an issue in the first half of the season, as I recall. They didn't start to become prevalent/persistent until about the MSU game. But I could be wrong.

Communist Football

November 13th, 2010 at 9:46 PM ^

The Michigan season record is 39 turnovers in 1950.  Michigan has 22 with three games left (including the bowl). 

I can't find the Big Ten record. 

The NCAA record is 61 by North Texas in 1971 and Tulsa in 1976.

treetown

November 13th, 2010 at 10:17 PM ^

The total turnovers in a season and turnovers in a single game are important indicators but the net turnover count might also be a bit more helpful. A sloppy day (like the Purdue game) would be expected to have more turnovers on both sides. In the neolithic era of football when the game was more like rugby, when faced with a game in the rain or snow, it was common advice to coaches to punt the ball on 2nd or 3rd down. The theory of the time was to make the other team handle the ball and to hope they'll lose it deep in their territory. Bad weather in the past also affected the ball more - it would literally become water logged. Single platoon football might also have a factor with everyone being more fatigued.

Another factor to keep in mind is when the fumbles occured. Fumbles which occur early AND which do not result in points by the opponent may not be as critical to the final outcome. The fumble when driving in the red zone which costs a team the tying or go-ahead score is devestating.

Good work on finding this info. My quick search on line could only find this graphic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fumbles.png

from wikipedia about NFL fumbles which showed a steady drop in the number of fumbles by RBs per 100 touches with a strong downward trend to about 1 per 100 carries; this makes Mike Hart's record even more amazing. ? Has that downward trend also occured in the NCAA? When the triple option wishbone, veer, and I options were the in vogue offensive innovation did fumbles go up?

Raoul

November 14th, 2010 at 12:10 AM ^

You make a good point about net turnovers, but I wonder how often a team that has 5 turnovers ends up winning the game. It seems that percentage would be pretty low.

As far as a downward trend in fumbles, how about the impact of technology, particularly the gloves that many players wear to help them grip the ball? I wonder, too, if changes in the football itself may have made fumbling less common.

By the way (as you probably know), the classic case of the type of strategic punting you're talking about was probably the 1950 Michigan-Ohio State "Snow Bowl." There were 45 punts in that game, 24 by Michigan's Chuck Ortmann--which is twice the number that any other Michigan punter has had in a single game. For those interested, the Michigan Daily's article on that game can be found here.