One of the main gripes I see keep popping up is the team’s road record, or more specifically, how they can be so good at home and so poor on the road. My position is that winning on the road is hard to do this day and age, and the ability to win on the road is what separates championship teams from the rest of the herd. I don’t think many on here expected MI to be a championship team this year, yet many seem to think that MI should be playing as such. I think, if someone had the data, if you were to add in the percentage of underclassmen to the roster, the stats would even be more separated. This is not an excuse thread of why MI isn’t performing to expectations on the road, but more of a note to some that maybe their expectations should be tempered a bit.
I went to a couple different places to see if I could pull up the stats. I found an article from Phil Steele in 2010 where his data showed that, from 2000-2010, all 120 teams averaged a .634 winning percentage at home and a .397 winning percentage on the road.
I didn’t find a site that broke down the records all at once, so I cherry picked a few teams and ran their records from 2000-2012.
Alabama – Overall = .683 / Home = .739 / Away = .586
Oregon – Overall = .745 / Home = .821 / Away = .701
OSU - Overall = .800 / Home = .880 / Away = .733
Notre Dame – Overall = .609 / Home = .646 / Away = .587
Wisconsin – Overall = .682 / Home = .789 / Away = .569
MSU – Overall = .549 / Home = .640 / Away = .453
Michigan - Overall = .656 / Home = .789 / Away = .508
Hoke - Overall = .758 / Home = 1.00 / Away = .454
I bolded OSU because wow. I picked the teams to give an idea of what the benchmarks could be and to show what our main competitors have been doing.
I truly believe as the MI team matures, there road record will get better. Their talent level is rising and it should correlate to more wins on the road.
One final statement, this is not a preemptive excuse post in regards to this weekend’s game. I think MI wins this weekend in a hard fought, close game. GO BLUE!