Alyssa GregoryIt has long been a tradition of football coaches to devise unique statistical metrics that gauge the performance of their team. These unusual statistics are often quite reliable in determining which team will win and which team will lose. With the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, for example, head coach Mike Tice always tries to meet the all-important Randy Ratio. The Randy Ratio is based on the principle that when their star receiver, Randy Moss, is thrown to on 40 percent of the team’s passing plays, the Vikings don’t lose.
Washington University head football coach, Larry Kindbom, has a secret stat of his own, and it has led the Bears to unprecedented success in the past decade. It is known among players and coaches as the Bear 60. The Bear 60 states that a team with a combined total of 60 rushes and completed passes will never lose a game.
In this past weekend’s game between WU and Illinois-Wesleyan, both teams totaled 59 rushes and completed passes, and, not surprisingly, the game went into overtime.
According to Kindbom, “There were a lot of plays where one more completion in that overtime gives us 60. We had several different opportunities to make a Bear 60, that’s how close we were as a football team.”
“Part of what we need to do is convert on third downs, or make that play that’s going to put us over 60. It really keeps us focused on being productive as opposed to looking at the scoreboard and saying we need X amount of points or we need to run for 400 yards or pass for 400 yards,” he added.
“We completed 29 for 50 passes and did 30 rushes for a total of 59, so that’s going to be an important stat for us to elevate in our next game; we need to get a Bear 60. It’s the only guarantee we have,” said Kindbom.
“That keeps us from focusing on, ‘Let’s not turn the ball over.’ You can pound that into your head so much that you begin to stop expressing yourself on the field, not fight for the extra yard, not make the sensible throw – just hang onto the ball and take a sack. We don’t want that. We want our guys to be aggressive, so I think the Bear 60 approach is a good way to make a more positive atmosphere.”