So yesterday I thought it’d be fun to dive into the WKU and Sam Houston State player stats from their recent football showdown. Grabbed my laptop around 8 PM, cracked open a Red Bull, and started hunting for raw data like a man possessed. First stop was the official NCAA stats page – total nightmare with their ancient interface. Had to toggle between like fifteen filters just to find basic rushing yards.
The Data Grind
Copied everything into Google Sheets and immediately regretted it. The columns were all messed up – some players had nicknames in parentheses, others had weird asterisks for injuries. Spent a solid hour just cleaning that garbage. Had to manually fix:
- That QB completion percentage where they listed 5/8 as “5-8” like it’s a clothing size
- Three different spellings of “Sam Houston” in defensive stats
- Timeout substitutions showing up as negative yards
Around midnight I started cross-checking with ESPN’s play-by-play because one linebacker’s tackle count seemed fishy. Sure enough – they’d credited him with tackles when he was literally sitting on the bench during those plays. Fixed six entries while muttering profanities.
The Weird Finds
When everything finally lined up, holy crap the patterns jumped out. Check this madness:
- WKU’s running back #22 got exactly 4.3 yards per carry every quarter like some robot
- Sam Houston’s safety got burned on deep routes but had nine solo tackles
- Third string QB completed more passes than the starter in less than half the snaps
My cat started judging me hard when I yelled “NO WAY!” at 2 AM after spotting that last stat.
The Aftermath
Woke up this morning with my face on the keyboard and the spreadsheet still open. Numbers were blurry but I’d scribbled “WR #84 clutch gene???” in the margin. Double-checked fourth quarter plays and yeah – that dude caught every single desperation throw. Wrapped everything into color-coded charts that took longer than the damn analysis. Final thought? Stats never lie but collecting them might actually kill you.
