Coach's dilemma: run versus pass

The decision of run versus pass is of major importance to a football coach. This study focused on four situations: second down and short medium yardage for a first down; second down and long medium yardage for a first down; third down and short medium yardage for a first down; and third down and long medium yardage for a first down.

Plays were taken off of a computer printout from the 1985 Virginia Tech Football team's statistics. Percentages of success and failure were taken to determine if a pattern could be established as to whether run or pass was more successful. These percentages were tested against a null hypothesis which stated that there would not be any difference in the success rate of run versus pass.

Strength of schedule was taken into consideration. A Spearman rho (rank) correlation coefficient was computed for opponents' pre-season and post-season ranking.

The study established that there was a significant difference in the success rate by using the run in the second down and short medium situation. This was also found to be true in the third down and short medium situation.