Yesterday, it was North Offenses.  Today, North Defenses.

Defensive Lines

1. Nebraska (DT Ndamukong Suh, DE Pierre Allen)
2. Kansas (DE Jake Laptad, DT Richard Johnson, DT Caleb Blakesley)
3. Missouri (DT Jaron Baston, DE Brian Coulter, DE Jacquies Smith)
4. Kansas State (DE Brandon Harold, DT Daniel Calvin)
5. Iowa State (DE Rashawn Parker, DT Nate Frere)
6. Colorado (DE Jason Brace, ?)

That's right, Ndamukong Suh still has eligibility left--feels like he's been having an up-and-down season for Nebraska since about 2003--and he and Pierre Allen should make a pretty solid DL for the Huskers.  KU returns a decent amount, and while their unit will be far from spectacular, it will be steady and reliable.  Missouri has a lot of potential at DE with Coulter and Smith, but they still have to replace a lot of career starts.

Linebackers

1. Missouri (Sean Weatherspoon--for now, Luke Lambert)
2. Nebraska (Phil Dillard, Blake Lawrence)
   
3. Colorado (Jeff Smart, Shaun Mohler)
4. Iowa State (Jesse Smith, Fred Garrin, Cameron Bell)
5. Kansas State (Olu Hall, Ulla Pomele)
6. Kansas (?)

I think Sean Weatherspoon will return, but I could be wrong.  If he doesn't...well, MU probably doesn't fall very far because NOBODY will have tremendous LBs in 2009.  Jeff Smart is solid, but that's really all CU has.  Smith and Garrin have had their moments at ISU, but...yeah, they're still only average.  NU returns Phil Dillard and some youngsters with potential, and if 'Spoon is in the NFL in 2009, that should give NU the best unit.

Defensive Backs

1. Kansas State (CB Joshua Moore, CB Blair Irvin, S Courtney Herndon)
2. Iowa State (CB Leonard Johnson, S James Smith)
3. Nebraska (S Rickey Thenarse, S Larry Asante)
4. Kansas (CB/S Chris Harris, S Darrell Stuckey, CB Daymond Patterson)
5. Missouri (CB Carl Gettis, S Kenji Jackson)
6. Colorado (CB Cha'pelle Brown, ?)

Oy.  If there's one reason why North offenses should still be pretty successful in 2009, it's because nobody in the North returns a quality secondary.  I'm probably underrating the Missouri secondary here--Iowa State game aside, Castine Bridges hasn't been anything special in '08, and there won't be a huge dropoff to Kevin Rutland or one of the RSFrs.  Meanwhile, Missouri fans are loving them some Kenji Jackson.  But only Carl Gettis will be proven.

Also, I might be overrating Iowa State, but I love me some Leonard Johnson.

North Defenses, 2009

1. Nebraska (15)
2. Missouri (12)
3. Kansas State (11)
4. Iowa State (10)
5. Kansas (9)
6. Colorado (6)

As with the offenses, each North defense will have its strengths and weaknesses...but not a lot of strengths.  Nebraska scores the best, and they're returning only about six starters.  Missouri loses William Moore and most of its D-line, and they still might have the best North defense.  Iowa State's D was brutal in '08, and they actually score pretty well here.  Big-time tossup.  A lot will come down to matchups and schedules...so after we look at special teams, we'll look at that.

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You know how this works by now.  I walk you through the EqPts scores of last year's games to see if they won or lost any games they shouldn't.  Then I attack you with thousands of S&P- and Line Yards-related stats.  Then we look at '+' numbers.  Well...I'm going to abbreviate part of that with Kansas because...well...we all know that they didn't play the toughest of schedules in 2007, and the '+' numbers should be of particular interest.  '+' numbers, after all, are the measures that compare what they did to what other opponents' opponents did.  That way, even if they played a super-weak schedule, they're evaluated by how they played those crappy teams as compared to everybody else who played said crappy teams.  That's the meat of any Kansas analysis here.  But first...just so you don't get too terribly disoriented...I'll still hit you with some EqPts and a mini-stat onslaught.

And as always, for The Beef and others, I'll boldface the important stuff.

EqPts Scores

Kansas 42.6, Central Michigan 8.9 (real score: 52-7)
Kansas 40.6, SE Louisiana 14.1 (62-0)
Kansas 35.7, Toledo 7.9 (45-13)
Kansas 38.5, Florida International 0.6 (55.3)
Kansas 28.5, Kansas State 17.2 (30-24)
Kansas 29.0, Baylor 2.9 (58-10)
Kansas 14.8, Colorado 18.9 (19-14)
Kansas 18.0, Texas A&M 13.9 (19-11)
Kansas 65.7, Nebraska 31.1 (76-39)
Kansas 37.6, Oklahoma State 28.2 (43-28)
Kansas 41.8, Iowa State 7.8 (45-7)
Kansas 33.6, Missouri 34.8 (28-36)
Kansas 17.6, Virginia Tech 12.3 (24-21)

That game in Boulder was a dogfight, and the offense did next to nothing against the Buffs.

Stat Onslaught

We'll give you the bare bones stat onslaught here...bearing in mind that the upcoming '+' numbers are far more telling.

OFFENSE (Success Rate / PPP / S&P)

Rushing: 51.0% / 0.45 / 0.960
Passing: 45.9% / 0.45 / 0.909
TOTAL: 48.4% / 0.45 / 0.934

Rushing (close games): 48.2% / 0.38 / 0.862
Passing (close games): 46.0% / 0.44 / 0.902

TOTAL: 47.0% / 0.41 / 0.884

Passing Downs: 30.9% / 0.20 / 0.507
Non-Passing Downs: 54.8% / 0.54 / 1.088

They never really took major chances on passing downs.  They succeeded by a) staying OUT of passing downs and b) having no problem falling back on their defense and playing it safe.

DEFENSE (Success Rate / PPP / S&P)

Rushing: 37.3% / 0.23 / 0.599
Passing: 33.0% / 0.21 / 0.536
TOTAL: 34.8% / 0.21 / 0.562

Rushing (close games): 36.8% / 0.18 / 0.548
Passing (close games): 35.9% / 0.27 / 0.626
TOTAL (close games): 36.3% / 0.23 / 0.595

Passing Downs: 24.5% / 0.10 / 0.350
Non-Passing Downs: 40.9% / 0.28 / 0.688

Alright, on with the meat of the show.

'+' Numbers

Instead of numbers you may or may not care about, I'll just give you KU's national rank in each category.  That most directly tells you what you need to know.

OFFENSE

EqPts+: #9 in the country

S&P+: #9
Rushing S&P+: #8
Passing S&P+: #14

S&P+ (close games): #10
Rushing S&P+ (close games): #18
Passing S&P+ (close games): #25

Non-Passing Downs S&P+: #13
Passing Downs S&P+: #59

Redzone S&P+: #70

Q1 S&P+: #90
Q2 S&P+: #8
Q3 S&P+: #12
Q4 S&P+: #22

1st Downs S&P+: #24
2nd Downs S&P+: #22
3rd Downs S&P+: #35

Line Yards+: #9
Line Yards+ (close games): #6

• First things first, this was obviously a good offense.  Yeah, they torched some bad defenses, but they really torched them.
• KU's offense was a bit of a slow starter overall, less than mediocre in Q1 (though as you'll see, they still jumped out to big leads because of their defense).  But by Q2, they hit their stride. 
  
• Line play was quite strong as well.  KU was average-at-best on passing downs, but as I said above...they didn't face many.

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