Million tweets and reranking coaches poll SURPRISE!
EVEN TAGOVAILOA IS IN AWE OF ALABAMA’S OFFENSE
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – It has all come so quickly, and maybe after the way last season finished — literally, we mean the actual finish — we thought something like this could happen. But this fast? This fantastic?
Tua Tagovailoa shakes his head and smiles. “I couldn’t have envisioned it this way,” he says, “the kind of success we’ve been having with our offense.”
But really, who could have? Two-thirds of the way through the season, life is unquestionably good for Alabama’s sophomore quarterback. He’s the clear Heisman Trophy favorite. And if eight games in, the Crimson Tide are ranked No. 1 again and the overwhelming favorite to win yet another national title, it is not simply the same old formula.
Alabama’s offense is easily the best and most explosive of Nick Saban’s dynastic tenure.
The numbers are ridiculous.
The Crimson Tide lead the nation in scoring
(54.1 points), total offense (564.3 yards), passing efficiency (226.29) and third-down conversions
(56.2 percent). They’re near the top in several other categories.
And Tagovailoa is the biggest catalyst.
We first got to know him during the national championship game in January, when he replaced starter Jalen Hurts in the second half and led the Tide to a win in overtime. That touchdown dagger he tossed on 2nd-and-26 ended the season with an exclamation point and fueled anticipation for what might be possible this season.
Alabama’s football team might be No. 1 in the Amway Coaches Poll based on its play, but when it comes to favorable Twitter mentions, the Crimson Tide take a huge drop.
Alabama comes in at No. 19 when the coaches poll is reconfigured by the percentage of positive mentions on Twitter. Washington State received the highest percentage of favorable tweets at 56.38 to rank No. 1. The Cougars are No. 15 when the coaches vote.
The rankings were devised by Block Six Analytics (B6A), which is based in Chicago. According to Alex Cordover, director of data science for B6A, “Overall, we analyzed 1 million tweets, which puts the margin of error for the percentages at a maximum of 0.5 percent.”
But just because Alabama dropped in the favorability rankings does not necessarily mean Twitter hates the Tide. Alabama was in the middle in percentage of negative tweets at 14.17 percent. Its remaining 41.34 percent of Twitter mentions were neutral.
Notre Dame received the highest percentage of negative Twitter mentions at 22.80. The Irish rank third in the coaches poll but plummet to 22nd in the favorability ranking.
Texas received the lowest percentage of negative Twitter mentions at 8.43.
“Sentiment analysis is expanding its role in the world of sports,” said Adam Robbins, B6A senior director of sales. “Understanding how fans are interacting through social media is invaluable data for teams, leagues and brands.”