Putting Up Numbers· college football

Boise State’s penalty yards with Sire Gaines and without Sire Gaines

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Against what the season’s ratings expected, Boise State was 12.8 yards over with Sire Gaines and 18.1 yards under without Sire Gaines in 2026, 4 games against 3. The plain averages are 61.2 and 41.0, a difference of 20.2.

Sire Gaines, running back: 418 rushing yards, 75 carries and 10 receptions in 5 games this season.

3 games without Sire Gaines is still too small a sample for the statistics to say much, but maybe you can find something if you squint.

penalty yards a game over expected

A +30.9 difference in penalty yards over expected with Sire Gaines vs without Sire Gaines is a bit unusual: shuffle which games were with Sire Gaines and it comes up 17 times in 100.

A +20.2 difference in penalty yards with Sire Gaines vs without Sire Gaines is about what you’d expect.

The games

with Sire Gaineswithout Sire Gaines
Boise State’s games, 2026, each marked with Sire Gaines or without Sire Gaines
SideDateGameResultpenalty yardsExpected
Sep 5, 2026@OregonL2552.7
Sep 12, 2026vsMemphisW8752.9
Sep 19, 2026vsSSouth DakotaW39—
Sep 26, 2026@Western MichiganW5859.4
Oct 3, 2026vsUtah StateW2558.6
Oct 10, 2026@Fresno StateW8351.0
Oct 24, 2026@Washington StateW7259.3
Oct 31, 2026vsTexas StateW4059.4

Method

Read against .

  • Expected is an offense and a defense a team, fit over every 2026 game between two teams in the table with the game being read left out, minus 1.3 for the home team (the edge the fit finds once strength is in), nothing at a neutral site.
  • Each expected number is then fit to the season’s games: a game bears out about 27% of the difference the model predicts.
  • The shuffle keeps the season’s shape: the games are cut in two where one date leaves the least variance, each game is read against its stretch, and the sides are shuffled only inside each stretch.
  • South Dakota has no other game in the table, so that game has no expected number and sits out the second figure.
  • Who played is read from the schools’ box scores’ participation lists for 7 of these 8 games; in the other game a player is counted as in it when the box score has a stat for him.