Whitworth football by the numbers

In 2015, Whitworth quarterback Ian Kolste threw for 2,810 yards, ranking No. 22 in yardage for all of Division III. But he ranked 12th in the nation in passes completed per game with 24.5.

The Pirates were tied for 38th nationally with 269.5 passing yards a game. In comparison, Northwest Conference foe Puget Sound was seventh (347.1) and Linfield was 13th with (297.2).

D-up

While Offensive coordinator Alan Stanfield pushes the number of plays on offense, the defense did a much better job in coach Rod Sandberg’s second season. In 2014, the Whitworth defense allowed an average of 34.1 points per game as the team finished with a 6-4 record.

But in 2015, the defense allowed only 21.2 points a game, which is an improvement of about two touchdowns per game. And if you take away the 100 points the Pirates surrendered to Linfield in the two losses, the defense allowed only 14.9 points per contest.

41st

When adding in the 519 yards quarterback Ian Kolste added on the ground, he averaged 270.8 yards per game in total yards, which ranked 41st in the nation.

17 more

In the first year of running Whitworth’s offense, Stanfield increased the number of offensive plays per game from 73.2 a contest for John Tully in 2013 to 90.5 in 2014, which was an increase of 17.3 plays per game.

Piling up

In addition to running more plays, Whitworth scored 100 more points and gained 859 more yards — or an average of 86 more yards and 10 more points a game — in 2014 over the last year under Tully.