states that Denver won 20/22 FO this past weekend and lost. That said, it sure does seem to me like possession is something like 9/10ths of the law when I watch lacrosse and winning faceoffs seems like a good way to get it.

Faceoffs are an art. It's about quickness, technique, power and who knows what else. But a kid can practice all year and still not be able to beat a certain kid. I just went over faceoffs with my team tonight and the quickest kid who gets all the groundballs won. Imagine that.

I'm sure we practice them a lot. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do when going against a better guy.

But I would bet it's under 40%. And it would be much worse than it is without Epple and Landis on the wings for faceoffs. I don't want to knock Finley or any of our other FOGO guys, but I would think that bringing in a stud FOGO guy is a must.

Strictly mho, but I think if we had won merely 40% of our faceoffs this year, we likely would have an unbeaten squad. 1 loss at most.

Edit to add: after checking stats at und.com, I stand corrected. We're .506 on faceoffs for the year. Sure doesn't seem like it, but that certainly blows my theory out of the water.

There is likely a timeliness element to our FO wins pushing the season-long average to the above .500 number you share. Our season totals likely show subpar FO performance in our losses, supporting your conjecture.

Here are ND's game-by-game face-off stats:

Georgetown: 17/22 (77.3%) - Won 12-7
Bellarmine: 11/20 (55.0%) - Won 11-6
Detroit: 15/22 (68.2%) - Won 14-5
Maryland: 9/17 (52.9%) - Won 9-4
Denver: 9/21 (42.8%) - Lost 9-8 (OT)
Virginia: 4/18 (22.2%) - Won 8-7 (OT)
Ohio State: 8/21 (38.1%) - Won 9-8
Syracuse: 15/27 (55.6%) - Won 17-7
Duke: 7/18 (38.9%) - Won 8-6
Marquette: 13/18 (72.2%) - Won 8-7 (OT)
North Carolina: 16/35 (45.7%) - Lost 17-15
Duke (ACC): 5/23 (21.7%) - Lost 10-9 (OT)
Army: 12/24 (50.0%) - Won 13-7
Air Force (NCAA): 17/26 (65.4%) - Won 15-7

As you surmise, ND's face-off performance in its losses was pretty horrible. Likewise for a couple wins against lesser foes (UVa, OSU) that were closer than they should have been. The biggest outliers appear to be the wins over Duke and Marquette. Against Duke, ND got killed at the X yet still won, which suggests that Duke's early exit from the NCAA's probably wasn't a fluke. Against Marquette, ND dominated face-offs yet still had to go to overtime.

As presented, we don't HAVE to win FOs to win the game, but man it sure helps. I was actually expecting our FO % to be a bit better against Cuse. It's good, but it shows we might be able to lose the FO battle with them and win.

I didn't get to see the UNC game, and most here were pretty disappointed we let that one slip away. Coach Corrigan as well. Had we gone at least 50% in that game, there is a good chance we would not have lost.

I think the data also supports the original poster's point. Perhaps we should look quite heavily at getting some FOGOs a LOT of practice and instruction with faceoffs over the summer.

Agree wholeheartedly that ND needs to focus on this. Whether it does or not remains to be seen. If we don't win the majority of faceoffs it's pretty simple in that you'll have less possessions and less scoring chances (holding everything else even). Frustrating to say the least since I feel we have an elite offense. I am wondering if this would be the year for us to break and win the title through since Duke and Denver are eliminated on our side of bracket. As lifelong ND fan I fear the worst to come. More heartache (i.e football, hockey, men's and women's basketball falling short despite having some elite teams). Hope I am wrong. I will be in Columbus next weekend bleeding blue and gold. Go Irish!

When we lost the title game in OT in 2010, off the draw, Corrigan said something to the effect of "I should have had a wing come down" meaning he should have had someone in position to get in Costabile's way so he didn't have a clear path to the goal.

I don't have data to back it up, but after that game, our faceoff philosophy started to change. Now, our wings crash down hard on the ball almost all the time. It's one of the reasons we defend so well-- we're already in our ride right off the faceoff, so even if the other team gets the ball, they're already under pressure. If you ask me, Corrigan has adapted his face off outlook to get the most out of his players and neutralize guys like Ben Williams and Baptiste (to an extent). That adaptation hasn't shown up in our football coach's special teams playbook.