Load ESPN college football player box scores from the SportsDataverse data repo

Loads season-level player box scores – one row per player-game- category with the stat lines ESPN publishes per game. Published to the espn_cfb_player_box release tag on the sportsdataverse-data repo.

Usage

load_espn_cfb_player_box(
  seasons = most_recent_cfb_season(),
  ...,
  dbConnection = NULL,
  tablename = NULL
)

Arguments

seasons

A vector of 4-digit years associated with given college football seasons. Published coverage runs 2004 through the most recent season. Pass seasons = TRUE for every published season. (Min: 2004)

...

Additional arguments passed to an underlying function that writes the season data into a database.

dbConnection

A DBIConnection object, as returned by DBI::dbConnect()

tablename

The name of the data table within the database

Value

Returns a cfbfastR_data tibble.

col_name	types	description
stat_1	character	First value of ESPN's raw athlete stats array, written only when the category's key list does not line up with the stats list; on those rows the named per-category columns are all null.
stat_2	character	Second value of ESPN's raw athlete stats array, written only on rows where the category keys did not line up and the named columns could not be filled.
stat_3	character	Third value of ESPN's raw athlete stats array, written only on rows where the category keys did not line up and the named columns could not be filled.
stat_4	character	Fourth value of ESPN's raw athlete stats array, written only on rows where the category keys did not line up and the named columns could not be filled.
stat_5	character	Fifth value of ESPN's raw athlete stats array, written only on rows where the category keys did not line up and the named columns could not be filled.
category	character
athlete_id	integer
athlete_name	character
jersey	character
team_id	integer
rushingAttempts	character	Rushing attempts.
rushingYards	character	Net rushing yards gained.
yardsPerRushAttempt	character	Yards gained per rushing attempt.
rushingTouchdowns	character	Rushing touchdowns.
longRushing	character	Longest rush of the game, in yards.
receptions	character
receivingYards	character	Receiving yards gained.
yardsPerReception	character	Yards gained per reception.
receivingTouchdowns	character	Receiving touchdowns.
longReception	character	Longest reception of the game, in yards.
fumbles	character
fumblesLost	character
fumblesRecovered	character
kickReturns	character
kickReturnYards	character
yardsPerKickReturn	character
longKickReturn	character
kickReturnTouchdowns	character
puntReturns	character	Punt returns attempted.
puntReturnYards	character	Yards gained on punt returns.
yardsPerPuntReturn	character	Yards gained per punt return.
longPuntReturn	character	Longest punt return of the game, in yards.
puntReturnTouchdowns	character	Touchdowns scored on punt returns.
fieldGoalsMade/fieldGoalAttempts	character	Field goals made and attempted, as ESPN's combined string.
fieldGoalPct	character	Field-goal percentage.
longFieldGoalMade	character	Longest field goal made, in yards.
extraPointsMade/extraPointAttempts	character	Extra points made and attempted, as ESPN's combined string.
totalKickingPoints	character	Total points scored by kicking.
punts	character	Punts attempted.
puntYards	character	Total punt yards.
grossAvgPuntYards	character	Gross average yards per punt, before return yardage.
touchbacks	character	Punts or kickoffs that resulted in a touchback.
puntsInside20	character	Punts downed inside the opponent 20-yard line.
longPunt	character	Longest punt of the game, in yards.
game_id	integer
season	integer
interceptions	character
interceptionYards	character	Yards returned on interceptions.
interceptionTouchdowns	character	Touchdowns scored on interception returns.
totalTackles	character
soloTackles	character
sacks	character
tacklesForLoss	character
passesDefended	character
hurries	character
defensiveTouchdowns	character
completions/passingAttempts	character	Completions and pass attempts, as ESPN's combined string.
passingYards	character	Net passing yards gained.
yardsPerPassAttempt	character	Yards gained per pass attempt.
passingTouchdowns	character	Passing touchdowns.
adjQBR	character	Adjusted Total QBR for the quarterback.

Author

Saiem Gilani

Examples

# \donttest{
  try(load_espn_cfb_player_box(2004))
#> ── ESPN college football player box scores from the SportsDataverse data repo ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-09-10 05:50:06 UTC
#> # A tibble: 23,981 × 46
#>    completions/passingAttem…¹ passingYards yardsPerPassAttempt passingTouchdowns
#>    <chr>                      <chr>        <chr>               <chr>            
#>  1 19/29                      272          9.4                 3                
#>  2 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#>  3 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#>  4 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#>  5 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#>  6 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#>  7 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#>  8 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#>  9 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#> 10 NA                         NA           NA                  NA               
#> # ℹ 23,971 more rows
#> # ℹ abbreviated name: ¹​`completions/passingAttempts`
#> # ℹ 42 more variables: interceptions <chr>, adjQBR <chr>, category <chr>,
#> #   athlete_id <int>, athlete_name <chr>, jersey <lgl>, team_id <int>,
#> #   rushingAttempts <chr>, rushingYards <chr>, yardsPerRushAttempt <chr>,
#> #   rushingTouchdowns <chr>, longRushing <chr>, receptions <chr>,
#> #   receivingYards <chr>, yardsPerReception <chr>, receivingTouchdowns <chr>, …
# }