Defenses have begun to strike back in college football.
FBS offenses scored just 27.8 points per game in 2023, the lowest national average since 2009. After gaining 5.80 yards per play from 2016 to 2021, offenses averaged 5.75 yards in 2022 and 2023. That doesn't sound like much of a drop, but with slowdowns in tempo too -- defenses have made it a lot more difficult to derive an advantage with pace -- it adds up to 31 fewer cumulative yards in a given game.
There are still plenty of interesting offenses. The Will Stein-Dillon Gabriel coordinator-quarterback combo could produce something intriguing at Oregon, as could the Andy Kotelnicki-Drew Allar (Penn State) and Mike Denbrock-Riley Leonard (Notre Dame) pairings. And both Memphis and Arizona should be ridiculously entertaining.
But defenses might tell the tale of 2024.
With that in mind, here are 12 defenses that, for one reason (they're wildly talented) or another (the coordinator is doing interesting things), are particularly compelling to me heading toward the fall.
