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Max Olson, ESPN Staff Writer
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College football defensive stop rate ahead of Week 6
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NCAA Football, Northern Illinois Huskies, Bowling Green Falcons, Indiana Hoosiers, James Madison Dukes, Purdue Boilermakers, Kansas Jayhawks, Eastern Michigan Eagles, South Florida Bulls, Colorado State Rams, East Carolina Pirates, UConn Huskies, Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, Texas Longhorns, Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors, LSU Tigers, Oregon State Beavers, Florida International Panthers, TCU Horned Frogs, Missouri State Bears, Marshall Thundering Herd, Nevada Wolf Pack, Kennesaw State Owls, Wisconsin Badgers, UTSA Roadrunners, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Fresno State Bulldogs, Navy Midshipmen, North Carolina Tar Heels, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Baylor Bears, Arkansas State Red Wolves, UCLA Bruins, Texas A&M Aggies, Arizona Wildcats, Georgia Bulldogs, Iowa Hawkeyes, Boston College Eagles, Syracuse Orange, Louisville Cardinals, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Memphis Tigers, Southern Miss Golden Eagles, Troy Trojans, Wyoming Cowboys, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Northwestern Wildcats, Sam Houston Bearkats, Illinois Fighting Illini, NC State Wolfpack, Missouri Tigers, Tulsa Golden Hurricane, Alabama Crimson Tide, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, Stanford Cardinal, Virginia Tech Hokies, UTEP Miners, Central Michigan Chippewas, Auburn Tigers, Liberty Flames, West Virginia Mountaineers, Boise State Broncos, South Alabama Jaguars, Kentucky Wildcats, USC Trojans, Florida Atlantic Owls, Ball State Cardinals, Oregon Ducks, UL Monroe Warhawks, Utah Utes, Pittsburgh Panthers, Florida Gators, Rice Owls, UCF Knights, Toledo Rockets, Old Dominion Monarchs, Akron Zips, Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, Army Black Knights, Charlotte 49ers, Texas State Bobcats, San Diego State Aztecs, Duke Blue Devils, San José State Spartans, SMU Mustangs, BYU Cougars, New Mexico Lobos, Kent State Golden Flashes, Jacksonville State Gamecocks, North Texas Mean Green, Washington State Cougars, Georgia Southern Eagles, Virginia Cavaliers, Massachusetts Minutemen, Michigan State Spartans, Georgia State Panthers, Kansas State Wildcats, Miami (OH) RedHawks, Miami Hurricanes, Ohio State Buckeyes, Air Force Falcons, Arkansas Razorbacks, Tulane Green Wave, Tennessee Volunteers, Temple Owls, Clemson Tigers, Houston Cougars, App State Mountaineers, Iowa State Cyclones, Ole Miss Rebels, South Carolina Gamecocks, Maryland Terrapins, Washington Huskies, Arizona State Sun Devils, Cincinnati Bearcats, Western Michigan Broncos, Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, Colorado Buffaloes, Michigan Wolverines, Delaware Blue Hens, Oklahoma Sooners, California Golden Bears, Utah State Aggies, Buffalo Bulls, Ohio Bobcats, New Mexico State Aggies, Penn State Nittany Lions, Florida State Seminoles, UAB Blazers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Vanderbilt Commodores
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The ups and downs of Arch Manning's first season as Texas' starting quarterback are commanding all the national attention, as expected. But don't sleep on the hot start by the Longhorns' loaded defense. Texas debuts as No. 1 in our initial stop rate standings for the 2025 season. What is stop rate? It's a basic measurement of success: the percentage of a defense's drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. Defensive coordinators have the same goal regardless of their scheme, opponent or conference: prevent points and get off the field. Stop rate is a simple metric but can offer a good reflection of a defense's effectiveness on a per-drive basis in today's faster-tempo game. National champ Ohio State finished No. 1 in stop rate last season at 78.5%, a remarkable feat considering the Buckeyes ended up playing a 16-game schedule that included six top-5 opponents. Last year's top 25 teams in stop rate won a total of 238 games, with 12 teams winning 10 or more games. Five of the top six in stop rate advanced to the College Football Playoff. Stop rate is not an advanced stat and is no substitute for Bill Connelly's SP+, FPI or other more comprehensive metrics. It's merely a different method for evaluating success on defense against FBS opponents. Here's the current leaderboard entering Week 6: The Longhorns are currently leading the way with a stop rate of 89.4% against FBS opponents. Pete Kwiatkowski's defense has played 47 drives and has given up four touchdowns and one field goal through four games. They're giving up the fewest points per drive (0.66) and fewest yards per drive (17.5) as well, and they're 8-of-9 on fourth-down stops. Texas finished second in stop rate last season (76.9%) and had a ton of leadership and star power coming back this year between Anthony Hill Jr., Michael Taaffe and Colin Simmons. Just as impressive, though, have been breakthrough performances from new starters such as safety Jelani McDonald and true freshman cornerback Graceson Littleton. This unit put up quite a fight against Ohio State's offense in the season opener, with stops on seven of nine drives, and has a stop rate of 92% in its three games since against Group of 5 foes. Now it's time to open SEC play on the road against DJ Lagway and Florida before another much-anticipated Red River Rivalry with Oklahoma. How about Maryland rising up to No. 2 in these initial stop rate standings? The Terps finished 93rd in stop rate last season and hired longtime NFL assistant Ted Monachino to take over their defense. They've held all three of their FBS opponents to 10 points or fewer this season, including a dominant 27-10 road win at Wisconsin to open Big Ten play. True freshman pass rushers Sidney Stewart and Zahir Mathis are off to impressive starts, and Daniel Wingate is the No. 2 starting linebacker in the country in Pro Football Focus grading. Texas Tech checks in at No. 3 thanks to coach Joey McGuire's efforts to totally overhaul his defense this offseason. McGuire hired Shiel Wood away from Houston to repair a unit that ranked 94th in stop rate and last in passing yards allowed. The Red Raiders spent millions to assemble one of the best defensive lines in the country and are rolling with seven new starters acquired via the portal. Four games in, 35 points of the 45 points they've allowed have been in garbage time at the end of blowouts. Ohio State hasn't taken a step back with new DC Matt Patricia and eight new starters on defense. The Buckeyes have the No. 1 scoring defense in FBS at 5.5 points per game with just two scores allowed in the red zone this season. Linebacker Arvell Reese has been an All-America caliber performer early on and defensive end Caden Curry has eight tackles for loss, third-most in FBS. Penn State was leading the way in stop rate at 90.9% last week but dropped to No. 10 following its double overtime loss to Oregon. The Ducks' defense has the second-best three-and-out rate in FBS (54%) and got three more on Saturday night plus a game-clinching interception by Dillon Thieneman. Along with Maryland and Texas Tech, we're seeing massive improvements from San Diego State (seventh this week), LSU (ninth) and Miami (13th) to start the season. We're also seeing several of last year's top 25 stop rate defenses slide early on, including Notre Dame (100th this week), South Carolina (82nd), Virginia Tech (113th) and Colorado (94th). Who's at the bottom of the stop rate standings so far? It's no surprise to see UCLA (133rd), Oklahoma State (127th) and Arkansas (119th) struggling the most among the Power 4, since they've already made head coaching changes, and Air Force ranks dead last in FBS with stops on just 29% of its drives during a 1-3 start. Note: All data is courtesy of ESPN Research and TruMedia. Games against FCS opponents and end-of-half drives in which the opponent took a knee or ran out the clock were filtered out.
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