The College Football Playoff committee has some fascinating decisions to make this week as it votes on its initial rankings, starting with the sorting of Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M at the top.
Heisman Trophy contender Fernando Mendoza and Indiana's offense have been dominant all season long. But so has the Hoosiers' defense, which checks in at No. 6 in this week's updated stop rate standings.
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.
Last season, Indiana surprised everyone by producing the No. 6 stop rate defense in college football, getting stops on 73% of its drives against FBS opponents. This year, the Hoosiers have been even better through nine games with a stop rate of 77.5%.
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 11:
Indiana's defense ranks No. 2 in SP+ this week behind Ohio State and has been remarkably consistent over its first six Big Ten games. Oregon remains the only offense that has scored more than 14 points against Indiana's defense, and the Hoosiers held them to a season low of 20.
Even in blowout wins, these guys are not letting up. Indiana's 55-10 win over Maryland on Saturday marked the ninth time that the Hoosiers have dropped 50-plus points on an opponent since coach Curt Cignetti arrived last season. Yet Indiana's defense has allowed just two touchdowns and 29 total points (3.2 per game!) in the second half this season.
Defensive coordinator Bryant Haines is in his 11th year working alongside Cignetti and continues to establish himself as one of the best in the game. Indiana is playing the second-best third-down defense (23.7% conversions) in the country behind Texas A&M. This unit has held every Big Ten opponent under 100 rushing yards, giving up an average of 62.3 rushing per game in league play, and is leading the conference with 18 takeaways.
While the Hoosiers have done a masterful job in portal recruiting, Haines is winning with continuity this year. Eight of his starters against Maryland were returning players from last year's squad, and defensive back Louis Moore rejoined the program this offseason after a year away at Ole Miss. They brought in more veteran experience with transfers Kellan Wyatt (28 career starts), Hosea Wheeler (25) and Devan Boykin (20), adding to a unit full of seniors determined to build on what they started in 2024.
With Penn State, Wisconsin and Purdue left on the regular-season schedule, it wouldn't be surprising if this Hoosier defense is sitting at No. 1 in the stop rate standings by the end of November. Then the real fun begins.
A few more updates to note regarding this week's stop rate standings:
Watch out for San Diego State. The Aztecs have climbed to No. 2 in this week's updated standings behind Ohio State after securing stops on 13 of 14 drives in a 24-7 win over Wyoming. The Cowboys scored on their opening drive and then averaged 2 yards per play the rest of the day. San Diego State has won six in a row since a nonconference loss to Washington State, holding five of its last six opponents to 10 points or less, and has only given up two rushing touchdowns this season.
Two top-10 teams could not get the stops they needed on Saturday. Georgia Tech finished with two stops against NC State and the Wolfpack only got three in a 48-36 upset. Vanderbilt got two stops at Texas, the Longhorns got four and that ended up being enough in a 34-31 win. Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt now rank 82nd and 90th, respectively, in stop rate on the year.
Nobody expected Clemson's defense to struggle this much with how much NFL talent came back for 2025. The Tigers are down to No. 68 in this week's stop rate standings at 62.1% following their 46-45 loss to Duke. Clemson fired defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin and brought in Tom Allen from Penn State after finishing 29th in stop rate (67.3%) last season.
Penn State's defense has plummeted to 85th in stop rate after rising to No. 1 during its 3-0 start. The Buckeyes scored on six of their first seven drives against their former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles in a 38-14 rout on Saturday.
Oklahoma State got zero stops on six drives against Kansas in a 38-21 road loss and continues to compete with Arkansas for the worst stop rate among the Power 4 in nightmare seasons for both programs.
Note: All data is courtesy of ESPN Research. Games against FCS opponents and end-of-half drives in which the opponent took a knee or ran out the clock were filtered out.