Final FBS Stop Rate standings: Georgia wins a title, but Iowa’s defense takes own crown

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - DECEMBER 31: Cooper DeJean #3 of the Iowa Hawkeyes tackles Dane Key #6 of the Kentucky Wildcats during the TransPerfect Music City Bowl at Nissan Stadium on December 31, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.(Photo by Carly Mackler/Getty Images)
By Max Olson
Jan 12, 2023

Georgia won back-to-back national titles thanks to an excellent defense loaded with NFL talent that once again played its best on the biggest stage. This year, though, the champs did not finish No. 1 in stop rate.

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. This simple metric can offer a more accurate reflection of a defense’s effectiveness in today’s faster-tempo game than yards per game or points per game. We’ve been tracking this for each of the past five seasons (here are the final standings for 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017) along with every defense’s points per drive average.

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And for the second time in three years, Iowa finished with the No. 1 defense in stop rate. The Hawkeyes got stops on nearly 79 percent of their drives against FBS offenses.

Iowa had the best defense in the country in yards per play (3.99), the best in passing yards per attempt (5.3) and the second-best in yards per rush (2.8). In the last decade, only two other defenses have held their opponents to less than four yards per play: 2016 Alabama and 2017 Alabama.

Longtime defensive coordinator Phil Parker and his crew made their foes earn every yard this year. Nobody was better at preventing explosive plays. The Hawkeyes gave up just 24 plays of 20-plus yards and nine of 30-plus yards over 13 games. They held four teams under 200 yards, including Kentucky in their 21-0 victory in the Music City Bowl.

And, of course, this Iowa defense was pretty darn good at scoring points. They tied for the national lead with six defensive touchdowns, with three coming from defensive back Cooper DeJean. If you take away those scores, Iowa’s offense averaged just 14.5 points per game. It’s unfortunate that those offensive struggles were the defining storyline for this 8-5 team, because their defense was seriously dominant from start to finish.

One other defense came pretty darn close to finishing first: Marshall. Defensive coordinator Lance Guidry pulled off a top-25 finish in stop rate last season, and this group got even better in Year 2. The Herd had the best third-down defense in college football and held Notre Dame and eight other opponents to 21 points or less. If you factor in their two games against FCS opponents, their season stop rate was 80 percent.

Michigan fell out of the No. 1 spot in the stop rate standings with its 51-45 loss to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl and finished No. 3, ahead of No. 4 Illinois and No. 5 Penn State. The Big Ten had seven defenses finish in the top 20 in this year’s stop rate standings.

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Where did Georgia end up? The Bulldogs rose to No. 8 thanks to their 65-7 smothering of TCU in the CFP title game and finished with the best run defense in the FBS for the third time in four years.

One little quirk that stood out about these final stop rate standings: Clemson and Ohio State tied for the No. 10 spot with the exact same stop rate (74.3 percent) by playing the same number of drives (171) against FBS opponents. Their points per drive averages were almost identical, too. The same thing happened with the No. 18 spot in a much more fascinating coincidence: Cincinnati and Wisconsin both played 152 drives on defense and both had a 71.7 percent stop rate. Cincinnati’s Mike Tressel is taking over the Badgers’ defense for Jim Leonhard.

This season, 21 of the top 25 teams in stop rate won eight or more games, and 11 of them won 10-plus games. The Pac-12 was certainly an outlier here with USC (No. 105 in stop rate), Oregon (No. 111) and UCLA (No. 112) thriving despite defenses that had a hard time getting stops. Pac-12 champ Utah finished 34th in stop rate,and Oregon State was the best in the conference at 24th.

How did the rest of the defenses across the country perform in stop rate? Here are the full FBS-only stop rate standings for the 2022 season.

Note: All data is courtesy of TruMedia and Pro Football Focus.

Rk
  
Defense
  
G
  
Drives
  
Stop Rate
  
Pts/Drive
  
1
12
150
78.7%
1.09
2
11
153
78.4%
1.20
3
14
168
77.4%
1.18
4
12
146
76.7%
1.10
5
13
168
76.2%
1.33
6
12
120
75.8%
1.31
7
10
143
75.5%
1.40
8
14
162
74.7%
1.28
9
13
152
74.3%
1.44
10
13
171
74.3%
1.51
10
13
171
74.3%
1.50
12
13
162
74.1%
1.47
13
13
165
73.9%
1.51
14
12
128
73.4%
1.33
15
11
137
73%
1.60
16
12
159
73%
1.48
17
12
153
71.9%
1.70
18
12
152
71.7%
1.67
18
12
152
71.7%
1.68
20
11
130
71.5%
1.72
21
12
148
70.9%
1.61
22
13
157
70.7%
1.77
23
12
151
70.2%
1.75
24
12
134
70.1%
1.63
25
12
155
69.7%
1.79
26
12
158
69.6%
1.72
27
13
177
69.5%
1.86
28
13
170
69.4%
1.73
29
12
140
69.3%
1.85
30
13
156
69.2%
1.74
31
12
158
69%
1.86
32
12
132
68.9%
1.70
32
11
132
68.9%
1.77
34
13
151
68.9%
1.94
35
13
152
67.8%
1.74
36
12
142
67.6%
1.92
37
12
145
67.6%
1.90
38
13
157
67.5%
1.94
39
12
156
67.3%
1.86
40
12
140
67.1%
1.86
41
13
161
67.1%
1.86
42
12
142
66.9%
1.80
42
12
142
66.9%
1.95
44
13
151
66.9%
1.88
45
12
165
66.7%
2.01
45
12
147
66.7%
1.97
45
12
183
66.7%
2.02
45
12
141
66.7%
2.09
45
9
114
66.7%
1.76
50
13
164
66.5%
1.79
51
12
148
66.2%
1.96
52
12
145
66.2%
1.88
53
11
130
66.2%
2.06
54
12
150
66%
2.09
55
12
152
65.8%
1.93
56
11
146
65.8%
2.14
57
11
145
65.5%
2.02
58
11
142
65.5%
2.13
59
10
132
65.2%
1.83
60
12
140
65%
2.07
60
11
140
65%
1.96
62
12
154
64.9%
2.19
63
10
114
64.9%
2.13
64
13
154
64.3%
2.10
65
11
134
64.2%
2.18
66
12
145
64.1%
2.12
67
11
150
64%
2.14
68
11
136
64%
2.17
69
13
155
63.9%
2.07
70
13
157
63.7%
2.13
71
14
187
63.6%
2.20
72
13
178
63.5%
2.19
73
11
134
63.4%
2.12
74
12
152
63.2%
2.04
75
13
160
63.1%
2.26
76
11
135
63%
2.14
77
12
153
62.7%
2.31
78
11
134
62.7%
2.13
79
12
147
62.6%
2.19
80
11
136
62.5%
2.31
80
11
128
62.5%
2.06
82
11
154
62.3%
2.32
83
12
140
62.1%
2.29
84
12
161
62.1%
2.12
85
11
129
62%
2.29
86
12
150
62%
2.33
87
11
142
62%
2.28
88
12
157
61.8%
2.32
89
12
141
61.7%
2.33
89
11
141
61.7%
2.29
91
12
140
61.4%
2.29
92
12
131
61.1%
2.40
93
11
136
61%
2.26
94
12
151
60.9%
2.26
95
10
117
60.7%
2.49
96
12
142
60.6%
2.32
97
11
138
60.1%
2.26
98
13
160
60%
2.38
99
13
157
59.9%
2.54
100
11
144
59.7%
2.47
101
12
151
59.6%
2.36
102
11
146
59.6%
2.33
103
11
121
59.5%
2.30
104
11
137
59.1%
2.61
105
14
154
58.4%
2.64
106
11
137
58.4%
2.44
107
11
139
58.3%
2.53
108
11
141
57.4%
2.38
109
11
129
57.4%
2.60
110
12
132
56.8%
2.66
111
12
133
56.4%
2.47
112
12
138
55.8%
2.58
113
12
142
55.6%
2.71
114
12
151
55.6%
2.75
115
11
141
55.3%
2.75
116
12
143
55.2%
2.66
117
13
154
54.5%
2.62
118
11
133
54.1%
2.75
119
12
128
53.9%
2.72
120
12
153
53.6%
2.64
121
11
127
53.5%
2.81
121
11
127
53.5%
2.84
123
11
131
53.4%
3.02
124
11
132
51.5%
2.93
125
12
140
51.4%
2.83
126
11
139
51.1%
2.95
127
11
126
50.8%
2.91
128
12
145
49.7%
3.08
129
11
127
49.6%
3.13
130
12
147
46.3%
3.51
131
11
132
43.9%
3.47

(Photo: Carly Mackler / Getty Images)

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Max Olson

Max Olson covers national college football for The Athletic. He previously covered the Big 12 and recruiting for ESPN.com. Follow Max on Twitter @max_olson