Arriving back in Orlando this morning, I kinda regretted foregoing Oklahoma State tailgating to stay inside and watch the Gators squeak out a win versus Arkansas on Saturday. We all knew that Tim Tebow would pull a rabbit from his helmet for the win, didn’t we?

Carlos Dunlap, Florida Gators DE (Icon SMI)

Despite numerous long plays and the emergence of Razorbacks WR Greg Childs, the Florida Gators remain atop our BLITZindex defense rankings just as they have all season. Only allowing 8.67 pts/gm, Carlos Dunlap and Co. could go undefeated with the North Texas offense swapped out…referring back to the long plays, UNC now has the stingiest big play defense only allowing 3.6 yds/play – looks like the only thing holding back the #13 ranked defense is the putrid offense as is in yrads per point allowed.

A reminder – the BLITZindex is college football defense rankings by three efficiency metrics important to fantasy football – yds/play allowed (YPP), pts/gm allowed (PPG) and yds/pt allowed (YPPt, bigger number is better as opponents have to work their tails off to get to the EZ). After that I equal weight the sub-ranks into one big ranking. Based on email feedback, I also include the Yds/gm allowed but it is not factored into the BI (that would make three yardage metrics out of four).

Rankings after the jump – first some observations:

• Start kickers against #87 Washington – they have allowed 18 FG this season in seven games in addition to 20 TDs. Tennessee #38 is next with 15 FGA, but they have only allowed ten TDs – that’s how a defense is supposed to work.
• Do not start kickers against #55 Oregon State – 19 TDs allowed, only 1 FG. Ponderous if you sort by fewest FG allowed, you seem to end up with mostly BAD defenses since they will give up the six more often, but Oklahoma #2, TCU #11 and Boise #19 stand out since they barely allow any scoring whatsoever.
• UNLV, Troy, Temple and Duke have some favorable matchups versus the bad defenses of #109 New Mexico, #103 North Texas, #115 Toledo and #107 Maryland respectivley. Get you some free agents.
• BLOWOUT ALERTS- Texas Tech hosts #106 Texas A&M, Tulsa goes to #101 UTEP.
• Median stats – 23.29 PPG (Minnesota), 355.83 ypg (La. Monroe), 5.3 YPP  (North Texas) and 14.96 YPPt (BYU)

BLITZindex Oct 18 Alphabetical | BLITZindex Oct 18 Numerical Rank

BLITZindex RANK  Top 13

1    Florida
2    Oklahoma
3    Penn St.
4    USC
5    Alabama
6    Nebraska
7    Mississippi
8    Air Force
9    Ohio St.
10    Cincinnati
11    TCU
12    South Fla.
13    North Carolina

Related posts:

1. BLITZIndex Defense College Football Rankings: Do not sleep on Temple
2. BLITZindex College Football Defense Rankings, Nov 2
3. BLITZindex College Football Defense Rankings for Oct 12
4. BLITZIndex: College Football Defense rankings still led by Alabama and LSU
5. BLITZIndex: College Football Defense Rankings – Superfrog still reigns

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