Lou Saban and Alabama prove again to be best defense in college football, but was the Florida Gator defense any way to test that theory? Lots of the usual suspects in this Top 25, but also some sneaky new teams like the Ohio Bobcats and the Vanderbilt Commodores. Michigan hasn’t played this good of defense since the middle of the Lloyd Carr regime. Kansas State continues to play opportunistic defense as a truly sneaky Big 12-2 contender.
Here are the top 25 defense to NOT play your guys against… BlitzIndex Rank, stats thru Oct 1, 2001
K-State LB Arthur Brown (the good brother) actually caught Robert Griffin in their win over Baylor (Icon SMI)
How is that for a setup for a huge SEC matchup? Like it needed anymore data points to generate national interest, the Alabama Crimson Tide defense leads the nation in our exclusive BLITZIndex ratings as they head to Gainesville to face the Florida Gators this Saturday.
The BLITZIndex is a three-variable equal weighted ranking of key defensive efficiency stats related to fantasy performance – yards per play allowed (YPP), yards per point allowed (YPPt) and points per game allowed (PPG)
After the jump, the best and worst defenses in the country to help with your fantasy college football matchups, or whatever you may want to do with compelling and insightful knowledge about the game…
Three weeks of games, some teams have only played two, huge variance in the strength of schedule – how does anyone know who the best defenses are in college football, and how the Lutzenkirchen do I set my fantasy lineup?
Arizona State LB Vontaze Burfict puts Jason Ford "butt over teacup" as my granddad used to say (Icon SMI)
Fantasy College Blitz will help you with our exclusive, numbers-driven rankings of all 120 FBS college football defenses. I wait until Week 3 to build this so we can have enough data points, and certainly this tool gets stronger as the season progresses – nonetheless, a few teams have truly played at a very high level, regardless of the level of competition faced.
The BLITZIndex is an equal-weighted, three variable ranking of the most important defensive efficiency statistics for the fantasy player – yards per play allowed (YPP), Yards per Point allowed (YPPt) and Points per Game allowed (PPG).
Yes, Kansas and UCLA are as bad as you would expect. And Alabama and UCF are great, but trail the Kansas State Wildcats – facing Eastern Kentucky and Kent State will do that but still a very high level of effectiveness that should carry over to Big 12 play.
No position in college fantasy football relies more on weekly matchups than starting a defense.
Ladies and gentlemen, your USC Trojan Defense (Icon SMI)
While there are teams that are traditionally solid year after year such as Alabama or Virginia Tech or TCU on the defensive end, many weeks you need to find the Major school playing a lesser school. Week 1 is the perfect example, as lets say you have drafted Oklahoma but they face a high flying Tulsa team led by GJ Kinne.
Would you rather play the Sooners defense or maybe even LSU’s who goes against Oregon or lets say UCONN’s. Just so happens the Huskies are playing Fordham…yes Fordham. Or maybe take a flyer on the powerhouse (saying that with a giggle) of the Michigan State defense when they play Youngstown State.
The bottom line is never draft a defense early, but be early when hitting the waiver wire to expose matchups every week. But we all still need rankings, so here are the top 25 fantasy defenses for 2011.
In our exclusive and proprietary college football defense rankings, we look for the most efficient and the most stingy units that could derail your fantasy matchups each week. Now that fantasy season is over, let’s use the same measurements to get an edge on the bowl games!
TCU Horned Frogs and West Virginia Mountaineers fans should be familiar with their defenses being at the top of our list, but after the regular season they are tied at the top when we add up the national rankings of yards per play allowed (YPP), yards per point allowed (YPPT), and points per game allowed (PPG). While TCU leads the nation in YPP (4.0) and PPG (11.4), the Mountaineers top three ranks in all categories squeaks them just ahead of Boise and a tie with TCU.
Our top-ranked West Virginia defense has jacked up many more players than just Rutgers Mark Harrison this week. (Icon SMI)
BLITZIndex RANK DEF 4Dec10
1 TCU
1 West Virginia
3 Boise St.
4 Ohio St.
5 Alabama
6 Iowa
7 Nebraska
9 Missouri
9 Oregon
10 UCF
11 Clemson
12 LSU
13 Syracuse
14 Stanford
14 Temple
14 Texas A&M
17 Florida St.
18 Boston College
19 South Fla.
20 Connecticut
20 Miami (FL)
22 Louisville
23 Northern Ill.
24 Michigan St.
25 Pittsburgh
25 Virginia Tech
Alphabetical list here BLITZIndex 04Dec10(alpha), and notice that I added on the national ranks in total, run and pass ypg allowed for reference only. Offensive study later today.
