Why Defense Is Enjoying a Renaissance in College Football

In its full-throttle heyday, when the Big 12 Conference was brimming with spread offenses operating at warp speed, the league looked like it was playing touch football. Scoreboards exploded and defenses imploded. Not a single Big 12 defense held its conference opponents to 25 points per game or fewer in the 2011 season.

Last season, half of the conference hit that threshold in league games—the highest percentage since the Big 12 actually had 12 teams in 2010. Times have changed in terms of conference membership, but also in terms of defensive mentality and scheme. In the Big 12 and across the FBS landscape, the pendulum has swung back—a little—in favor of the defense.

The 2023 and ’24 national FBS per-team averages for points and yards per game are the lowest they’ve been since ’10. Last season, FBS teams averaged 28.01 points and 386.7 yards, up a tick from ’23 but appreciably down from the highs of 30.00 points and 417.1 yards in ’16. The national pass efficiency rating was 135.56, down from a high of 137.63 in ’21, and yards per game (227.2) were the lowest since ’10. Rushing yards per carry peaked at 4.59 in ’16 and hasn’t been above 4.42 since ’19.

“It felt like for a while there was going to be no end to offensive progress,” says Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea, the SEC Coach of the Year last year and a former defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. “So those are good statistics.”

Defense won championships last season, or at least led to College Football Playoff berths. Title winner Ohio State was No. 1 in the nation in scoring defense, and six of the top eight in that category were in the 12-team playoff. That included all of the final four teams in the field (in addition to the Buckeyes, Texas was No. 3, Notre Dame No. 5 and Penn State No. 8). Just three of the top eight scoring offenses were on playoff teams.

It’s not a full-fledged revolution—we’re not going back to the days of 7–0 scores anytime soon. And part of the downturn is likely attributable to a change in clock rules that has reduced the number of offensive snaps by about two per game, per team. But there are plenty of signs that the offensive surge has slowed, and perhaps reversed.

Among the reasons: The offensive line might be the most affected position in the free-transfer era, given the time necessary for linemen to develop and for that unit to coalesce; transfer quarterbacks also are playing through the learning curve that comes with a new offense and new teammates; the premium placed on athletic freaks on the defensive line has never been higher; substitution rules allowing the defense equal time to swap out players have slowed down the fastest up-tempo offenses.

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Beyond all that, defensive schemes caught up the spread. Or at least gained ground on it. One key development in that area dates back to 2017 in Ames, Iowa.

Iowa State needed to make some urgent changes, and a 12-day stretch between games early in the season offered opportunity. Second-year coach Matt Campbell went 3–9 the previous season and was 2–1, giving up 44 points and 497 yards to rival Iowa in the loss. Heading into Big 12 play, Campbell and his defensive coordinator, Jon Heacock, used the extra preparation time to tweak their defense.

“We were just trying to survive and keep our jobs,” Heacock says. “We had to come up with a new concept.”

To contend with the spread offenses and up-tempo nature of the Big 12, Heacock implemented a 3-3-5 defensive formation with three safeties on the field. The “three-high” look added speed and took some of the pass coverage pressure off the middle linebacker.

The first game with the three-high defense was a 17–7 loss to Texas, in which the Longhorns failed to score a second-half touchdown. The next game was a stunning road upset of a No. 3 Oklahoma team led by Baker Mayfield that went on to make the CFP. That was followed by three more victories, in which Iowa State surrendered a total of just 20 points.

The Cyclones finished that season 8–5, their first winning record in eight years. Since then they have recorded six winning seasons out of seven, including an 11–3 mark and a berth in the Big 12 championship game last year. During that time they have routinely been among the Big 12 leaders in defensive statistics, as their three-high defense has been widely credited with slowing the league’s scoring machines. And the three-high look has been adapted by many outside the league.

Heacock did a clinic with Nick Saban to discuss his defense. Clemson coaches visited Ames to learn about it. “Nickel” defensive looks became more frequent on downs other than third-and-long, with the fifth defensive back serving as a hybrid safety–linebacker–slot cornerback—the “Star” back in Iowa State’s terminology—and capable of playing all over the field.

“That player has been critical to our success,” Heacock says.

The third safety has to be sturdy enough to be a “box player” against the run but fast enough to cover in space. Blitz duties can be part of the package as well.

Players capable of all that get on the field and stay on the field. Three of Texas’s top four tacklers in 2024 were defensive backs, as were four of the top six for Georgia and five of the top eight for Michigan. Everyone hopes they can find the next Caleb Downs, the standout Ohio State safety whose body of work last year included interceptions (two), pass breakups (six), tackles in the backfield (7.5) and tackles all over the field (82 total).

Yet even as defensive coaches celebrate a small turning of the tide, they worry about recent rule changes that could work against them. Now that nobody can cut block on either side of the ball, smaller secondary players aren’t as well-equipped to take on offensive linemen in space without being able to go low.

“Defense is so reactive,” Heacock says. “You’re always reacting to the next new offensive development. It’s hard to get a step ahead.”