Jim Knowles led Ohio State’s protection to a No. 1 end on this season’s cease charge standings. Now he’ll attempt to do it once more at Penn State in 2025.
What’s cease charge? It is a fundamental measurement of success: the proportion of a protection’s drives that finish in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. Defensive coordinators have the identical aim no matter their scheme, opponent or convention: forestall factors and get off the sphere. Cease charge is an easy metric however can supply a very good reflection of a protection’s effectiveness on a per-drive foundation in in the present day’s faster-tempo sport.
Nice groups discover a technique to get stops in vital moments. The nationwide champion Buckeyes earned their No. 1 end by attaining a cease charge of 78.5%. That is a mighty spectacular proportion contemplating their protection needed to endure a four-game School Soccer Playoff run and a 16-game schedule that featured six top-5 opponents.
The highest 25 groups on this 12 months’s ultimate cease charge standings received a complete of 238 video games, and 12 of those groups managed to win 10-plus video games. 5 of the highest six ended up incomes bids within the inaugural 12-team School Soccer Playoff.
Cease charge just isn’t a complicated stat and is not any substitute for Invoice Connelly’s SP+ or different extra complete metrics. It is merely a special technique for evaluating success on protection. Listed below are the ultimate cease charge standings for the 2024 season.
Ohio State completed No. 1 in scoring protection (12.9 factors per sport), factors per drive (1.11), complete protection (254.6 yards per sport) and yards per play (4.19) and in addition ranked first in defensive SP+ on its run to its first nationwide title since 2014.
This group performed its best possible soccer when it mattered essentially the most. The Buckeyes secured stops on 30 of 41 drives throughout its four-game CFP run, none extra memorable than the goal-line stand towards Texas and Jack Sawyer‘s game-clinching sack, scoop and 83-yard rating. Ohio State allowed simply 16 touchdowns within the pink zone over 16 video games.
The Buckeyes improved every season throughout Knowles three-year run with the Buckeyes: From No. 12 to No. 2 and at last No. 1. They bought stops on 76.5% of their drives towards FBS competitors throughout his tenure, greatest in FBS. Knowles has led top-20 cease charge defenses in six of the final eight seasons throughout his time at Ohio State, Oklahoma State and Duke.
Now he is heading to Blissful Valley to work his magic (and make $3.1 million a 12 months) for an additional Huge Ten crew with nationwide championship ambitions. The Nittany Lions protection completed No. 15 in cease charge at 70.4% in Tom Allen’s lone season as DC and should change potential No. 1 general choose Abdul Carter plus 4 extra NFL draft-bound starters.
Two of the groups Ohio State took down throughout its CFP run completed proper behind the Buckeyes in cease charge. Texas ranked No. 2 (76.9%) and Tennessee was No. 3 (76.8%) within the ultimate season standings. Notre Dame was No. 2 coming into the nationwide championship sport and dropped all the way down to fifth following its 34-23 defeat. Now the Irish are attempting to find a brand new DC as nicely after dropping Al Golden to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Listed below are a couple of extra cease charge updates to notice from the end-of-season rankings:
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That is the second time within the Ryan Day period that Ohio State has earned the cease charge crown. The Buckeyes completed within the No. 1 spot in 2019, Day’s first full season as head coach, with a cease charge of 81.8%.
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Knowles and Golden weren’t the one defensive coordinators who modified jobs this offseason after ending with a top-25 protection in cease charge. Texas A&M added James Madison DC Lyle Hemphill (No. 7 protection in cease charge) to its workers, North Texas employed Sam Houston’s Skyler Cassity (No. 8), Purdue employed UNLV’s Michael Scherer (No. 16), Fresno State employed Northern Illinois’ Nick Benedetto (No. 19), Coastal Carolina employed Louisiana Tech’s Jeremiah Johnson (No. 20), West Virginia employed Oklahoma’s Zac Alley (No. 21), Florida State employed Nebraska’s Tony White (No. 23) and Miami employed Minnesota’s Corey Hetherman (No. 25).
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James Madison completed with the very best cease charge amongst Group of 5 defenses at 72.9%. That is fairly darn good for a unit that had misplaced six starters who transferred to Indiana and was taking part in for a brand new teaching workers.
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The SEC led all conferences with a median cease charge of 66.7% and had 5 defenses — Texas, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Alabama and South Carolina — end inside the highest 10 on this 12 months’s standings.
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Iowa State and Oregon dropped out of the cease charge high 25 after their defenses bought torched within the postseason. The Cyclones gave up a complete of 86 factors over their ultimate two video games and slid from No. 12 to No. 34. Oregon had few solutions for Ohio State’s offense in a 41-21 loss within the Rose Bowl and dropped from seventeenth to thirty second within the ultimate standings. Nebraska and Minnesota moved into the highest 25 within the ultimate replace.
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Georgia completed with an incredibly poor cease charge of 62.5%, good for thirteenth amongst SEC defenses and 67th in FBS. This was the primary time the Bulldogs didn’t area a top-25 protection in cease charge since 2018.
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Kent State’s FBS-low cease charge of 39.4% throughout its 0-12 season is the fifth-worst we have seen since we started monitoring cease charge in 2017. The 2018 UConn Huskies are nonetheless sitting on the backside of the record over this eight-year span at 35.1%.
Word: All knowledge is courtesy of ESPN Analysis. Video games towards FCS opponents and end-of-half drives during which the opponent took a knee or ran out the clock have been filtered out.