Phil Steele Blog • January 19, 2016

 

Team Leaders for TFL's for the 2015 Season.

Here is a list of the team leaders for TFL's for the 2015 season. A tackle for loss is either a sack or a play in which the runner is brought down behind the line of scrimmage for a loss on a running play. Sacks are important but this gives you a good idea of the teams that are generating the most push at the line of scrimmage on all plays.

For the most part teams that rank high in this category usually finish high in the Total Defense rankings. Out of the top 18, 10 teams finished in the top 30 of defenses.

Sometimes teams generate a lot of Tackles For Loss by blitzing a lot and then allow big plays and big yards. The worst offender of this bunch is Arizona St which ranked 3rd in the country in TFL's but #112 in total defense! I was surprised that 8 teams that ranked in the top 18 finished outside the top 50 in total defenses. Arizona St #112, Texas A&M #51, Ole Miss #54, Washington St #84, Baylor #62, Mississippi St #56, Tulane #80 and USF #52.

If you look at the bottom of the chart you will see that just because teams did not record a lot of TFL's that they were not necessarily a bad defense. Of the bottom 12 teams in TFL's only TWO of them actually finished in the bottom 20 of total defenses. Now, this smacks right into one of my pet peeves of coach speak. Have you, in the last 10 years EVER heard of a defensive coordinator getting hired that did not say "We are going to play an aggressive, attacking defense". The answer is no. EVERYONE says it. Well lets look at a couple of these teams. Iowa had a top notch defense this year finishing #22, yet were #117 in TFL's. Others from the bottom 12 of TFL's that finished high in total defense were Georgia Southern #21, San Jose St
#34, Navy #40 and Georgia Tech #42.

With that said, here is the complete list of the Defensive TFL's.

* Total Def Rank #1-45
* Total Def Rank #46-128

    Tot Def   Tot TFL
Rank Team Rank TTFL Per Game
1 Boston College 1 115 9.6
2 Missouri 6 106 8.8
3 Arizona St. 112 111 8.5
- Texas A&M 51 111 8.5
5 Clemson 10 126 8.4
6 Penn St. 14 106 8.2
7 Ole Miss 54 105 8.1
8 Washington St. 84 102 7.8
9 Baylor 62 98 7.5
- BYU 23 98 7.5
- Mississippi St. 56 98 7.5
12 Tulane 80 90 7.5
13 Louisville 18 97 7.5
- South Fla. 52 97 7.5
- Appalachian St. 11 97 7.5
16 Illinois 30 89 7.4
17 Temple 20 103 7.4
18 Boise St. 12 95 7.3
- Oklahoma St. 99 95 7.3
20 Maryland 90 87 7.3
21 Utah 41 94 7.2
- Colorado St. 55 94 7.2
23 Florida 8 101 7.2
24 Alabama 3 108 7.2
25 New Mexico 97 92 7.1
26 San Diego St. 5 99 7.1
27 West Virginia 61 91 7.0
- Louisiana Tech 48 91 7.0
- Oregon 116 91 7.0
- Washington 31 91 7.0
31 Northwestern 13 90 6.9
- Oklahoma 39 90 6.9
33 Troy 57 83 6.9
- Miami (OH) 68 83 6.9
35 North Carolina St. 29 89 6.8
- La.-Monroe 92 89 6.8
37 Kent St. 27 82 6.8
38 Arkansas St. 88 89 6.8
39 Southern Miss. 50 95 6.8
- Michigan St. 26 95 6.8
41 Pittsburgh 37 88 6.8
- Michigan 4 88 6.8
43 Toledo 46 81 6.8
- La.-Lafayette 89 81 6.8
- Texas 106 81 6.8
46 Air Force 32 94 6.7
47 Marshall 35 87 6.7
48 Vanderbilt 28 80 6.7
49 Bowling Green 86 93 6.6
50 Utah St. 17 86 6.6
51 Akron 15 85 6.5
- Virginia Tech 44 85 6.5
53 Syracuse 98 78 6.5
54 Notre Dame 45 84 6.5
- TCU 63 84 6.5
- Duke 60 84 6.5
- Tulsa 125 84 6.5
58 Hawaii 104 84 6.4
59 Ohio St. 9 83 6.4
60 LSU 25 76 6.3
- Virginia 79 76 6.3
62 Indiana 120 82 6.3
63 Minnesota 24 81 6.2
64 Iowa St. 107 74 6.2
- Wake Forest 38 74 6.2
66 Purdue 110 73 6.1
67 USC 65 85 6.1
- Houston 53 85 6.1
69 Eastern Mich. 122 72 6.0
70 WKU 72 83 5.9
- Stanford 43 83 5.9
72 Georgia 7 76 5.8
- Florida St. 19 76 5.8
74 Tennessee 36 75 5.8
- Georgia St. 74 75 5.8
- Arizona 114 75 5.8
77 Rutgers 111 69 5.8
78 Wisconsin 2 74 5.7
79 FIU 76 68 5.7
80 Western Mich. 82 73 5.6
81 Fla. Atlantic 70 67 5.6
- Massachusetts 103 67 5.6
83 Memphis 77 72 5.5
- Nebraska 64 72 5.5
- Middle Tenn. 75 72 5.5
- Kansas St. 105 72 5.5
87 Fresno St. 101 66 5.5
- UCF 113 66 5.5
89 Nevada 73 71 5.5
- UCLA 67 71 5.5
91 UTEP 93 65 5.4
- North Texas 119 65 5.4
93 South Carolina 94 64 5.3
- Idaho 117 64 5.3
- Buffalo 81 64 5.3
96 Colorado 85 69 5.3
- Texas Tech 126 69 5.3
- Arkansas 58 69 5.3
99 East Carolina 66 62 5.2
- South Ala. 83 62 5.2
101 California 108 67 5.2
- UConn 33 67 5.2
103 Old Dominion 96 61 5.1
- Rice 102 61 5.1
105 Miami (FL) 69 66 5.1
106 Northern Illinois 87 71 5.1
107 Ohio 49 64 4.9
108 Army West Point 47 59 4.9
109 Kansas 127 58 4.8
- SMU 118 58 4.8
111 Central Mich. 16 61 4.7
112 New Mexico St. 124 56 4.7
113 Texas St. 123 55 4.6
114 North Carolina 95 64 4.6
115 Oregon St. 115 54 4.5
116 Cincinnati 78 58 4.5
117 Iowa 22 62 4.4
118 Kentucky 59 53 4.4
119 Navy 40 57 4.4
120 Ball St. 121 52 4.3
- Wyoming 91 52 4.3
122 San Jose St. 34 56 4.3
123 UTSA 100 51 4.3
124 UNLV 109 51 4.2
125 Ga. Southern 21 54 4.2
- Auburn 71 54 4.2
127 Georgia Tech 42 47 3.9