How Colorado turned its defense around, plus stop rate for all 134 CFB teams

When Deion Sanders needed a new defensive coordinator back in January, he looked to the NFL and leaned on peers he trusts. They pointed him in the direction of a 38-year-old coach who’d never been a DC anywhere but had the potential to be just what Colorado needed.

Ten months later, it’s hard not to be impressed by what Robert Livingston is achieving in Boulder. Under his leadership, the Buffaloes have one of college football’s most improved defenses. Just look at their stop rate.

What is stop rate? It’s a basic measurement of success: the percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. Defensive coordinators have the same goal regardless of their scheme, opponent or conference: prevent points and get off the field. Stop rate is a simple metric but can offer a good reflection of a defense’s effectiveness on a per-drive basis in today’s faster-tempo game.

Last year, national champ Michigan finished No. 1 with a stop rate of 81.6% in its games against FBS opponents. The top 25 teams in the final 2023 stop rate standings won a total of 249 games, with seven earning conference titles. Great teams find a way to get stops in critical situations.

Stop rate is not an advanced stat and is no substitute for Bill Connelly’s SP+ or other more comprehensive metrics. It’s merely a different method for evaluating success on defense.

The numbers weren’t pretty for the Buffaloes in Year 1 of the Coach Prime era. They allowed 40 or more points in five games, gave up 6.3 yards per play (115th in the FBS) and finished with a stop rate of 57.8% against FBS opponents, which ranked 97th nationally.

This year, it’s a different story. The 6-2 Buffs rank 19th in this week’s updated stop rate standings at 72.7% and look as if they’ll be contenders in the Big 12 title race thanks to a defense that has made real progress in so many ways.

The most obvious area of improvement: Colorado has played pretty darn good defense in the second half of games. This unit is giving up a mere 6.5 points per game after halftime this season, eighth fewest in the FBS, with more takeaways (11) than touchdowns allowed (seven). Livingston has them performing much better on third downs (conversions are down from 47% to 34%) and has injected confidence into a defense that took a lot of heat last year.

“It’s a testament to the guys,” Livingston said earlier this month. “They’ve bought in, they play hard, they play fast. Is it perfect? No, it’s not always perfect. But they give their all, and as long as we get that, I think we’ll like the results.”

When Charles Kelly left at the end of December to become the co-DC at Auburn and Sanders went through the search process, Livingston came well-recommended from several NFL coaches, including Dallas Cowboys DC Mike Zimmer, and brought valuable experience from his stint as defensive backs coach under one of the NFL’s best in Lou Anarumo with the Cincinnati Bengals. Colorado reloaded with 21 new scholarship transfers on defense, and 10 of them have earned starts this season. Their new leader has thrived by building around their strengths.

“The way he coaches, the scheme that he sets up for us, it’s a scheme that all of us love playing,” Colorado safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig said earlier this season. “It plays to all of our strengths. I’ve said it before, but when he came in, he came in with no playbook. He said, ‘What do y’all do well? We’re gonna work around that.’ I give coach Rob Livingston all the credit. The players, we go out and execute and play our heart out for him every day.”

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders and receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter gives the Buffaloes a chance to compete with anybody in the Big 12. But if this defense can keep finding a way to get stops, Colorado will be a contender in November.

A few more stop rate updates to note following Week 9:

• Tennessee moved into the No. 1 spot in the stop rate standings ahead of Texas and Ohio State after the latter two had close wins Saturday. The Vols are coming off their bye week and have a stop rate of 81.3% on the year. They’re the only defense in FBS that has held every opponent under 20 points. Last season, Tennessee finished No. 28 in stop rate at 68.6%.

• Alabama bounced back with a dominant day against Missouri and moved back into the top 10 in stop rate. The Tide forced seven punts and intercepted backup QB Drew Pyne three times in the 34-0 rout.

• Undefeated Indiana is still in the top 10 in stop rate after another strong showing in its 31-17 win over Washington. The Hoosiers got eight stops on third downs and two on fourth downs and still haven’t trailed in a game this season. Oregon is closing in on the top 10 as well following its 38-9 rout of No. 20 Illinois.

• Virginia Tech, UConn, Sam Houston and Iowa moved into the top 25 in this week’s standings with Navy, Missouri and Liberty dropping out. Navy’s defense gave up scores on 7 of 11 drives in its 51-14 loss to Notre Dame and slid from 15th to 40th.

Note: All data is courtesy of TruMedia. Games against FCS opponents and end-of-half drives in which the opponent took a knee or ran out the clock were filtered out.