In the first four games of the 2025 college football season, theTexas Longhorns have a 3-1 record. They are ranked ninth in the country, and they will begin SEC Conference play against the 1-3 Florida Gators on Saturday afternoon.
Texas has had its struggles on offense through the first four games of the season. However, the defense has been performing really good through the first four games. They only gave up 14 points to the Ohio State Buckeyes in week one. What is the reason why the Longhorns defense is so elite this season?
Texas Longhorns are number one in defensive stop rate
Max Olson of espn.com talked about how elite Texas's defense has been this season. He said about Texas having an elite defense this season, "The ups and downs of Arch Manning's first season as Texas' starting quarterback are commanding all the national attention, as expected. But don't sleep on the hot start by the Longhorns' loaded defense. Texas debuts as No. 1 in our initial stop rate standings for the 2025 season.
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."
They have played four games this season and Texas has a stop rate of 89.4%. They give up 0.66 points/drive. If the defense is going to stay this elite, there is no excuse for this team to miss the college football playoffs. If they were to miss the playoffs, it would be because the offense and quarterback Arch Manning did not live up to standards.
Texas only gives up 212.0 yards per game this season. There is a very good chance that they are going to make life difficult for the Gators and quarterback D.J. Lagway on Saturday. Florida is an offense that is struggling, and the Longhorns have a good chance to impress again on defense.
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