College Football News

Defense Tips for 2003

By John Horvath, FFWarroom, Contributing Writer for CFFL.com

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Defensive Tips for 2003

In NFL fantasy drafts, I’m a big proponent of drafting a defense with your last pick or two.  However, in college leagues, I target specific defenses and am willing to part with a mid-round pick to get one that I want.  Why?  In the NFL, parity reigns.  I know it’s cliché, but on any given Sunday, any team could beat another.  However, in college, there are severe mismatches every week.  Look in the paper and you’ll find a 45-point spread on a game or two.  There’s no question on who will win; it’s just a matter of how badly one team will bludgeon the other.  There are a few simple ways to rank your defenses to make the most of these mismatches.  By picking the right defenses, you can easily get an extra 5-10 points per week – which is often the difference between a win and a loss.

Before we jump into things, I want to make a suggestion for your defensive scoring system.  I’m not a big fan of points for sacks and turnovers.  While turnovers often mean that a defense is clicking, it’s not always the case.  It’s much easier to simply use points against and TD/Safeties (and even yards against, since it is more indicative of how the defense actually played – and if you think about it, turnovers stop drives, which limits points against and yards against.  Anyway, I’m rambling.)

1 - Get last year’s stats Defenses rarely go from being horrible to great, so using last year’s stats in your scoring system will give you a general idea of how good each defense will be in the upcoming year.  If you’re going to be using turnovers and sacks, I’d look back at least 3 years to look for teams that are perennially strong and ones that might have just had a bad year, etc.

2 – How many returning starters? Continuity on defense is very important.  If a team only has to replace two or three starters, they’re likely to repeat or improve on the previous year’s performance.  If a team is returning only 5 to 7 players, you should read up on the replacements. It’s possible that there is a solid JUCO player on campus.  Some schools are stocked with talent and just reload every year.  So don’t discount a team just because they’re replacing half of their starters.

3 – Get defenses that compliment each other If there’s one thing that annoys me as a college football fan, it’s seeing teams like Kansas State schedule 2-3 creampuffs every year.  As a fantasy owner, though, I love it!!!  Here’s the key, though – don’t just count how many weak teams are on each schedule, write down what weeks each team plays a really bad team.  Kansas State, for example, plays horrible teams this year in weeks 1, 2, 3, 9 and 10.  You’re looking to get two defenses with complimentary schedules.  Remember, if a defense averages 10 fantasy points per week, chances are their easy games are going to be in the 15-20 point range.

3b – In an ideal world… If you’ve got a little extra time, write down the weeks that each team plays an offensive juggernaut.  Then, when you’re looking for the defenses that compliment one another, pay particular attention to teams who have an easy game during the week that your first defense plays a difficult game.

I know none of this is rocket science.  However, it surprises me how many people fail to take advantage of the benefits that college scheduling gives to defenses.  Too often, people take the same strategies from their NFL leagues and use them in college leagues.  It’s like jamming a square peg in a round hole.  Team Defense can be a very valuable position on your team if you let it.