On his "Always College Football" podcast former Alabama quarterback and current ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy power-ranked the top defenses in college football for 2025.
His list includes four from the Big Ten, four from the SEC , Notre Dame and Clemson:
Greg McElroy's Top FBS defenses, 2025
18:07 #10 - Clemson
22:19 #9 - Oregon
25:46 #8 - Michigan
28:38 #7 - Oklahoma
33:00 #6 - Alabama
37:26 #5 - Notre Dame
43:22 #4 - Georgia
47:00 #3 - Penn State
49:00 #2 - Ohio State
23:20 #1 - Texas
In his "honorable mention" group, McElroy lists Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska, three teams he believes have an outside shot of making the playoffs.
About Oregon, McElroy points to their depth, pass rush and recruiting.
"They lost a lot of production. But if you look at how Dan Lanning has continued to recruit and the amount of players they play on a week-to-week basis, when they have departures it doesn't feel as significant," the 2010 national championship quarterback said.
"They're playing 25, 26, 28 guys throughout their rotation on a week-to-week basis. It's not uncommon to see them play six different safeties throughout the course of a game."
"Tosh Lupoi has been there four years. He's done a really good job."
"They have built an identity on aggression. They have a really heavy, heavy emphasis on creating a pass rush."
I look at their edge rushers. It might be their strongest group throughout the entire team."
"They go out and get the top-rated safety in the transfer portal, Dillon Thieneman from Purdue. He should be really solid, very smart and disruptive."
McElroy's believes Thieneman's leadership should be a key in guiding in a talented young secondary. There's a group of freshman led by redshirt freshmen Aaron Flowers and Kingston Lopa that should be ready to play right away with Thieneman's guidance.
The Purdue transfer had 210 tackles and six interceptions in two seasons with the Boilermakers, a Freshman All-American in 2023.
Defending champion Ohio State lost some key players to the NFL, but safety Caleb Downs and linebacker Sonny Styles are two of the best defensive players in the country. Defensive end Beau Atkinson racked up 7.5 sacks for North Carolina last season, a great pickup in the portal.
At Penn State, Abdul Carter is gone but Dani Denis-Sutton had 8.5 sacks and 13 tackles for loss last season, a 6-5, 266 senior from Millsboro, Delaware. New defensive coordinator Jim Knowles comes over from OSU.
Linebackers Dom DeLuca and Tony Rojas return, so the Nittany Lions should be very tough against the run.