College Football Week 9 Havoc Ratings: Texas Quietly Turning Up the Chaos

The ability to create chaos was on full display as college football welcomed back the Mountain West and Big Ten. Despite an embarrassing loss as a heavy favorite, Michigan State's defense lived in Rutgers backfield. The Spartans recorded 11 tackles for loss along with two forced fumbles and four passes defensed. On the flip side, Michigan State starts the season dead last in havoc allowed.

The Wisconsin defense answered some questions as to how they would replace a 2019 unit that finished second in havoc. The Badgers had disruption in 20% of their defensive snaps.

If we are looking for a Big Ten team that ranks top-10 on both sides of the ball, Northwestern was chaotic on defense and disciplined on offense. The Wildcats did not have a single pass breakup and allowed just five tackles for loss.

Our Havoc column looks at the defensive Havoc and offensive Havoc allowed each week. The calculation is simply a cumulative number of tackles for loss, interceptions, fumbles and passes defensed divided by the number of plays on both sides of the ball.

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Week 9 Havoc

Our Havoc chart looks at the percentage generated on defense by the percentage allowed on offense. San Diego State's number will go down with more competition after a 64 defensive snap domination of UNLV.

Also of note, Purdue won with just a 15% post-win game expectancy. From a havoc standpoint, the Boilermakers did force fumbles, but rarely ever go into Iowa's backfield.

Here is a raw number breakdown of havoc and havoc allowed:

Notes on Week 9 Havoc

East Carolina vs. Tulsa

Zaven Collins may be a havoc column staple. With five solo tackles, the Golden Hurricane linebacker was able to get into the end zone against South Florida.

Tulsa now ranks seventh in defensive havoc, which will be an issue for an East Carolina team that has allowed 10% of offensive snaps to result in a tackle for loss.

Wisconsin vs. Nebraska

We have a one game sample set, but a number of years history on a Scott Frost offense led by Adrian Martinez. The Cornhuskers came out of the gate ranking 83rd in havoc allowed with only 101 teams taking the field so far in 2020 FBS play.

Wisconsin lost plenty of players who created disruption, but the replacements did a fantastic job generating a rank of 11th on defense.

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Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech has covered just once in their past five games with another lackluster effort against Boston College in Week 8. The Yellow Jackets have fallen to 81st in havoc allowed thanks to 12 fumbles and 37 tackles for loss.

Notre Dame has one of the best defensive coordinators in the country, as Clark Lea will bring a defense that is sixth in defensive havoc to Atlanta.

Texas vs. Oklahoma State

All the talk preseason was Tom Herman's new coordinators on both sides of the ball. It is safe to say that the hire of Chris Ash finally paid dividends against Baylor, allowing the Bears to rush for just 64 yards.

The Longhorns now rank top-20 in defensive havoc due to leading the nation in passes defensed. Texas is also 16th in tackles for loss which will be needed against an Oklahoma State offense with stars at the skill position.