College Football Stat Leaders
Average defensive tackles for loss recorded per game.
Seasons Covered
2016-2025
Current Leader
Penn State (8.23)
Best Season
Nebraska 2019 (10.58)
Scope
Big Ten • 2018
Crawl sibling stat pages without leaving the shared leaderboard template.
Route-specific context pulled from the current leaderboard, winner trend, and historical baseline.
Tackles for loss per game measures how often a defense creates negative snaps before an offense can stay on schedule. On this 2018 leaderboard, the visible range runs 8.23 to 5.92, with Penn State setting the pace.
Big Ten teams have claimed 100% of the yearly leaderboard wins in this filtered dataset, and Indiana is the latest winner at 8.06.
The gap from No. 1 Penn State to No. 5 Nebraska is 2.31, which shows how tightly packed the top of this leaderboard is.
The yearly winning mark improved from 7.31 in 2024 to 8.06 in 2025, a swing of 0.75. Penn State's current mark of 8.23 sits above the all-time average leader benchmark of 7.53 held by Penn State.
Top 14 rows for the current route scope.
| 1 | Penn State | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 8.23 |
| 2 | Ohio State | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 7.00 |
| 3 | Michigan | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 6.92 |
| 4 | Michigan State | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 6.54 |
| 5 | Nebraska | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 5.92 |
| 6 | Indiana | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 5.67 |
| 7 | Northwestern | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 5.64 |
| 8 | Illinois | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 5.58 |
| 9 | Iowa | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 5.54 |
| 10 | Minnesota | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 5.23 |
| 11 | Rutgers | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 5.00 |
| 12 | Maryland | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 4.50 |
| 13 | Wisconsin | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 4.38 |
| 14 | Purdue | Big Ten Conference | 2018 | 3.92 |
Yearly winning values for the current filter scope.
| Season | Team | Conference at time | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Indiana | Big Ten Conference | 8.06 |
| 2024 | Indiana | Big Ten Conference | 7.31 |
| 2023 | Penn State | Big Ten Conference | 8.62 |
| 2022 | Penn State | Big Ten Conference | 7.85 |
| 2021 | Wisconsin | Big Ten Conference | 7.00 |
| 2020 | Rutgers | Big Ten Conference | 7.89 |
| 2019 | Nebraska | Big Ten Conference | 10.58 |
| 2018 | Penn State | Big Ten Conference | 8.23 |
| 2017 | Michigan | Big Ten Conference | 8.69 |
| 2016 | Michigan | Big Ten Conference | 9.15 |
Average across seasons for each team in the current filter scope.
| Rank | Team | Seasons | Average | Best Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Penn State | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 7.53 | 2019 (9.15) |
| 2 | Ohio State | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 6.82 | 2019 (9.64) |
| 3 | Indiana | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 6.48 | 2025 (8.06) |
| 4 | Michigan | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 6.34 | 2016 (9.15) |
| 5 | Nebraska | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 6.19 | 2019 (10.58) |
| 6 | Michigan State | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 6.07 | 2019 (9.77) |
| 7 | Illinois | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 5.90 | 2019 (9.62) |
| 8 | Maryland | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 5.82 | 2019 (9.00) |
| 9 | Wisconsin | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 5.76 | 2019 (8.57) |
| 10 | Purdue | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 5.67 | 2019 (8.50) |
| 11 | Oregon | 2025, 2024 | 5.43 | 2024 (5.86) |
| 12 | Northwestern | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 5.37 | 2017 (7.54) |
| 13 | Iowa | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 5.31 | 2020 (6.38) |
| 14 | Rutgers | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 5.15 | 2020 (7.89) |
| 15 | Minnesota | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 | 5.03 | 2016 (7.77) |
| 16 | USC | 2025, 2024 | 4.81 | 2025 (5.54) |
| 17 | UCLA | 2025, 2024 | 4.33 | 2024 (5.33) |
| 18 | Washington | 2025, 2024 | 3.96 | 2025 (4.23) |
Penn State ranks first at 8.23 in 2018.
Penn State owns the strongest all-time average at 7.53 across 10 tracked seasons in this conference scope.
Indiana is the most recent yearly winner in this conference scope, so the route combines the current leaderboard with a recent trend line instead of showing only one season snapshot.