Rivals Defensive Line Unit Rankings

[huskersrule95]

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1112933

 

 

 

Rivals.com Staff

 

 

 

Here is part four of our national unit rankings.

 

We are unveiling one unit per day and will end Thursday with overall coaching staffs.

 

The rankings take into account what the players have accomplished, how we think the players will do this season and sheer talent. But production does trump potential.

 

Here are the defensive line rankings. Next up: linebackers.

 

 

DEFENSIVE LINE UNIT RANKINGS

1. IOWA

BUZZ: All four starters are back for a group that produced 202 tackles and 27 sacks last season. The leader is E Adrian Clayborn, a dynamic force off the edge who had 11.5 sacks and 20 tackles for loss.

 

2. NORTH CAROLINA

BUZZ: E Robert Quinn and T Marvin Austin give the Tar Heels two probable first-round picks up front.

 

3. OLE MISS

BUZZ: This should be a rough-and-ready unit. Former coach Ed Orgeron might have been in over his head at that job, but he certainly could identify defensive line talent and Houston Nutt is the beneficiary. E Kentrell Lockett and T Jerrell Powe have All-SEC capabilities.

 

4. USC

BUZZ: The ends could be overpowering, and Ts Jurrell Casey and DaJohn Harris have a chance to be as good as any pair anywhere.

 

5. NEBRASKA

BUZZ: T Jared Crick and E Pierre Allen anchor what should be one of the country's best front fours.

 

6. TEXAS

BUZZ: Look for Sam Acho and Alex Okafor to lead a pass rush that will be among the nation's fiercest.

 

7. ALABAMA

BUZZ: All three starters will be new. So what? Alabama rotated a lot of linemen last season, and E Marcell Dareus is the best lineman in the SEC.

 

8. ARIZONA STATE

BUZZ: It's hard to run on the Sun Devils, who are tough up front with Ts Lawrence Guy and Saia Falahola.

 

9. MIAMI

BUZZ: Nearly every team in the country would love to have the Hurricanes' depth in the front four. The versatile Allen Bailey is an All-America candidate.

 

10. CLEMSON

BUZZ: Jarvis Jenkins and Brandon Thompson give Clemson a pair of experienced tackles, and Da'Quan Bowers has plenty of upside at end.

 

11. TCU

BUZZ: The Frogs no longer have the star power of E Jerry Hughes in their front four, but Wayne Daniels, Cory Grant and Co. should make sure TCU continues to harass opposing quarterbacks and running backs.

 

12. RUTGERS

BUZZ: Three starters are back. The new starter is E Jonathan Freeny, who had 9.5 sacks last season in a reserve role.

 

DON'T OVERLOOK THESE 5

Boise State, Florida, Oregon, Temple, West Virginia

 

(Rankings by Rivals.com staffers Olin Buchanan, Tom Dienhart, David Fox, Mike Huguenin and Steve Megargee.)

[ESPY]

#5 makes sense. Wouldn't expect anything less either. These Pelinis know what they're doing & they know it all starts up front. Can't wait to see the Dline dominate again this year

[Danny Bateman]

UNC gets bumped much farther down this list (possibly off it) if Austin can't play due to the whole scandal thing going on right now...

[zoogs]

I get that we were unreal last year, but we've lost senior leadership on the line as well as one of the best players college football has seen at the position in a long, long time. To project guys like Meredith, Steinkuhler or Williams to step in without missing a step as sophomores, or Ankrah as a redshirt freshman, would be a bit of a stretch, in my opinion. Even T-Mo is just a junior, which is the same year of eligibility that Turner, Potter, and Ty Steinkuhler were when they stepped in to replace our vaunted 2006 DL of Carriker, Jay Moore, Dagunduro, and Cryer.

 

Different year, different set of coaches, I know - but I'm just saying, to be able to reload like that would be downright scary. And the DL would not be falling short if it didn't meet those (IMO, unrealistic) expectations. Top 5 DL again? I'd be happy with Top 20.

 

Coaches can only do so much, anyway. Part of it is on the players, and all these young and unproven guys will have to grow into those roles on the field this year. If Crick stays and everyone else develops, next year, this line could be the best DL in the nation. But as I always say, it's hard to stay on the top and this is the year we probably can see the DL take a modest step back. "Down to 5" doesn't really count as a step back, IMO.

 

Maybe it's just the pessimist in me. I think this year, our cornerbacks and linebackers are going to have to pick up the slack. 2008 and 2009 saw our growing pains from these two groups. Now it's time for them to take charge. It does sort of worry me that we ended up leaning on Dillard so much last year and graduated our two safeties, so there's going to be some growing pains there as well. I guess I just feel that across the board, we can expect to be brought down to earth by our defense's execution this season. Last year was, let's face it...pretty dream-like.

[knapplc]

zoogies, I think a healthy dose of pessimism is good for us right now. I think looking at the guys we have it's easy to get excited for what's to come. It's easy to get too excited, and that leads to unrealistic expectations, and that's when coaches catch more heat than they should, and the whole situation sours.

 

I was just thinking the other day about how difficult it would be to face a D Line composed of our second string. You could line up Josh Williams, Terrance Moore, Thad Randle and Jason Ankrah and field a heck of a good D Line. With the secondary we're supposed to have, this would be a formidable unit.

 

But those are the backups, and we're starting guys "better" than this - Allen, Steinkuhler, Crick and Stache. That's a unit deserving of a top five ranking, nationally, and could prove better than that come season's end.

 

We have the guys available to pound an O Line all game long, and still be ready to pound like hell come the fourth quarter. They'll be rested and ready to go because of depth, and depending on how many three-and-outs we get this year, these guys could be fresh all season long.

 

It's a scary thought.

[Igetbored216]

zoogies, I think a healthy dose of pessimism is good for us right now. I think looking at the guys we have it's easy to get excited for what's to come. It's easy to get too excited, and that leads to unrealistic expectations, and that's when coaches catch more heat than they should, and the whole situation sours.

 

I was just thinking the other day about how difficult it would be to face a D Line composed of our second string. You could line up Josh Williams, Terrance Moore, Thad Randle and Jason Ankrah and field a heck of a good D Line. With the secondary we're supposed to have, this would be a formidable unit.

 

But those are the backups, and we're starting guys "better" than this - Allen, Steinkuhler, Crick and Stache. That's a unit deserving of a top five ranking, nationally, and could prove better than that come season's end.

 

We have the guys available to pound an O Line all game long, and still be ready to pound like hell come the fourth quarter. They'll be rested and ready to go because of depth, and depending on how many three-and-outs we get this year, these guys could be fresh all season long.

 

It's a scary thought.

 

Haha...nice.

 

The fact that our starting four look to be so good on paper and the fact that we have so much depth at d-line should make us worthy of a top five ranking. I don't remember the last time we had this much quality depth at the line and it just proves that the coaches not only work with the number ones, but really work to develop the guys behind them too. As I understand it, this couldn't always be said about the previous coaching staff.

 

Oh...how I love all of our defensive coaches. They have definitely exceeded my expectations.

[ESPY]

I'm thinking our non-conf games are gonna be huge indicators of how the Dline does in conf play. If they get off to a strong start & our younger Dlinemen get some valuable PT, we'll have lots of confidence vs B12. At the same time, even if our DL doesn't start off as strong as we think they should, I expect all of them to step up for conf play like our boys did last year. It's gonna be interesting to see who starts once we head into Manhattan for our B12 opener, as compared to who starts vs WKU. There are lots of different DL packages I think our coaches will try in our non-conf games, & we'll definitely need a strong front 4 once we face the Wildcats, which will probably have the best run game of any team we face this year.

[Husker_x]

I remember when everyone was worried about Crick replacing Stein. It worked out pretty well, I think.

 

I believe the line will be very good this year, but will the front four be putting the constant pressure on the QB that they did last year? That would be flat-out amazing. There is no replacing Suh. There is no replacing his production. The man was a freak of nature the likes of which comes into your program once or twice in a lifetime.

 

Still very excited about this years D, though.