Ranking the B1G Linebackers

n.e.husker

n.e.husker

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1. Lavonte David, Nebraska, Sr.: The league might be light on returning Big Ten award-winners, but David racked up the recognition in the Big 12 in 2010. And with good reason. A junior-college transfer, he had to take on a large role with Will Compton and Sean Fisher injured, sometimes playing as the only linebacker on the field. He responded with a school record 152 tackles. David has gotten stronger in the offseason and will hope his added muscle plus his speed and instincts help him against the more run-oriented Big Ten offenses.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/28782/ranking-the-big-ten-linebackers
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1. Nebraska: Lavonte David set the school record with 152 tackles last year, best in the Big 12. He also added 15 tackles for loss and six sacks on his way to second-team All-America honors. David was a one-man wrecking crew last year but should get more help this year. Will Compton returns after an injury-shortened season, and Sean Fisher is back after a broken leg cost him all of 2010. With an excellent defensive front leading the way, the Cornhuskers' linebackers should make plenty of impact plays.http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/28768/big-ten-position-rankings-linebackers-3
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I don't agree at all. While David is All American material, Fish and Compton have not shown to be anything better than servicable. Martin will be playing DE, and is Whaley even on the team anymore? True freshman Santos might be the next best LB of the bunch, and rumor has it that Stafford may play the Will.

Way too many questions for the LB unit.

 
Earlier, we took a look at the Big Ten linebackers by position groups. Now it's time to rank the individual players at that spot.
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First sentence in the first article.

Although I agree we have a lot of questions in that spot since injuries and not playing a ton of true linebackers in the big 12 we don't really know.

Ohh nm the second article ranks position groups. I see now, I'm not familiar with the big 10 defenses so maybe. Tough to know.

 
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74Hunter said:
I don't agree at all. While David is All American material, Fish and Compton have not shown to be anything better than servicable. Martin will be playing DE, and is Whaley even on the team anymore? True freshman Santos might be the next best LB of the bunch, and rumor has it that Stafford may play the Will.

Way too many questions for the LB unit.
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Considering Fish missed all of his soph year and Compton missed much of his due to injury plus we played a ton of spread-busting dime I wouldn't say they've gotten that much of a look and deserve some benefit of the doubt.

 
Everybody in the conference has question marks at linebacker, that's why Nebraska got the nod. We have question marks by our standards, as Nebraska fans, but when you compare our situation to everyone else in the conference, our 3 projected starters are all more proven than any other group of linebackers in the conference. Compton played well down the stretch last year. Lavonte David was a beast all year long, and the only reason he was forced into starting so early was because Sean Fisher got hurt.

Of course we have question marks, but I have no trouble believing we might be better off at that position than the rest of the Big 10.

 
I agree with it...We have 4 guys that have started a number of games and a few other that have played alot in the last few years. I wouldn't be writing off Compton and Fish yet, people need to remember that they were freshman when they last started and played a whole season.

 
74Hunter said:
I don't agree at all. While David is All American material, Fish and Compton have not shown to be anything better than servicable. Martin will be playing DE, and is Whaley even on the team anymore? True freshman Santos might be the next best LB of the bunch, and rumor has it that Stafford may play the Will.

Way too many questions for the LB unit.
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Who is stating this rumor about Stafford playing LB? I don't see this happening.

 
Danimal said:
Considering Fish missed all of his soph year and Compton missed much of his due to injury plus we played a ton of spread-busting dime I wouldn't say they've gotten that much of a look and deserve some benefit of the doubt.
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Totally fair and logical comment, Danimal.

I feel like we've seen flashes out of Compton though. Fish just looks lost to me out there at this point. I watched him specifically a couple of years ago, and it was pretty clear he didn't know what he was supposed to be doing. In fairness to him however, he was a freshman. There is a learning curve to be sure. But I feel a lot better about Compton than Fish, atm.

Compton plays like an instinctual LB, which is crucial for that position. I'm not sure Fish has the feel. Hope he proves me wrong.

 
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