Phil Steele Blog • March 9, 2016

 

2015 Top 50 True Freshman DL's and their Impact on the Season.

Today lets talk about my 2015 Top 50 Freshman Defensive Linemen and their impact on the season. As expected a lot more defensive linemen played this year due to a teams need to have more depth at this position.

Out of the Top 50 defensive linemen, 33 (66%) contributed in some way this past year. Of the 33 that played 10 had over 20 tackles, and 5 of the players were in my Top 10. Two players led this group with 41 tackles Josh Sweat (PS#3) of Florida St and Arden Key (PS#18) from LSU. Clemson’s Christian Wilkins (PS#17) came in 3rd with 33 tackles followed by Daylon Mack (PS#8) of A&M with 32.

Fifteen Players registered at least 1 sack in 2015. LSU’s Arden Key led the freshmen with 5 sacks. JoJo Wicker (PS#32) of Arizona St and Darian Roseboro (PS#24) of NC State both had 4. Florida’s Cece Jefferson (PS#5) 3.5 and Missouri’s Terry Beckner (PS#4) rounds off the Top 5 with 3 sacks.

Daylon Mack had a healthy 9.5 tackles for loss even though he did not have a sack on the year. Cece Jefferson and Terry Beckner followed with 5 TFL’s each. Three on this list had interceptions Josh Sweat one of the top tacklers on this list, Darian Roseboro also mentioned earlier, and Breiden Fehoko (PS#15) of Texas Tech each with 1.

Here is the complete list of my 2015 Top 50 Freshman Defensive Linemen. Followed by my Top 50 Freshman Defensive Linemen for 2016. Thursday we will have my Top 50 Freshman Linebackers and their impact on the 2015 season.

Top                    
50 RS NAME TEAM TKL SKS TFL PBU INT QBH Other/Info
1     Trenton  Thompson Georgia 25 0.5 2 0 0 3  
2     Byron   Cowart Auburn 6 0 0 0 0 6  
3     Josh  Sweat Florida St 41 2 3 2 1 3  
4     Terry  Beckner Missouri 27 3 5 1 0 2  
5     Cece  Jefferson Florida 29 3.5 5 1 0 2  
6     Kahlil (Reginald)  Mckenzie Tennessee 24 1 0 1 0 1  
7     Rasheem  Green Usc 19 0.5 0.5 0 0 0  
8     Daylon   Mack Texas A&M 32 0 9.5 0 0 0  
9     Daron   Payne Alabama 13 0.5 0 1 0 1  
10     Canton   Kaumatule Oregon 2 0 0 0 0 0  
11 RS   Tim   Settle Virginia Tech 0 0 0 0 0 0  
12     Shy   Tuttle Tennessee 10 0 0 0 0 1  
13     Jalen   Dalton North Carolina 15 0 1 2 0 2  
14 RS   Jashon  Cornell Ohio St 0 0 0 0 0 0  
15     Breiden   Fehoko Texas Tech 19 1 3 0 1 1  
16     Jonathan  Ledbetter Georgia 4 0 0 0 0 1  
17     Christian  Wilkins Clemson 33 2 2.5 0 0 1  
18     Arden   Key Lsu 41 5 1.5 1 0 9  
19 RS   Ricky   Deberry Oklahoma 0 0 0 0 0 0  
20     Jacob   Daniel Usc 3 0 0 1 0 0  
21     Shameik   Blackshear South Carolina 2 0 0 0 0 0  
22     Albert   Huggins Clemson 5 0 0 1 0 0  
23     Kyle   Phillips Tennessee 8 1 0.5 0 0 0  
24     Darian   Roseboro Nc State 18 4 1.5 3 1 0  
25 RS   Neville   Gallimore Oklahoma 0 0 0 0 0 0  
26     Jerry   Tillery Notre Dame 12 1 1 0 0 0  
27     James   Lockhart Texas A&M 4 0 0 0 0 0  
28 RS   Clelin   Ferrell Clemson 0 0 0 0 0 0  
29 RS   Adam   Mclean Maryland 0 0 0 0 0 0  
30     Charles   Omenihu Texas 17 0 1 0 0 0  
31     Austin   Bryant Clemson 23 1.5 0.5 1 0 1  
32     Jojo  Wicker Arizona St 21 4 3.5 0 0 2  
33     Chauncey   Rivers Georgia 4 0 1 0 0 0  
34     Hjalte   Froholdt Arkansas 3 0 0 0 0 0  
35 RS   Kamonte   Carter Penn St 0 0 0 0 0 0  
36 RS   Fletcher   Adams Mississippi St 0 0 0 0 0 0  
37 RS   Jamario   Bell Arkansas 0 0 0 0 0 0  
38     Marquise   Overton Oklahoma 5 1 0 0 0 0  
39 RS   Darvin   Taylor Florida St 0 0 0 0 0 0  
40     Darrion   Daniels Oklahoma St 16 0.5 2 0 0 1  
41     Kendrick   Norton Miami, Fl 19 1 0.5 0 0 0  
42 RS   Raequan  Williams Michigan St 0 0 0 0 0 0  
43     Michael   Barnett Georgia 5 0 0 0 0 1  
44 RS   Darrell   Taylor Tennessee 0 0 0 0 0 0  
45 RS   Dre'Mont   Jones Ohio St 0 0 0 0 0 0 Torn ACL
46     Thomas   Toki Wash St 0 0 0 0 0 0 Went to JC
47     Tipa   Galeai Tcu 7 1 0 0 0 1  
48 RS   Andrew   Butcher Tennessee 0 0 0 0 0 0  
49 RS   Benning   Potoa'E Washington 0 0 0 0 0 0  
50 RS   Ryan   Buchholz Penn St 0 0 0 0 0 0  

Here is my 2016 Top 50 Freshman Defensive Linemen. Auburn leads this list with 5 players in my Top 50 two of them in the Top 10.

Top    
50 Player Team
1 Rashan Gary Michigan
2 Dexter Lawrence Clemson
3 Nick Bosa Ohio State
4 Derrick Brown Auburn
5 Ed Oliver Houston
6 Shavar Manuel Florida State
7 Oluwole Betiku (Wole) USC
8 Julian Rochester Georgia
9 Rashard Lawrence LSU
10 Marlon Davidson Auburn
11 McTelvin Agim Arkansas
12 Shane Simmons Penn State
13 Jeffery Simmons Mississippi State
14 Edwin Alexander LSU
15 Benito Jones Mississippi
16 Antwuan Jackson Auburn
17 Kendell Jones Alabama
18 Jonathon Cooper Ohio State
19 Janarius Robinson Florida State
20 Justin Madubuike Texas A&M
21 Antonneous Clayton Florida
22 Auston Robertson Unsigned
23 Josh King Michigan State
24 Brian Burns Florida State
25 Raekwon Davis Alabama
26 Michail Carter Georgia
27 Ellison Jordan Penn State
28 Boss Tagaloa UCLA
29 Amani Bledsoe Oklahoma
30 Isaiah Chambers TCU
31 Garrett Rand Wisconsin
32 Khalid Kareem Notre Dame
33 Xavier Kelly Clemson
34 Joe Jackson Miami (FL)
35 Glen Logan LSU
36 Prince Michael Sammons Auburn
37 Naquan Jones Michigan State
38 Karamo Dioubate Temple
39 Cedric Wood Florida State
40 Maxs Tupai Unsigned
41 Mark Jackson Oklahoma
42 Brandon Bowen Baylor
43 Ron Johnson Michigan
44 Nyles Pinckney Clemson
45 Connor Murphy USC
46 Jordon Elliott Texas
47 Keyshon Camp Pittsburgh
48 Julian Okwara Notre Dame
49 Nick Coe Auburn
50 Darius Whitfield South Carolina