Was reading about Spring depth charts and thinking about Defensive ends....
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Ed Smith wreaked havoc in the mid 90's. I think he was probably the best since I heavily followed us. Conner Stephens in late 90's/early 2000's. Pernell McPhee in the early Mullen years. Those are the top 3 that come to mind. Seems like most of the DL on that 1999 squad were more the DT variety (Kevin Sluder, Alvin McKinney, Willie Blade, Dorsett Davis).
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Connor was a good one. I agree, I always think of D tackles. And we have had some awesome linebackers through the years. Maybe Jones will be that major difference maker our line needs.
We rotated two full strings of DL-men that year, but for the life of me Connor Stephens is the only DE I can think of. The rest you listed I think were DTs, like you said. I know Joe Lee used a hybrid type of LB a lot of the time, such as Barrin Simpson, Ed Smith and similar. Maybe Cornell Menafee?
Ed Smith as our best DE of my lifetime. Was probably 5'10 230 and wreaked havoc. Titus Brown was dang good as well. I think this year will be our best DE combo in a long time. Autry was figuring it out at the end and Preston Smith is good. He led us in sacks on minimal snaps. They combined for 8.5 sacks last year but I think that will double this year.
So many people forget about Willie Evans and the year he had in 2005. 15 sacks, 21 TFL, 1 INT in 11 games. Third leading tackler on the team.
We averaged 2.73 sacks per game that year. That's 0.73 more per game than the defense led by McPhee, KJ, Chris White, and Cox under Diaz in 2010.
We averaged 2.73 sacks per game that year. That's 0.73 more per game than the defense led by McPhee, KJ, Chris White, and Cox under Diaz in 2010.
