Best Rutgers Defensive Line Ever

[RUblackshirt2006]

Next year: Darius Hamilton, Pinnix Odrick, Joesph, Wilkinss, Waife, Bateky up the guts... Turay and Ford maybe on the sides. Personlly, would like to see Lambert as a nasty middle linebacker.

Our new coach coached the best or one of the best defensive lines team in the country for the last couple of years.

You gotta think he's come in at a perfect time and inherited a team strength that also matches his strength.

Feel free to talk about the secondary, but they'll be better too.

 

[rutgersal]

Someone is going to accuse you of being me, but agree with the sentiment. Lambert made tremendous improvement last year. He'll be our starting DE.

 

[rutgersal]

Secondary will be much improved too. It's the LBers where we may see a dropoff, but hopefully that will be mitigated by the improved DL.

 

[vkj91]

Ford isn't even in the team anymore.

 

[LotusAggressor]

Let's see it when the lights turn on against B1G opposition. Everybody looks like an All-American when they haven't hit anybody.

 

[knightfan7]

Ford left the program so there's that.

The DLs from the mid 70's to the early 80's were the best ever at RU. Toran, Alexander, Mangiero, Pickel, Rustemeyer, Steward and I'm missing a couple were very good. Foster, Meekins, and Westerman in the mid 2000's. This DL could be pretty good with Hamilton back and the others a year older but best ever? Not sure about that.

 

[LotusAggressor]

Eric Foster and Ramel Meekins were an unblockable DT tandem. I haven't seen anything close to that from this group.

 

[RUblackshirt2006]

Sorry missed the Ford news. Most of these guys we have seen though and were good and now they are a year older and being coached by a guy who knows about great defensive lines.

In terms of the other possible best defensive lines. I'm talking about defensive line for next year and it's potential to beat those teams like Foster and Meekins and those 70s squads.

 

[Abro1975]

Either 1975 or 76, 2 sack leaders Nate Toran and Dan Gray. Early 1970s Nate Toran if strictly college. All American DE , had close to 20 sacks a season,during 9 or 10 game seasons. I'll try to find his official stats , but the guy took over games with his penetration and sacks. edit- Toran's career sack almost double of number 2, in an era of a shorter season and less passing :

Sacks (Tackles)
1. Nate Toran (1973-76) 52 (333)
2. Dan Gray (1975-77) 29 (224)
3. Jamaal Westerman (2005-08) 26 (181)
Dino Mangiero (1976-79) 26 (177)
5. Shawn Williams (1989-92) 21 (121)
6. Ryan Neill (2001-05) 19 (130)
7. Raheem Orr (2001-03) 18 (100)
8. Ramel Meekins (2003-06) 17 (138)
Ed Steward (1977-80) 17 (84)
Mike Pellowsaki (1968-70) 17 (101)

Ones Season Sacks, Toran with the top 3 Seasons !

Sacks (Tackles)
1. Nate Toran (1974) 19 (115)
2. Nate Toran (1976) 17 (115)
3. Nate Toran (1975) 16 (103)
4. Dino Mangiero (1979) 14 (94)
5. Shawn Williams (1991) 12 (77)
Dan Gray (1975) 12 (89)
7. Val Barnaby (2005) 10 (58)
Ryan Neill (2005) 10 (69)
Ed Steward (1978) 10 (75)
. Dan Gray (1976) 10 (75)

 

[drewbagel423]

Ford isn't even in the team anymore.

When the hell did that happen? That was supposed to be Flood's marquee commit.

 

[knightfan7]

When the hell did that happen? That was supposed to be Flood's marquee commit.

December

 

[knightfan7]

ED Steward is one of my all time favorite RU players. He was the poster child for undersized DT's. If memory serves me correctly, Frank Burns decided to go with a bigger DL in the "what's a Rutgers" game vs Tennessee and moved Steward to MLB. He responded with a career game helping RU upset the #17 Vols.

 

[DJ Spanky]

I absolutely love pronouncements like this.

Eric Foster and Ramel Meekins were an unblockable DT tandem. I haven't seen anything close to that from this group.

Yep, I'll agree with this.

 

[LC-88]

Best combo I saw was Elnardo Webster and Shawn Williams. Webster helped Williams get on the sacks list. He was drafted by the Steelers.

I saw him play in his last NFL game. Pre-season 1992 vs. New Orleans in the Super Dome. Had an awesome game. At least one sack where he blew past the end. I forget when it was in the game, but he was trailing a play - turnover for a TD (may have been special teams) and got cheap shotted from behind, behind the knee. Some skinny little WR or DB. Totally intentional. No flag of course.

 

[PhilaPhans]

Ford was passed on the depth chart last year by some of Flood's other fellow freshmen. He also had the body as a WR as a DE, so he wasn't going to be playing any time soon. Very overrated recruit and it was in the best interest of both sides to move on. Best of luck to the kid.

 

[jonS]

What gives with Turay? I thought it was mentioned that he did not impress in the strength and conditioning drills...

 

[PhilaPhans]

It was mentioned he wasn't great in the weight room last year, but he was also injured all of last year and tried his best to play through it.

 

[biazza38]

First off, this is the B1G. Majority of the schools have D-lines as talented or better than ours. We don't get to the QB the way we used to. I like the depth, but we need to be better.
I never followed up on the Ford story. Where did he end up transferring to?

 

[RUChoppin]

Toran and Gray? Definitely major names in the history books for Rutgers defenses, but they weren't exactly putting up those numbers against anything close to our current schedule.

I know we went undefeated in 1976, but that schedule was a cream puff compared to what we see today. Three non-IA teams, six teams that finished (4-7) or worse, and just one team with a winning record (8-2 Colgate). 1975 wasn't much tougher, and we gave up 35 points to non-IA Lehigh.

It was just a different era.

 

[Ready to Rumble]

Toran and Gray? Definitely major names in the history books for Rutgers defenses, but they weren't exactly putting up those numbers against anything close to our current schedule.

I know we went undefeated in 1976, but that schedule was a cream puff compared to what we see today. Three non-IA teams, six teams that finished (4-7) or worse, and just one team with a winning record (8-2 Colgate). 1975 wasn't much tougher, and we gave up 35 points to non-IA Lehigh.

It was just a different era.

Agreed it was a different era but the 1976 team did finish the season ranked #17 in the AP poll.

 

[ruready07]

Agreed it was a different era but the 1976 team did finish the season ranked #17 in the AP poll.

its a really good argument between 1976 and 2006. That 2006 defense (and offense) was just stacked with nfl talent. We're talking about a lot of 2-3 star guys who were coached up and really got themselves ready to make a run at a BCS game, if not the championship. 2006 was a very special squad.

2006 : d-line was so penetrating , active and disruptive - you really don't see too many every year in college football like it. Schiano went with a fast d-line and liked to get the D penetrating and attacking - good tactic since we had trouble bringing in top prototypical d-linemen. Schiano could have gone with a bigger, slower d-line but chose smaller and faster. Good for me that he did that because I prefer an attacking defense.

1976 : Hard to argue against those numbers. Freaky stats

 

[zappaa]

Best combo I saw was Elnardo Webster and Shawn Williams. Webster helped Williams get on the sacks list. He was drafted by the Steelers.

I saw him play in his last NFL game. Pre-season 1992 vs. New Orleans in the Super Dome. Had an awesome game. At least one sack where he blew past the end. I forget when it was in the game, but he was trailing a play - turnover for a TD (may have been special teams) and got cheap shotted from behind, behind the knee. Some skinny little WR or DB. Totally intentional. No flag of course.

Elnardo and Shawn were great players

 

[RUChoppin]

Agreed it was a different era but the 1976 team did finish the season ranked #17 in the AP poll.

Yeah, different era in the AP poll, too. Even today it's hard to rank an undefeated team that hasn't played anyone of consequence, doubly so in an era where most games weren't televised. I can't imagine most of the AP voters at the time had ever seen Rutgers play, or knew much about the team other than their record and their stats.

Put the 1976 line against the equivalent of a 2006 schedule, or a 2015 schedule, and they're not going to see close to those numbers.

 

[RU old timer]

From the decade of the 1980s through today, we have never had a dominant def line. We've had some fine linebackers.

 

[RU#1fan]

Next year: Darius Hamilton, Pinnix Odrick, Joesph, Wilkinss, Waife, Bateky up the guts... Turay and Ford maybe on the sides. Personlly, would like to see Lambert as a nasty middle linebacker.

Our new coach coached the best or one of the best defensive lines team in the country for the last couple of years.

You gotta think he's come in at a perfect time and inherited a team strength that also matches his strength.

Feel free to talk about the secondary, but they'll be better too.

Ford left the team long ago. Insert Hogan in his place. Turay was basically absent on the field last year.....ongoing injury or whatever he needs to comeback in a big way . While Lambert sounds intriguing at MLB ( his speed might be an issue) and we are lacking big time at LB, he needs to stay at DE.

 

[Randal7]

What made that 2006 defense so beastly was meekins and foster clogging the line and devraun Thompson roaming and just launching himself at anyone who got through. Devraun was an absolute beast

 

[Reppin_Jerz]

Next year: Darius Hamilton, Pinnix Odrick, Joesph, Wilkinss, Waife, Bateky up the guts... Turay and Ford maybe on the sides. Personlly, would like to see Lambert as a nasty middle linebacker.

Our new coach coached the best or one of the best defensive lines team in the country for the last couple of years.

You gotta think he's come in at a perfect time and inherited a team strength that also matches his strength.

Feel free to talk about the secondary, but they'll be better too.

This doesn't sound like that great of a statement, haven't seen anything from anyone but Hamilton and turay to suggest there are any great players on this line, and with Hamilton coming off injury and turay suffering a sophomore slump, I'm not sure what you are basing this prediction on. Just because a lot of these guys saw playing time last year, I didn't see anyone dominating in any game. The highest rated recruit of the bunch, Ford, left the program to play closer to home.

I'm just not personally seeing the "strength", maybe better coaching and a new scheme will change that. Too early to call it a strength or labeling it the greatest defensive line.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Oh dear sweet baby Jesus give me a break....

 

[knightfan7]

This doesn't sound like that great of a statement, haven't seen anything from anyone but Hamilton and turay to suggest there are any great players on this line, and with Hamilton coming off injury and turay suffering a sophomore slump, I'm not sure what you are basing this prediction on. Just because a lot of these guys saw playing time last year, I didn't see anyone dominating in any game. The highest rated recruit of the bunch, Ford, left the program to play closer to home.

I'm just not personally seeing the "strength", maybe better coaching and a new scheme will change that. Too early to call it a strength or labeling it the greatest defensive line.

it's the old potential vs performance thing.

Stats don't bear it out but there seemed to be pretty much universal agreement that RU was pretty good at NT last year. For example, I heard it mentioned several times on BTN broadcasts. If Hamilton can come back close to 100% that will help immensely as the players who replaced him were undersized, extremely young, or both. The loss of Turay definitely hurt on passing downs but even when he did play he wasn't as effective as in 2014. It remains to be seen whether or not he can get "it" back.

There is no doubt RU will field as big a DL as we've seen since the Harley and Gibson days more than 10 years ago. If as some expect JPO slides to DE you are looking at a DL that measures up to most in the B1G. I'm not expecting anything like the DL's we've recently seen at places like PSU or OSU but it can be as good as we've seen around here in at least 10 years.

 

[beaced]

Ford left the program so there's that.

The DLs from the mid 70's to the early 80's were the best ever at RU. Toran, Alexander, Mangiero, Pickel, Rustemeyer, Steward and I'm missing a couple were very good. Foster, Meekins, and Westerman in the mid 2000's. This DL could be pretty good with Hamilton back and the others a year older but best ever? Not sure about that.

Rutgers did have some very good individual players and some years where the team D was great. IMO ,the last 35 minutes ,or so,of the '06 'VILLE game would be hard to beat for a team effort.I am looking forward to the ASH D's.

 

[jakeknight]

while the mid 70's defensive line was from a different era, both John Alexander and Danny Gray got NFL time. Cant remember too much about Toran, think he got drafted as well. Can't remember who was opposite Toran on the other end slot. Pretty damn good line in any era.

 

[knightfan7]

Rutgers did have some very good individual players and some years where the team D was great. IMO ,the last 35 minutes ,or so,of the '06 'VILLE game would be hard to beat for a team effort.I am looking forward to the ASH D's.

Thst's been the thing. There's bee a number of very good individuals over the years but more often than not, there hasn't been enough of them. There are a number of questions this coming year for sure, especially at LB but don't think DT at least will be one

 

[fbc1866]

Its hard to determine that due to the change in conferences over the last twenty years. Being in the B1G east we see monsters each week. This d-line might be the best due to the offenses they will see.

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

We need bigger stronger faster smarter tougher and a lot of other er's before we can have this discussion

 

[LotusAggressor]

It was mentioned he wasn't great in the weight room last year, but he was also injured all of last year and tried his best to play through it.

It was also reported that he was an unblockable terror in scrimmages last year. So much so that he was taken out so that the offense could get work done. We now know that was an indication of how below average the OL was.

 

[knightfan7]

We need bigger stronger faster smarter tougher and a lot of other er's before we can have this discussion

Bigger is somewhat of a fallicy. Look at the average size of B1G teams that play the 4-3. Other than Michigan, RU is right around most of the others. For example the two B1G teams in the championship, Iowa and MSU, were 272 and 281 across the front. JPO (270), Hamilton (280), Joseph (295), and Lambert (260) would average around 276.

 

[NickyNewark51]

Oh dear sweet baby Jesus give me a break....

lol;;;;this guys either young.or ?...

 

[RUinPAC10land]

Ford isn't even in the team anymore.

I was about to say, "Dang Ford came back?"

 

[LC-88]

While Lambert sounds intriguing at MLB ( his speed might be an issue) and we are lacking big time at LB, he needs to stay at DE.

Like when Graber had Malik Jackson playing FREE saftey for a couple of games. Didn't work out.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Oh dear sweet baby Jesus give me a break....

I feel your pain!