By @jeffcaves
The best defensive lineman produces the best teams. When I saw Alabama beat Washington in the Peach Bowl, I thought the biggest mismatch was the Husky O line versus the Alabama D line. The pass rush was dominating as was the run defense. It seemed that the Washington offensive front really had no chance to try and move Alabama; they had to go around them or fool them.
It didn’t work. Most experts expected that to happen.
Through the years, I have heard coaches say that unless you have a dominating D line, you really have no chance at winning championships. You can be a good team but not great.
The best Boise State teams have always had tremendous D lineman. Doug Scott, Blessing Bird, Mark Goodman, Randy Trautman, Chris Malmgren, Markus Koch, Michel Bourgeau, Joe Obrien, Eric Helgeson, Chris Wing, Lance Sellars, and Kimo von Oelhoffen are some of the players before the FBS era that dominated and helped Boise State do the same. You know the others.
Recently, a coach told me that the true elite defensive linemen are recruited in the South. He said that some nationally ranked programs believe you must go to the South to get the best D line talent. Some thought the D line in the West were too soft on average.
I just couldn’t help but do the research and see for myself.
I took a look at the 2016 1st and 2nd team AP All American tackles and ends. I also surveyed the Alabama two deep vs Washington. I looked for where the player came from before he was signed by his college.
No surprises here.
Georgia (3), Virginia (2), Texas (2) and North Carolina (2) had 9 of the Top 12 D line in the country. Alabama’s D line was led by Virginia (2), Georgia (2), Alabama and Arkansas.
I thought it may be a fluke until I checked the Top ESPN 300 recruits for the Class of 2017. The list boasts about 40 tackles and ends. 50% of the best tackles/ends came from 4 states: Georgia (6), Texas (5), Florida (5) and Virginia (4).
12 other states filed in the other 20 names. The West only had 7 total in California, Oregon, Utah and Nevada.
I don’t know why this is the case right now but I do know if I were Chris Petersen I would be headed South. NOW.
