After reading this account from Athlon Sports of their assessment of Top 25 Defensive Linemen in the BCS Era, I was wondering who folks here consider the best at Tech during this same time period? After seeing who people have to say, I will probably try to find the stats on the names that come up and try to compare them. The article only lists one Tech lineman with Chris Ellis coming in at #20.
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Corey Moore was a man among boys. I also like Tapp. Not sure if they were good enough to crack that list, but they were damn fun to watch.
Moore predated the ACC, which is what the article focused on. He would certainly get my vote for VT's best in the BCS era.
Agreed, and Athlon had him ranked as the #35 player in college football during the BCS and the #6 defensive lineman overall.
http://athlonsports.com/college-football/college-footballs-top-50-defens...
http://athlonsports.com/college-football/top-100-college-football-player...
I agree with the other posters that Moore and Tapp are at the top of the list. I would also add Carlton Powell as one of VT's top D linemen during that time period. He was awesome at stuffing the run.
I gotta go with Tapp too. He is the main one that sticks out in my mind. Now that it has been brought up, it makes me wonder...
Why is it that a great defensive team like VT with access to the NFL's all-time sack leader can't seem to get the top d-line recruits? 2014 Examples: Deshawn Hand and Andrew Brown. Has their even been a Hokie that has gone on to the NFL and produced 10% as much as Bruce Smith? Hopefully NNadi will change all this.
There's no current NFL d-lineman coaches can sell to recruits, for starters. That hurts. Engelberger and Tapp are the last 2 guys that have stuck to NFL rosters and started (unless I am forgetting someone). And Tapp is now a linebacker for the Redskins.
Add to that a history of guys "moving down" the line when the get to VT. Again, not helpful.
Plus, great d-linemen are coveted like no other position save QB, perhaps moreso. That makes it that much more difficult to recruit the great ones.
Not sure about Brown, but it sounds like Hand likes the prospect of playing for National Championships. Tough to argue with a guy wanting to get the national exposure like that.
It is the system. Bud Foster's defense requires a completely different set of fundamentals than the defensive line principles of a standard NFL 4-3 or 3-4. It is difficult to conceptualize, but guys who play defensive line and linebacker in the Virginia Tech defense are like quarterbacks that play in Urban Meyer's spread or Paul Johnson's flexbone. Players that worked in Bud's system don't always fit nicely into an NFL defense. The wide-tackle six front allowed Corey Moore to play wide and use his speed off the edge because you had defensive tackles and linebackers who could fit the gap to his inside. In the NFL, he would have needed to have responsibility for his gap on the inside, and at 220 pounds, he would have been dominated. The Hokies defensive tackles have been fireplug types who tended to be shorter and well suited for slanting and stunting and then getting underneath the blocker for leverage to fit their gap. The NFL wants defensive tackles who are either massive and can cover TWO gaps, or long athletic guys who can shoot gaps north-south. VT's defensive tackles don't make it in the NFL, and if a defensive end has success (Worilds and Tapp) they are usually moved back to a 3-4 outside linebacker and the transition is slow.
You see the same thing with VT's mike and backer positions. Both have straight ahead gap responsibility, where in the NFL 4-3 middle backers scrape sideline to sideline, and 3-4 inside backers can stack to avoid taking on blocks. Other than James Anderson, there has not been a single Hokie linebacker since Bud started coaching that has had a long productive NFL career as a starter. Great players like Adibi, Hall, and others have either been borderline back up guys or never even got a shot.
Right now, the Hokies front seven only has two guys starting in the NFL- Anderson as an inside linebacker and Worilds as a left outside linebacker in a 3-4. The LOLB lines up outside of the right tackle, which is the same alignment as Worilds was used at stud end at VT (so Pittsburgh found a way to get him where he is comfortable.) If you don't think every coach that recruits against VT uses this information against them, you are nuts. Without any direct knowledge, Hand and Brown went elsewhere because they know they have NFL talent and they want to be NFL-ready. If Nnadi goes to FSU, I'd bet that he would pick FSU for the same reason.
Ellis, Tapp, Derrick Hopkins, Worilds, Corey Moore, I especially liked John Graves and Nekos Brown too.
Worilds was a good one. Forgot about him. One of my favorites.
I always thought that him leaving early really hurt that D. Would have put them over the top that year, in my opinion.
Would have really boosted his draft stock as well. Could have been a starter in the NFL a lot sooner I think if he stayed another year
Jim Davis....FG blocking machine! And Jonathan Lewis, went to high school with him so had to give him some love
Not to mention I think he batted two passes in that last Miami game at the OB.
1.Corey Moore
2.Darryl Tapp
3.Jason Worilds
4. Derrick Hopkins
Any others before I give these guys a deep dive?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Tapp the reason Bud doesn't give the lunch pail to individual players anymore. Tapp won that thing for at least a year straight. One of my Hokie shirts still has a faint sharpie outline of the number 55 with "Lunchpail" written above it.