Gopher Football
– Terrance Campbell
Barely over 200 lbs, junior Terrance Campbell leads a still young group of Minnesota linebackers. Campbell is coming off a solid (but not spectacular) sophomore year. He was third on the team in tackles with 87, and led all non-linemen in tackles for loss with 9. He also threw in 4 sacks, 1 int, and 1 forced fumble. Given that Campbell is so light, his strengths in stopping the run is somewhat surprising at first glance. But when you watch him play, nothing in the way he hits or tackles suggests that he is about 25 pounds undersized. He is aggressive, he attacks, and he’s not afraid of contact.
When he signed out of high school, Terrance was only a skinny 185 pounds. You might think it’s unusual for a major college football team to sign a guy that small, but now, over three years later, it’s easier to see what was going on. After the 2000 season (one in which Minnesota’s defense had unexpectedly performed poorly) Mason seemed to have changed his strategy, going for speed rather than size on the defensive side of the ball. Linebackers moved to the defensive line & safeties moved linebacker. Players like Darrel Reid were put on the defensive line, and guys like Terrance Campbell were put at LB. Even today Terrance is still undersized, but at least he is fast. This was one of the first moves in Minnesota’s attempt to put more speed on defense. Slowly but surely, Mason has replaced LB’s like Sean Hoffman, Ben Mezera and Justin Hall with guys like Terrance Campbell, Kyle McKenzie and John Shevlin. Campbell has reportedly had trouble bulking up, but at this point it really doesn’t matter as much. He is already a solid D-1 linebacker playing at 200 pounds, so any strength he puts on from here on out is bonus as long as it doesn’t affect his speed. They say the biggest improvement in players comes between their sophomore and junior seasons, so if that is the case with Terrance we should be in great shape.
– Kyle McKenzie
A second junior returning as a starting LB for Minnesota is Kyle McKenzie. The 6’1″ 230 lbs Detroit native is being moved from Drop to SAM linebacker this season. McKenzie started getting more playing time late in the 2002 season and then started in 2003. Kyle didn’t have exceptional year in 2003, but he wasn’t horrible either. For the season he was fifth on the team in tackles with 61, with 5.5 of those for loss. Ideally McKenzie will take a big step forward this season, and he certainly has the potential to do so. He has the speed to cover the entire field and the size to shed blocks and make tackles. With Terrance Campbell being a little undersized and Mario Reese being asked to defend the pass Kyle will be the guy that will need to disrupt the opponents running games. If he can step it up and have a good year that will go a long way to improving the Gophers defense.
– Mario Reese
Mario Reese is perhaps the most intriguing player the Gophers will use at LB this year. In limited action last year Mario had 16 tackles and 1 pass breakup. He didn’t play a lot early in the year, but started to see more time as the season went on. This fall he is expected to be the new starter at LB to replace the departing Ben West. Reese has good size for a LB at 6’3″ 225 lbs, but more importantly he has great athletic ability. This athleticism will be a very welcome addition to a group of linebackers who often had problems defending underneath passes last year. Besides seeing time at linebacker, Reese is also expected to see some action at defensive end during pass rush situations. This experiment was tried a little bit late last season, and Mario definitely showed a lot of potential in that role; at least compared to what the rest of the Gopher pass rushers could consistently muster. Overall, he certainly has the potential to be among the biggest playmakers on defense.
– Depth
The depth at LB for the Gophers should be very good. In fact, outside of running back this might be the one position on the field where Minnesota could afford an injury or two and not lose very much with the second stringer. Leading the reserves is senior Dominique Sims. We all know the story of Dominique so I won’t get into that, but what we do need to know is that this is his last chance to make an impact with the Gophers, and hopefully he is finally in a position to do so. He has been at LB for a while now and should have the knowledge needed to play the position. He’s bulked up to 230 so he should have the size to be effective. But does he have the skills? That’s the big question that awaits us for this fall. During spring practice Mason hinted that Sims would definitely be a contributor this season. I hope he’s right both for the Gophers sake, and for Dominique’s sake. It would be great to see him to make an impact before he graduates. Next on the depth chart is speedy redshirt freshman John Shevlin. Before last year Mason hinted there was a linebacker who could be playing as a true freshman, but instead he asked to be redshirted. All indications are John was the guy Mase was talking about. Shevlin has bulked up to 220 pounds (so far) and should see some minutes this year. His addition to the LB’s, along with McKenzie & Campbell, could give the Gophers their fastest group of linebackers ever. Rounding out the second string is JUCO senior Brian Smith. Smith played last year for Ben West when he was injured and did a decent job. Smith will also likely see some time this year and gives the Gophers a good backup presence in the middle. Brandon Owens has been rumored to have been moved to LB. If that is the case he will add even more depth to this unit. The Gophers landed their biggest LB recruit in some time when they signed Georgia native Leland Jones. Due to the depth he may find it hard to find the field this year, but Mason does have a history of using true freshman if he feels they can contribute.
Around the Big Ten . . .
Iowa may have not only the best LB corps in the Big Ten this year, but maybe even the nation. Oh yeah, and maybe not just this year, but next year as well. The Hawkeyes return two really good juniors in Abdul Hodge and Chad Greenway. Both of them were All-Big Ten players last year and are the stars of this unit. Another great junior linebacker in the Big Ten is Ohio State Buckeye AJ Hawk. He was first team All Big Ten last year and will likely compete with Hodge as the best LB in the conference. The fourth returning All-Big Ten player is Michigan senior Pierre Woods. Woods and fellow Wolverine Larry Reid give Michigan a pair of solid linebackers. Some new faces to keep an eye on are Michigan’s Prescott Burgess, Iowa’s George Lewis, and two outstanding transfers for Ohio State, Anthony Schlegel (Air Force) and John Kerr (Indiana).
Last Year . . .
Overall I would give last year’s linebackers a rating of ‘slightly disappointing’. Good strides were made against the run. Both Campbell & McKenzie are solid in this regard, and that’s about all Ben West was physically able to do. It turns out that West played a good chunk of the year injured. At some point during the season he tore a ligament in his knee and was unable to run side to side without it severely affecting him. Being a veteran, Ben was able to make up for that (to a point) because he was such a smart player, but still, how much can you do on a torn ligament? The defense tried to adjust by taking him out during passing situations but that didn’t always work out. The linebackers as a whole (along with the rest of the defense) really struggled at time against the pass; especially with the underneath stuff. Minnesota was so afraid of getting burned deep against Michigan they left the flats wide open. It would’ve certainly helped if some linebackers were quick enough to get out there, and we should start to see that this year.
Bottom Line . . .
This is the year for the Minnesota linebackers to shine. They have several positive things going for them that haven’t always been there:
1. Experience. Terrance Campbell and Kyle McKenzie both have been playing now for the better part of two years. Brian Smith & Dominique Sims are two reserves who have been around the block.
2. Depth. Besides the three starters, there are legitimately four or five other guys who could see some time this year and all have the potential to be decent. This should easily be the deepest position on defense.
3. Talent. Relatively speaking anyway, this should be the most talented group of linebackers Mason has had so far at Minnesota. The ’99 group played very well as a group and should be considered the benchmark for this group to try to equal or surpass.
All in all, this season will be a success for the linebackers if they can do a better job defending the underneath passes. I don’t think we’ll have to worry too much about the run defense from them seeing that they did a decent job last year and will have a better defensive line to help them this season. What really stung last year was the Michigan game in letting all of those underneath passes happen. More QB pressure from the DL will help, but the linebackers need to do a better job of covering all parts of the field. If they can do that, one of the major weaknesses from last year will have been taken care of.
Talk about the 2004 linebackers on our Gopher Football message board.