Tom Dienhart: Here’s how I rank Big Ten defensive lines (Gophers #10)

[BleedGopher]

Dienhart: Here’s how I rank Big Ten defensive lines

"10. Minnesota. This group begins and ends with senior tackle Ra’Shede Hageman, a monster of a man and future first-round draft choice who almost turned pro. Junior Cameron Botticelli, a former walk-on, will figure in on the interior. Aside from Hageman, size is an issue inside. The search is on for a pass rusher with D.L. Wilhite gone; he was one of the Big Ten’s best. Sophomore Theiren Cockran may be a playmaker. Junior Michael Amaefula looks to start opposite Cockran."

http://btn.com/2013/05/31/dienhart-heres-how-i-rank-big-ten-defensive-lines/?cmp=user+shared+twitter

Go Gophers!!

 

[Section2]

Absolutely awful. Just based on his own write up we should be 6th. He basically says Iowa has no one and we have a 1st rounder and we are below them? Nebraska has no one but JC transfers and they are ahead of us? Terrible terrible terrible ranking.

 

[proudgopher]

Dienhart is way off base with this projection. The Gopher DL line needs to tack this on the wall for motivational purposes. The Gophers are going to be way better than Dienhart foresees.

 

[jaymil]

I don't know, we were pretty bad against the run last year and that starts up front. We did lose our best outside pass rusher as well. 10th is probably a little low but there are definitely concerns.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I don't know, we were pretty bad against the run last year and that starts up front. We did lose our best outside pass rusher as well. 10th is probably a little low but there are definitely concerns.

Agree, outside of Shede we have a ton of question marks on the DL. If there is not a legit threat to go along with him teams will just focus on neutralizing him and continue to attack the D right up the middle. For Shede to really be dominant he is going to need others on the line to step up and pull some of the focus off of him.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

What's new? As far as the national media and the local media are concerned, the Gophers will always be terrible, and can never get better.

The only way the Gophers are ever going to earn any respect from the media is by going out and winning games - and winning convincingly. The Gophs need to go out and beat the bleep out of some non-conference opponents - don't take the foot off the gas - bury them. Then, they need to win some B1G games, including some trophy games and road games.

If they do that, then the Gophs "might" start to earn some respect from the media.

 

[harrys ghost]

Agree, outside of Shede we have a ton of question marks on the DL. If there is not a legit threat to go along with him teams will just focus on neutralizing him and continue to attack the D right up the middle. For Shede to really be dominant he is going to need others on the line to step up and pull some of the focus off of him.

Aside from Johnson's knee, what questions are there? We graduated one guy -- everyone else is back.

 

[Deleted_User]

Don't buy his junk analysis.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Aside from Johnson's knee, what questions are there? We graduated one guy -- everyone else is back.

We have bodies with some experience but outside of Hageman we have minimal proven talent returning along the D-Line. We have guys that could end up being very good players but in terms of what they have done to this point it is still up in the air. We lost our #1 sack guy and no one else outside of Shede had more then 2.5 for the season and if you toss out non-conf games none of them had over 2. Our run defense in the conference games last year was poor and we gave up nearly 200 yards a game on the ground. That is not all on the D-line but it starts up front.

Not saying the D-Line won't be improved or that some of these guys won't turn out to be very good players but going into the season outside of Shede there are very few proven commodities that have shown they can be a factor against Big Ten competition. We may all see potential in the guys we have coming back but there is little there that is going to cause someone ranking our team to give us a very high ranking at this point based on the players outside of the big guy in the middle.

 

[harrys ghost]

We have bodies with some experience but outside of Hageman we have minimal proven talent returning along the D-Line. We have guys that could end up being very good players but in terms of what they have done to this point it is still up in the air. We lost our #1 sack guy and no one else outside of Shede had more then 2.5 for the season and if you toss out non-conf games none of them had over 2. Our run defense in the conference games last year was poor and we gave up nearly 200 yards a game on the ground. That is not all on the D-line but it starts up front.

Not saying the D-Line won't be improved or that some of these guys won't turn out to be very good players but going into the season outside of Shede there are very few proven commodities that have shown they can be a factor against Big Ten competition. We may all see potential in the guys we have coming back but there is little there that is going to cause someone ranking our team to give us a very high ranking at this point based on the players outside of the big guy in the middle.

Wow, you could get a job writing this codswallop. I know it is out of fashion these days, but how about we look at some actual facts? In 2012 our defense ranked 8th in scoring defense, 5th in total defense, 8th in rushing defense and 4th in pass defense. We lose one starter on the DL (everyone else in the two deeps is back) and they are ranked 10th. Yeah, sure.

 

[harrys ghost]

Even more interesting to me is tOSU. They lose all four starters yet are ranked 1st. Last year their defense was 6th in scoring defense, 6th in total defense, 2nd in rushing defense and 11th in pass defense.

 

[Killjoy]

We have bodies with some experience but outside of Hageman we have minimal proven talent returning along the D-Line. We have guys that could end up being very good players but in terms of what they have done to this point it is still up in the air. We lost our #1 sack guy and no one else outside of Shede had more then 2.5 for the season and if you toss out non-conf games none of them had over 2. Our run defense in the conference games last year was poor and we gave up nearly 200 yards a game on the ground. That is not all on the D-line but it starts up front.

Not saying the D-Line won't be improved or that some of these guys won't turn out to be very good players but going into the season outside of Shede there are very few proven commodities that have shown they can be a factor against Big Ten competition. We may all see potential in the guys we have coming back but there is little there that is going to cause someone ranking our team to give us a very high ranking at this point based on the players outside of the big guy in the middle.

It is not like we don't no anything about Michael Amaefula, Ben Perry, Theiren Cockran, Alex Keith, Ra'Shede Hageman, Roland Johnson, Cameron Botticelli, Scott Ekpe, Jordan Hinojosa, Yoshoub Timms. All most all of them have played and have definitely shown promise. Of coarse we don't know how much they will improve from last year but they will definitely be better this year. That's the great beauty of this team. It is young and another of maturity bodes well for us.

 

[die hard gopher]

interesting that he had O-line 9th but D-line tenth when our D-line is superior or at least a good amount better, and probable our best unit, i wonder what he would rank our linebackers and wideouts, dead last with this guy, i say our D-line and running backs our upper half of the big ten, linebackers and wide outs and maybe QBs our bottom tier and secondary and O-line is somewhere in the middle of the B1G

 

[Sparlimb]

What's new? As far as the national media and the local media are concerned, the Gophers will always be terrible, and can never get better.

The only way the Gophers are ever going to earn any respect from the media is by going out and winning games - and winning convincingly. The Gophs need to go out and beat the bleep out of some non-conference opponents - don't take the foot off the gas - bury them. Then, they need to win some B1G games, including some trophy games and road games.

If they do that, then the Gophs "might" start to earn some respect from the media.

And I'd add, who cares what the hell the media says. Dienhart's analysis doesn't make us any better or worse than we are. We're either good enough to hold our own on the DLine and he's wrong or we'll continue to get dominated up the middle and he's right. Hageman needs to have a monster year for us and live up to the potential to be a first round pick. That alone will help us with recruiting...