Next up, the last of the guys lining up within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage: linebackers. While BYU fans are probably quite excited about their group of LBs, BYU is going to see three of the best linebacking groups in the country lining up on the other side of the ball from them this season. Here it is, according to Mo:
1. Texas
2. TCU
3. Utah
4. Oregon State
5. Ole Miss
6. Hawaii
7. Idaho
8. Utah State
9. UCF
10. San Jose State
11. New Mexico State
It's pretty much flip a coin with Texas and TCU. I'll give Texas the benefit of the doubt because they play with three LBs to TCU's two. K, not really the reason. I'm giving Keenan Robinson and Emmanuel Acho the leg up. Tanner Brock and Tank Carder are amazing LBs too, obviously, but maybe not quite as aggressive behind the line of scrimmage as Robinson and Acho. But, like I said, it's really a toss-up. Texas adds in Sophomore Jordan Hicks, who was a blue-chip, 5-star recruit, and the #1 LB out of HS last season, who has a year of experience under his belt now after playing significant minutes last season. He started to emerge at the end of last season.
Utah has two experienced seniors in Chaz Walker and Matt Martinez. Add in converted SS Brian Blechen and you have what I believe is one of the top 20 LB-ing groups in college football this season, yes even ahead of a lot of the SEC programs. They combined for 271 tackles, 5 sacks, 14 tackles for loss, and 7 INTs last season. And Blechen did his damage 10 yards off the line of scrimmage. Imagine what he can do with that distance cut in half!
Speaking of SEC programs that Utah exceeds, Ole Miss is at 5, with Oregon State at 4. Ole Miss has a bit more size and athleticism. Oregon State has a lot more experience. Neither schools have a whole lot of depth, especially with Ole Miss losing their best LB (DT Shackelford) to an ACL injury in the spring. True freshman CJ Johnson could be a good one for Ole Miss, BYU will find out very early how active of a middle LB he is. But in the end, I'll take the team with the 20-22 year olds, over the one with the 18-19 year olds. Oregon State 2-deep goes one senior (Cameron Collins), two fourth-year juniors (Tony Wilson and Shiloah Te'o-BYU fans should recognize the name, he was a big "get" for BYU before transferring to Oregon State two years ago), one junior (Rueben Robinson), one third-year sophomore (Michael Doctor), and one redshirt freshman (Shaydon Akuna).
Hawaii has some full-grown men out there at LB. If you've never seen these guys play, you are in for a treat in December. Corey Paredes is an absolute animal. One game I saw last season in the second quarter I think he was in on every tackle but one. They didn't run or throw near him at all in the second half: that is a game-changing LB!
Idaho throws 50 career starts out there, including combining for 245 tackles last season, but my initial impression from the game I watched was that they weren't so good in coverage (granted, it was against Boise State when I watched them, so that may be unfair to judge solely on that: nobody could cover Boise State last season). Utah State is a very experienced group, and Head Coach Gary Andersen can coach them up. His LBs in his 5 years as DC at Utah were phenomenal. Bobby Wagner is one tackle away from #300 for his career, I'm guessing he has that two plays into the season. UCF has a lot of potential at LB in terms of athleticism, but if they don't know where they need to be, it doesn't matter. On one side, they are playing a Florida basketball transfer who hasn't played in a football game in 7 years and on the other side they are playing either a JC transfer or a 5'9" 200-lbs RB. Senior Josh Linam holds down the middle, and looked pretty solid last season in the few games that I saw. He may be pretty isolated out there this season though...
Then we have the other two teams, which continue to be at the bottom of the position rankings (and with good reason): San Jose State and New Mexico State. San Jose State returns all three guys, including WAC Freshman of the Year Keith Smith, who led the team in tackles (116) and tackles for loss (14), and was second in sacks (4). New Mexico State returns 2 of 3, including return missionary BJ Adolpho who made the All-WAC team for the Aggies. But there's a reason these guys weren't highly recruited and ended up at the schools they did.
BYU would slide in between Utah and Oregon State on the list. They combine experience (Jordan Pendleton, Jameson Frazier, Aveni Leung-Wai, and Brandon Ogletree) with "young" talent (Uona Kaveinga, Austen Jorgensen, Iona Pritchard, Spencer Hadley, and Kyle Van Noy). If it seems like I named a lot of people, I did. BYU has a very deep LB group. I hope BYU scores a lot of points so some of these guys can get time on the field in kickoff coverage, because there aren't enough plays for all of them to get what they should.
I heard that Zac Stout will be red-shirting, so I didn't list him, but he came on quite a bit at the end of the year last season. Though nobody came on stronger at LB than Kyle Van Noy, unless you count Jameson Frazier who really emerged out of nowhere after Pendleton got hurt. If Kaveinga is as big of a man on the field as his coaches say he is, maybe BYU has a better group than Utah. 6 guys have started before, 8 guys could start now, and 9 guys should spend a lot of time on the field. Good thing BYU runs a 3-4.
I think we will even see a lot more of the 2-5-4 defense from BYU this season in passing situations. It was very effective last season, albeit a little predictable where the rush was coming from (Kyle Van Noy!). Anyway, it's a great group: very deep, quite big, and mostly fast. I still give the edge to Utah, but there is a pretty clear breakout of the groups of LBs we're looking at: the greats Texas and TCU, the really goods Utah and BYU, the learning curves Oregon State and Ole Miss, the solids Hawaii and Idaho, the not bads Utah State and UCF, and the total rummies SJSU and NMSU.
There is certainly a pattern with Texas, TCU, and Utah: very good front 7s on Defense. BYU's O-Line better be as good as advertised, or else BYU won't be able to run effectively or protect Heaps in those games! If you remember (and if not, the link is at the bottom), I have them as my #2 OL of these 12 teams, and probably in the top 10 groups in the country: no joke. After Texas and Utah, we'll see if I'm right or terribly, terribly wrong.
Link to O-Line: http://mo-knows-sports.blogspot.com/2011/07/byus-2011-football-opponents-o-line.html
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