Ranking 25 Most Dominant Defenders Heading into the 2016 College Football Season

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dduncan4163

dduncan4163

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#1
Ranking 25 Most Dominant Defenders Heading into the 2016 College Football Season | Bleacher Report

8. Derek Barnett, Tennessee

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Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports



Derek Barnett often doesn't get the credit he deserves.
Only three players reached at least 10 sacks in both 2014 and 2015: Garrett, top 2016 second-round draft pick Emmanuel Ogbah and the Tennessee edge-rusher.
After two seasons in Knoxville, Barnett has accumulated 141 tackles with 33 for loss and 20 sacks, tallying 15 hurries (CFBstats).
Barnett needs a faster start to 2016 than he managed last season, but the junior will be a touted player in next year's draft.


He should be in the top 5 imo plus I would have put Sutton on the list as well.
 
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#4
#4
dduncan4163 said:
Barnett is set to explode this year and under Shoop I won't be shocked at all if he breaks Reggie White's sack record.
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I honestly don't know if he will. Not because he's not good enough, but because he doesn't play enough vs inferior competition. Butch and Jancek pretty much kept him on the bench against teams they know we can manhandle without him, which IMO is smart, there's no reason to run up the mileage on your best defensive lineman against a team you don't need him against. I can't imagine that changes even with Shoop's aggressiveness.

But also, Barnett will never get the global acclaim that a Garrett gets because he's not the height/weight/speed type of guy the media loves. Even if he does hit 13 sacks this year to break Reggie's record, he'll still be overshadowed by Garrett by media pundits.

He's going to be the next Justin Smith. A guy who was picked very high(4th overall), and spent his career doing nothing but playing great football, but only started getting media recognition for it(scouts and coaches in college/NFL certainly gave him the respect he deserved) nearly 10 years in to his career, and even then still didn't get nearly what he deserved.

I think another quality he shares with Smith is he doesn't care if he's talked about or not. He doesn't run his mouth, he lets his play do the talking, and he shows up every game day and on every down of the game.

We're lucky we can call Barnett a Vol. I'm going to be selfish and say I hope this isn't the last season we see him in orange and white, but I know it will be, and he deserves to go get paid.
 
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#5
#5
I know a lot has been said about the slow start in 2015, but if I remember correctly, he was recovering from a knee injury suffered late in 2014. Maybe that was why he was late getting going like everyone expected him to.
 
#6
#6
bigorangepoppa said:
I know a lot has been said about the slow start in 2015, but if I remember correctly, he was recovering from a knee injury suffered late in 2014. Maybe that was why he was late getting going like everyone expected him to.
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Didn't he get hurt in the vandy game and require surgery?
 
#7
#7
bigorangepoppa said:
I know a lot has been said about the slow start in 2015, but if I remember correctly, he was recovering from a knee injury suffered late in 2014. Maybe that was why he was late getting going like everyone expected him to.
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I think when Maggitt went down in the OU game, it was tough on Barnett trying to handle the double teams. Once Vereen started to come on later in the season, it really helped out Barnett
 
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#11
#11
how maybin isnt even an honorable mention ont he list blows my mind. IMO him and barnett are both deserving with sutton honorable mention.
 
#12
#12
dduncan4163 said:
Yup he was practically bear hugged aganst Bama and Oklahoma and it wasn't called once.
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It was down right ridiculous at times I'm not a referee but if I can see it on tv with everything else going on in the game surely the official for lines could see some of them
 
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#16
#16
Two words.

Owen. Williams.

If you don't believe me go look up the games mr. Williams was in and healthy compared to the games he didn't play and was injured. When Owen was in we looked like NChampions. When Owen was out we looked like a dooley team. A lot of DB success was Owen.
 
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