247 Article - LBU: Who's currently producing the best linebackers?
Quick article, Michigan comes in tied for #5 with Clemson. Some really good company.
247 poster "schwabby" has a great comment, noting that Khaleke Hudson is included in the article but Jabril Peppers is not. Both played the same position and Peppers won Linebacker of the Year in 2016 (as well as Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year). If he were included - 1st round draft pick and All-American - Michigan would be higher up the list.
No Penn State, not even honorable mention.
YES!!!! WE HAVE THE 5TH BEST LINEBACKERS IN AMERICA!!! FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!
Higher, if you include Jabril Peppers, which really you should.
Co-B1G East linebacking champions!!!
Penn State isn't mentioned probably because they currently are not producing a ton of high quality linebackers. They've got Parsons right now, but they haven't exactly been tearing it up at the position over the past few years. Cam Brown going in the 6th round this year was their first drafted LB since they had Gerald Hodges and Michael Mauti go in the 4th and 7th round, respectively, back in 2013.
Interesting detail, thanks. Didn't realize that, been a while for them. With Micah Parsons this year everyone will be hollering about them being Linebacker U even though that hasn't been true for quite a while.
The article mentions this is just the last 5 NFL drafts. Peppers probably isn't included in this article because he was drafted as a safety. But still debatable given he was an AA at linebacker and won B1G linebacker of the year. This is likely an ongoing series (offseason filler), so he should show up in the safety category and I'd expect Michigan would show out there pretty well also.
How is peppers not included? he won the best LB of the big ten in 2016. Also seems like UG has had a lot of good LB's lately.
Luke Fickell is a huge reason Ohio State is so high, he coached and/or recruited most of those mentioned players.
Hopefully they’ll see a dip once the recruiting effects of Bill Davis is seen, whom Ryan Day fired in favor of Al Washington.
Bill Davis was a pretty good recruiter, just a bad coach. He landed two top 50 overall kids in Baron Browning in 2017 (5 star, 11th overall) and Terajda Mitchell in 2018 (4 star, 44th), along with additional 2018 LBs Dallas Gant (166th) and K'Vaughn Pope (217th), and Pete Werner in 2017 (277th).
The scheme, technique and development issues with Davis outweighed his ability to secure talent. I feel bad for a guy like Baron Browning, who still fills the wrong gaps and plays out of position.
I remember when people thought Browning was coming to UM. I guess it's nice to see that OSU wastes talent too.
OSU's recent linebacking history is weird. All its best players at the position have been underranked converted athletes. Guys like Malik Harrison and Darron Lee who were high school quarterbacks. Jerome Baker was a big time recruit, but as an athlete, not a LB. Chris Worley was an outside-the-top-400 athlete. The big name five star true LBs like Curtis Grant and Baron Browning have really underperformed. Even Raekwon McMillan was never the best LB OSU had on the field at any given time, that was always Lee, Baker or Worley.
Browning's problem (I hope) was that he was a square peg being pounded into a round hole at Mike, and that's mostly Bill Davis's doing. If there's a 2020 season, he's been moved outside (not sure which spot), which should let him be the monster he's capable of being.
Yeah I’m wondering how this relates to these guys and their rankings coming out of high school. Is this a matter of good coaching or just landing the most talented guys? There has got to be someone bored enough to look up the rankings of all the guys mentioned in the article....
Jabril Motherfucking Peppers?
Thought his middle name was Ahmad.
No, it’s habanero.
Now that's a spicy hot take.
This fall Penn State will field what may be the best LB unit in the country featuring two former 5 Stars who were both rated as the #1 LBs coming out of high school - Michah Parsons and Brandon Smith. The 3rd starter will be one of the following, or a combination of, three 4-Star LBs: Ellis Brooks, a redshirt junior, Lance Dixon a RS Freshman out of West Bloomfield, or Jesse Luketa.
Right. That's nice. Meanwhile they've had one drafted (a 6th rounder) in the last 6 years, per the poster above.
Michigan has had 1st rounders Devin Bush, Jabril Peppers, and multiple other picks. They had a walk on who didn't even start his senior year get drafted as high as PSU's best guy since 2013. And they may have another first round talent in Can Mcgrone.
One team "will field". The other has fielded.
We've got some nice player coming up too: McGrone, Ross, Charles Thomas, Mullings, and Morant (depending one where he ends up)
"This is bullshit, I want bush. Pan down.
We've got Bush."
Was Ogre a Linebacker? He was on 1st and 10 (HBO series)