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2020 Blazer D vs the 2000/2001 Steel Shield

What are some of the numbers you remember from that group that you guys wanna see this year that will make a comparison legit. I just remember them allowing well under 100 yd/g rushing...no matter the opponent, you were not going to win pounding the ball (or attempting to) at that DLine.


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The steel shield was better. CUSA was a much better league back then. Look at it this way. Garrett Marino was the unquestioned alpha dog of last years defense. He was an UDFA with Dallas and was cut early on.
The Steel Shield had:
1st round draft pick: DE Bryan Thomas
2nd round draft pick: DT Eddie Freeman
6th round Draft Pick: DE Otis Leverette
7th round Draft pick: CB Rodregis Brooks
All of those guys had multiple year NFL careers.
It also had multiple UDFA that made it into training camps, off the top of my head:
Rodney Jones
Adrian Abrams
Marlon Bush

(09-03-2020 08:41 AM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  The steel shield was better. CUSA was a much better league back then. Look at it this way. Garrett Marino was the unquestioned alpha dog of last years defense. He was an UDFA with Dallas and was cut early on.
The Steel Shield had:
1st round draft pick: DE Bryan Thomas
2nd round draft pick: DT Eddie Freeman
6th round Draft Pick: DE Otis Leverette
7th round Draft pick: CB Rodregis Brooks
All of those guys had multiple year NFL careers.
It also had multiple UDFA that made it into training camps, off the top of my head:
Rodney Jones
Adrian Abrams
Marlon Bush

Everything Matt just said. Also had Rod Taylor, IMO our best ever middle linebacker (sorry Zach and Marvin). Chris Brown at CB made probably the biggest interception in our history in Baton Rouge.

Lot of great players on D in that era. Our D is good now but the Shield was truly great. Competition was much tougher. Would have never seen a result like last year's CUSA title game from the 2000-2001 D.

(09-03-2020 08:50 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(09-03-2020 08:41 AM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  The steel shield was better. CUSA was a much better league back then. Look at it this way. Garrett Marino was the unquestioned alpha dog of last years defense. He was an UDFA with Dallas and was cut early on.
The Steel Shield had:
1st round draft pick: DE Bryan Thomas
2nd round draft pick: DT Eddie Freeman
6th round Draft Pick: DE Otis Leverette
7th round Draft pick: CB Rodregis Brooks
All of those guys had multiple year NFL careers.
It also had multiple UDFA that made it into training camps, off the top of my head:
Rodney Jones
Adrian Abrams
Marlon Bush

Everything Matt just said. Also had Rod Taylor, IMO our best ever middle linebacker (sorry Zach and Marvin). Chris Brown at CB made probably the biggest interception in our history in Baton Rouge.

Lot of great players on D in that era. Our D is good now but the Shield was truly great. Competition was much tougher. Would have never seen a result like last year's CUSA title game from the 2000-2001 D.

Was Carlos Hendricks on that team? He started for Tampa Bay for a while

Avery Singleton also played with the Bears if i remember right...as mentioned above, Chris Brown played in NFL too

Carlos Hendrix I think came a couple of years later, but in any case, the 99-2001 defenses were stacked.

Carlos was on 2001 roster I know, not sure on 2000

2001 rushing yards per game
Montana State. -1
Florida State. 135
Army 46
Southern Miss 78
UCF 38
Cincinnati 66
Tulane. 8
Memphis 94
TCU. 20
Houston. -6
Pitt. 76

The image in my head was of opposing O lines. They got stood up. Every. Play.

(09-03-2020 02:56 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  2001 rushing yards per game
Montana State. -1
Florida State. 135
Army 46
Southern Miss 78
UCF 38
Cincinnati 66
Tulane. 8
Memphis 94
TCU. 20
Houston. -6
Pitt. 76

Those teams had NFL RB's too

Florida St – Greg Jones
UCF – Alex Haynes
Cinci – Ray Jackson
Tulane - Mewelde Moore
Memphis – Dante Brown
Houston – Joffrey Reynolds
Pitt – Lousaka Polite, Torrie Cox

We had better players when we didn’t care about things like qualifying and character. Which is why we ended up on double secret academic probation and other bad press

I beg to differ, i think the talent we are getting now is on par or over what we got then. We jsut need the years to show it

(09-03-2020 05:20 PM)jaymay2525 Wrote:  I beg to differ, i think the talent we are getting now is on par or over what we got then. We jsut need the years to show it

reread the thread and pay attention to how may players got drafted. the rounds they were drafted in. and how many free agents played in the NFL.

Yes, but our kids are still on the team and the new recruits we are getting haven't graduated yet. I wasn't talking about year 1-3 of Clark era graduates

I agree that the Steel Shield was probably better (or at least played better competition) but offenses were also different 18 years ago. It’s going to be harder for any current defense to put up the same numbers as the defenses from a couple of decades past.

That’s a fact that many people simply want to overlook.