Spring Preview - Defensive Line

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My Goal? To get through this Spring Preview Series before spring practices finish. I shall get it done. Today, we begin previewing the defense with the deepest unit on the defensive side of the ball: the defensive line.

2011 Position Wrap-Up
The Bears continued their recent trend of strong defensive line play despite losing first-round draft pick Cameron Jordan the year prior. Though the defensive line was never outstanding, they were easily the most consistent and solid unit on the field.

Senior DEs Trevor Guyton and Ernest Owusu combined for a respectable 20.5 TFLs, and 10.5 sacks. While neither earned the type of praise that their predecessors in the aforementioned Jordan and Tyson Alualu did, they were by most accounts solid and reliable, and stalwarts for an impressive defense.

There was a bit of a rotation at the nose tackle position. Kendrick Payne began the season as the starter, though Aaron Tipoti earned more and more playing time throughout the season. Tipoti had some performances where he was flat out unblockable, and seemed to get better and better with each game.

Perhaps the most heartening surprise of the season was the emergence of solid depth at the line, possibly hinting at the future. True freshman Mustafa Jalil was a revelation at the position, earning significant playing time which is impressive for any freshman. Deandre Coleman also played quite a bit, and seemed to get more comfortable as the year went on.

2011 also saw the emergence of true freshman Villami Moala, though he failed to have the level impact that follows the notoriety of a 5 star prospect. Still, Moala gained valuable experience, despite playing behind two other upperclassmen at the nose tackle position, and also saw the field on special teams as well.


Spring Preview
The Bears will have to replace two senior starters on the defensive line, but may be poised to be even better and deeper at the position.

Sophomore Mustafa Jalil and junior Deandre Coleman are likely the next to step up, both offer an impressive level of skill and size. Coleman is an absolute load at 6'5, 311 pounds and as been praised by Tedford as possibly being "one of the best that we've ever had. He is playing great right now." That's high praise for a group that sent two NFL first-round defensive linemen in the past three years.

Jalil also checks in at 6'2, 302 pounds and shot up in the depth chart last year as a true freshman. Again, to provide context, none of the starting defensive linemen last year weighed more than 280 pounds. The is a big unit.

In an interesting move, Aaron Tipoti will make the move to defensive end. Where this places him along with Jalil and Coleman remains to be seen, but Tipoti was playing about as well as any d-lineman last year. DE is the more natural position for Tipoti due to his size at 6'2, 274 pounds, but it will be interesting to see if he can entrench himself as a starter.

On that note, it will be interesting to follow Kendrick Payne. Payne is nearly the same size at Tipoti, but has struggled to remain healthy and play at a consistently high level throughout a season. He provides the experience you want, but will have to fend off sophomore Villami Moala for the starting NT spot. Moala struggled last year to fight off double teams, but has the prototypical size you want in a nose tackle at 6'2 and a massive 347 pounds. The coaching staff will want Moala to continue to refine his body, but Moala appears ready to make a far greater impact than he did last year.

Again though, the most optimism surrounding this group isn't just the sheer talent and size with the starters, it's the ridiculous depth with the group.

Highly touted RS frosh Todd Barr will be one to watch. He doesn't have great size at DE, but has a lot of skill and plays with a high motor. RS sophomore Gabe King has hit the weight room hard and definitely passes the eye ball test at a staggering 6'5, 293 pounds. Puka Lopa and Keni Kaufusi round out the group the DE spot, but at this point we're talking about 3 or 4 deep group. Ridiculous.

This is a deep and talented group, consisting of all highly touted and hungry players. New defensive line coach Todd Howard has walked into about as optimal of a situation as he could have asked for in his first year. The cupboard is the opposite of bare, it's spilling over.

At this point Howard needs to breed a culture of competition and skill. Nearly all of the aforementioned players have the size and talent, but it will be on Howard to refine their skills to compete against the conference's best offensive line talent. And nothing hones a player's skill and drive better than coaching and competition.

As you can probably tell, this is a group that I'm most excited about. There are a number of questions surrounding the unit, but not a single person can tell me there isn't potential for this group to be flat out dominant.