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2026 James "JJ" Johnson 4* DT from Northwestern via Ft Myers Flips to Texas From UGA

dorsey1 said:
Until we are elite at DT we will not win like we need to-

This has been the truth for the last 20+ years-

We need to be elite on both sides.
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Elite at DT? I beg to differ. If we are simply sound, play with great fundamentals, and communicate well we will be a top 25 defense easily b/c the talent we have on defense especially now is top 15 overall defensive talent.
 
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Brooklyndee said:
Brother you know the game far too well for me to have this conversation with you. I wouldn't necessarily disagree about the mike being probably the most important position on d. But a mike will never reach his potential without good dt play. Why I said if it's about recruiting I'd agree is because the most important differentiating factors of a defensive lineman come from the development of that defensive lineman not the differences they carry physically more often than not. It's about what their coaches teaching them for techniques for hand placement for footwork for hip movement for punch for upper body development for lower body development etc etc etc how their employed in the system are they three techniques are they five techniques are they one techniques are they strictly for the purpose of holding a blockers so safety's linebackers edges can make differences or are they disruptors on said defense. No position on defense has so many variants in the total defense that hinge on it like DT in my opinion. I say Mike might be the most important simply because he is more often than not the captain of the defense he's the one that makes your communication is on point He's the one that make sure you're reading a play correctly that everybody's lined up properly etc so from front for the mid three to back four assuming whatever defense You are running that Mike is responsible for that. But a DT is responsible for actual play once the ball is snapped If you don't have good DT play you're in a tough spot.
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@Brooklyndee no trying to contest anything you wrote. I definitely agree with you that DT is the most important position on the defense. But it seems like you believe development is more important than raw talent. That feels wrong to me. When I see a Sapp, Wilfork, Maryland, Brown — even guys like Willis or Bailey — I see more raw talent than development. Now guys like Taylor and Forston obviously never developed it, but they had crazy talent, too.

Anyway, my gut tells me we need better talent and just keep stacking until Lewis and Taylor find their guys. I don’t think the development is as important. Is that naive?
 
CT Cane 44 said:
Kennedy and Bacon are both terrific DTs. We need two more. I agree that DT recruiting has been brutal. We have 5 DTs going into the season one is a true freshman one is a redshirt freshman. We have to play ND FSU Florida and others this year. That has got to change.
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If we suffer any injuries at DT this year, that position may end up like DB last year but this time the portal won't save us. This just isn't sustainable by any stretch of the imagination. We need to pick up our recruiting of interior lineman on defense.
 
canefan96 said:
Yep, getting tired of having 20 OL but we ignore DL, Safety and LB.
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Mario has landed 12 top 247 DL since he’s been here with 3 of those being 5* + Bain. A few of those guys were just bad evals (guys like Wayne and Moss). 2 cycles ago we landed 3 inside the top 40 (+ Jones and Pickett) then added another 5* last cycle in Lowe. I get people are upset we lost this recruitment, but the “we don’t recruit the DL” narrative is false.
 
If DT is as important as you all keep swearing it is...

Then that means whenever we play a team with better DT's than us, we should lose right?

And it should also mean we should win whenever we play a team that we have a better DT's than them, right?
 
JennStrawley’sBabyDaddy said:
Mario has landed 12 top 247 DL since he’s been here with 3 of those being 5* + Bain. A few of those guys were just bad evals (guys like Wayne and Moss). 2 cycles ago we landed 3 inside the top 40 (+ Jones and Pickett) then added another 5* last cycle in Lowe. I get people are upset we lost this recruitment, but the “we don’t recruit the DL” narrative is false.
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I don’t think you can liump all DL together. We have good DEs. But the gap is DT. … If we have the best OTs in the nation but our interior OL is meh, we have a OL problem overall. Same thing on the other side.
 
Memnon said:
If DT is as important as you all keep swearing it is...

Then that means whenever we play a team with better DT's than us, we should lose right?

And it should also mean we should win whenever we play a team that we have a better DT's than them, right?
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All 22 plus the kicker, punter and long snapper are important. But I think the marginal impact on a W is greater when you have a bad to olay DTs than any other position on the D. I can’t prove that but 50 years of being a football fan says it’s the most important position on D.
 
grover said:
I don’t think you can liump all DL together. We have good DEs. But the gap is DT. … If we have the best OTs in the nation but our interior OL is meh, we have a OL problem overall. Same thing on the other side.
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I hear you. It would be nice to land 2 blue chip interior guys every cycle. We need Scott and Jones to pan out while adding a couple more this cycle.
 
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JennStrawley’sBabyDaddy said:
Mario has landed 12 top 247 DL since he’s been here with 3 of those being 5* + Bain. A few of those guys were just bad evals (guys like Wayne and Moss). 2 cycles ago we landed 3 inside the top 40 (+ Jones and Pickett) then added another 5* last cycle in Lowe. I get people are upset we lost this recruitment, but the “we don’t recruit the DL” narrative is false.
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The more recent blue chippers that are still around need to step up, especially guys like Scott and Blount. Now’s their time.
 
dorsey1 said:
Until we are elite at DT we will not win like we need to-

This has been the truth for the last 20+ years-

We need to be elite on both sides.
Click to expand...

Every great Miami team has had dominant defensive tackles. The formula hasn't changed
 
grover said:
All 22 plus the kicker, punter and long snapper are important. But I think the marginal impact on a W is greater when you have a bad to olay DTs than any other position on the D. I can’t prove that but 50 years of being a football fan says it’s the most important position on D.
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It's not.

People just have convinced themselves that it is.

There's a reason why there are less DT's in the HOF than any other position in Football.

The team with the best DT's did not win the National championship last year, but according to yall, that's not supposed to happen.
 
Memnon said:
It's not.

People just have convinced themselves that it is.

There's a reason why there are less DT's in the HOF than any other position in Football.

The team with the best DT's did not win the National championship last year, but according to yall, that's not supposed to happen.
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The team that won the NC also didn’t have the best QB. That doesn’t mean QB on O and DT on D aren’t the most important spots.
 
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grover said:
The team that won the NC also didn’t have the best QB. That doesn’t mean QB on O and DT on D aren’t the most important spots.
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They aren't.

It shows that both positions are overvalued.

What wins Championships are a collection of A+ talent, just having a bunch of DT's will not win you anything, just like having only a good QB will not win you anything.

TAMU & Penn ST have had better DL's than anybody for the greater part of the last 4 years & it has amounted to one playoff victory between the two.

If DT is the most important position on Defense, then all the predictions you guys have about our Defense & the overall W/L record needs to be changed...

According to yalls logic, we do not have playoff caliber DT's. So any of yall predicting us to win the ACC & make the playoffs, I'd love to hear an explanation as to why? If DT is really that important...
 
Memnon said:
They aren't.

It shows that both positions are overvalued.

What wins Championships are a collection of A+ talent, just having a bunch of DT's will not win you anything, just like having only a good QB will not win you anything.

TAMU & Penn ST have had better DL's than anybody for the greater part of the last 4 years & it has amounted to one playoff victory between the two.

If DT is the most important position on Defense, then all the predictions you guys have about our Defense & the overall W/L record needs to be changed...

According to yalls logic, we do not have playoff caliber DT's. So any of yall predicting us to win the ACC & make the playoffs, I'd love to hear an explanation as to why? If DT is really that important...
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I just wrote that all 22 spots are important. I lived through the last 20+ years where we had some amazing talent at one spot but no or minimal depth at another. You don’t need to convince me or lecture me. But from a marginal impact on Ws, what position is more important in your opinion? In mine it’s QB and DT.
 
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