A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: DL

DL Depth Chart
LE	LT	RT	RE
Titus Brown Sr.	Cortez McCraney RJr.	Jessie Bowman Jr.	Avery Hannibal RSr.
Tim Bailey Jr.	Kyle Love So.	Quinton Wesley RSo.	Brandon Cooper RFr.
Charles Burns*** Jr.	Rodney Prince RFr.	LaMarcus Williams Fr.	Jimmie Holmes Jr.

***Charles Burns is out for the year after having shoulder surgery.


This is the biggest question mark not only of the defense but of the whole team. A starting DE, two starting DT and a reserve DT are all gone from last year's team. Titus Brown is the only returning starter but he is a great one. Brown had 38 tackles (14.5 for loss) and 7.5 sacks last year and was 2nd team All-SEC. He is a pass rush specialist and will anchor the line. Avery Hannibal will start at the other end after after being a reserve the last 3 seasons. With Brown on the other side, he won't have to be spectacular, just good enough to keep the other team from keying in on Brown. He hasn't played much but he has been around for a while so that should help. Depth at DE is paper thin, especially with Charles Burns being out for the year. To make matters worse, Brandon Cooper was carted off the field at practice yesterday. No word yet on what is wrong with him or how serious it is. That leaves Tim Bailey who was moved from LB to DE this year, and Jimmie Holmes who is another JUCO transfer. Basically if Brown goes down, we are screwed.

At DT, JUCO transfer Jessie Bowman has locked down one spot. He was a monster in Junior College so if that translates to the SEC we will be in good shape their. The other spot is a toss up between Kyle Love and Memphis transfer Cortez McCraney. McCraney was a DE at Memphis and was moved inside once he got to MSU, so he is a little undersized at 272. Kyle Love had 7 tackles as a reserve last year but he comes off as out of shape to me. Maybe I'm wrong though. Quinton Wesley was highly rated coming out of high school but hasn't done too much as of yet. Williams was also very highly rated but I doubt he will be ready yet.

My Rating: 6/10
The starting DEs are talented and should cause headaches. There is very little in the way of depth though so if either Brown or Hannibal goes down to injury, MSU will have problems. The DTs are inexperienced and haven't shown anything yet. I'm afraid this is going to cause run defense to be a major weakness. They might turn out to be great but they have to show me in a game. Until then I can't give them much credit.