Previously: Quarterback, Running Back, Receivers, Offensive Line, Defensive Line

Five down, two to go on this year's The Enemy, Ranked. We've covered both lines and all the skill position players on offense, which means it's time to hit linebacker before concluding later this week with secondary. For linebackers in this piece, we will mostly be looking at two starters for each team, MIKE and WILL, only including SAM in the table for teams that actually use a SAM consistently, while others may have a player occupying that job quickly shouted out in the write-up. 

 

12. East Carolina 

WLB	MLB	SLB
Mike Edwards III	Treylor Jackson	RaRa Dillworth
BJ Davis	TyQuan King	Kingston McKinstry

Funny enough, the first team we cover in today's piece is one of the few where I'm listing a SLB in the chart, due to ECU's 3-3-5 defense. Sometimes one of those LBs is an EDGE (which were covered last time), sometimes it's a standard LB, hence the inclusion of a third column above. Like so many other spots on ECU's team, the depth chart is decimated after a wave of attrition following the 2022 season. The plan to plug the gaping holes on the LB depth chart is a mix of internal promotion of seldom used pieces, up-transfers from the FCS, and one down-transfer from the P5, and that reality is why the Pirates are taking up the rear of this piece. 

At the starting level, I tentatively have two internal promotions holding off the two FCS transfers, but I don't think it's conclusive. Treylor Jackson is the one returner who has played more than 100 snaps and that was still only 146 last season as the #4 LB on the depth chart. Mike Edwards III has mostly been used on special teams through his first two seasons in Greenville, so this will be his first substantial go of things if he is to win a starting job. The players pushing them from behind were two excellent FCS LBs, BJ Davis from South Carolina State and TyQuan King from North Carolina A&T. They were very good players at a lower level of football... how do they translate upwards? That SAM spot is held down by the down-transferring and excellently named RaRa Dillworth, who was a disaster at UNC but hopefully can find his footing at ECU. He was a blue chip prospect in 2021, so there is some hope at least, but he is yet another shaky piece on a depth chart entirely composed of unknown commodities. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: an actually solid positional group!]

 

[Nevada Appeal via Air Force Athletics]

11. UNLV

LB	LB
Fred Thompkins	Jackson Woodard
Bam Amina	Marsel McDuffie

The Rebels are 11th on our list with a bit of a question mark hovering over them. Kyle Beaudry, one of last year's starters who figured to be an important piece of this positional group, is no longer listed on the team's roster and is also not listed on public depth chart sites like Ourlads. I googled his name and no information turned up either. Not sure what to make of that. In the mean time, the rest of the depth chart has two new starters, Fred Thompkins at WLB and Jackson Woodard at MLB. Thompkins is an ex-JUCO guy who played his way onto the field last year, only 276 snaps in total but solid results when he played. Woodard is an ex-walk on at Arkansas who didn't play much for the Hogs but is coming to Vegas to get playing time. The reserves are Marsel McDuffie, an internal piece who got passed by Thompkins last year, and Bam Amina, hoping over from Colorado State. Not a good situation by any means and it would be better if Beaudry were still around, but I still have them a notch above ECU because Thompkins has more experience at the current school than anyone on ECU's depth chart. 

 

[Patrick Barron]

10. Purdue

LB	LB
Clyde Washington	OC Brothers
Dom Moon	Yanni Karlaftis

Purdue is guaranteed to have one true ILB on the field this coming season and that will likely be OC Brothers. The good news is, he's a returning starter. The bad news is, he was really bad last season. The former Auburn transfer got a cyan on our B1G Championship Game FFFF diagram and was arguably the worst starting B1G linebacker last season. Beyond the spot Brothers occupies, Purdue will probably be using LB-shaped EDGE type players, some mentioned in the last piece and one in the above chart, Yanni Karlaftis, brother of George who has yet to make his own impact in West Lafayette. If Purdue puts a second true ILB on the field, it's probably Clyde Washington, who played 150 snaps last season and was nothing notable. When you are only guaranteed to have one ILB on the field and that one player was terrible last season, you take up the rear among P5 teams on Michigan's schedule and sink below BGSU's group. 

 

9. Bowling Green

LB	LB
Brock Horne	Darren Anders
Joseph Sipp Jr.	Davian Mayo

The BGSU Falcons take the top spot on our list among the non-conference opponents and jump ahead of Purdue, largely because they boast an All-MAC 'backer in Darren Anders that P5 teams wanted in the portal. A multi-year starter at Bowling Green, Anders is pillar of stability on the defense and opted to come back to northern Ohio rather than transfer in the offseason, a major win for Scot Loeffler's staff. Anders will likely be joined by Brock Horne, who was a 2021 starter before slipping back into a reserve role of sorts in '22. Horne should be more than capable of taking back over a starting job, even if he's never been a particularly special player for BGSU. After those two, Joseph Sipp Jr. is a 3* sophomore who barely dipped his toes into the water last season and will likely see a bit more exposure, while Davian Mayo transfers in from Memphis after three years with the Tigers. The presence of what amounts to basically two returning starters, one of whom is a stellar player, easily catapults BGSU ahead of the other non-con opponents on this list, as well as the dreadful situation in West Lafayette. 

 

8. Indiana

LB	LB
Aaron Casey	Jacob Mangum-Farrar
Matt Holt	Jared Casey

The other Indiana school is next on the list, which graduates the Dangerman of last year's defense, Cam Jones. The twist is, Jones was only the Dangerman for the first five games. I named him Dangerman going into the Michigan game, which was game #6, and little did I know that Jones had suffered a season-ending injury that would be revealed before game time on Saturday. So we got a bit of a glimpse of life without Jones, but that life included Dasan McCullough and Bradley Jennings, both of whom followed Jones out the door. That means the starting job falls on Jacob Mangum-Farrar, who has played roughly 300 snaps over the past two seasons with very poor PFF grades to go with it.

Mangum-Farrar slides in next to returning starter Aaron Casey, a player that I was not terribly enthused by but other folks very much were. I trust my scouting on that one, but Casey isn't godawful and if he can tackle better, IU will be in better shape on defense. The reserves here are Matt Holt and Jared Casey, who each have multiple years in the program but only some experience on the field. Nothing special there. The gap between the Hoosiers and the Falcons is not large, and I debated having BGSU ahead of Indiana, but I opted to keep IU narrowly ahead for strength of competition reasons. 

 

[247 Sports]

7. Minnesota 

LB	LB
Ryan Selig	Cody Lindenberg
Devin Williams	Lucas Finnessy

The Golden Gophers are losing All-B1G LB Mariano Sori-Marin, which is a substantial loss for this group but the succession plan isn't terrible. For one, they are bringing back Cody Lindenberg as one returning starter, a player who jumped into a starting role midway through the season and performed admirably in that capacity. That's a nice floor to start out with. Then they slide a transfer from (guess where?) Western Michigan (*GASP*) in next to Lindenberg, Ryan Selig. Selig is a beefy, old-school LB who PFF graded out well last season for the Broncos. Likely not going to be a star in the B1G, but you can do a lot worse than picking up a player like that to slide in a starting job. Rounding out the two-deep are a pair of upperclassmen who haven't seen the field much but have spent several seasons in Fleck's program waiting their turn, as is the case for the depth chart at nearly every position on Minnesota's team. A competent returning starter + a seemingly competent up-transfer starter is a clearly better situation than the previous three teams on the list, so Minnesota lands at #7 for us. 

 

6. Nebraska

LB	LB
Nick Henrich	Luke Reimer
Garrett Snodgrass	John Bullock

The first team on our list to have two true returning starters, Nebraska checks in at #6. Not just do they have two returning starters, but both are multi-year starters. Luke Reimer and Nick Henrich were the tag-team at ILB when the Wolverines made their last trip to Lincoln back in 2021 and are still around for the 2023 edition. At the time, I was a pretty big fan of Reimer, but a brutal 2022 has caused his stock to fall a considerable amount, though perhaps with better coaching he can re-find his form. Henrich was always the weaker of the two, but his 2022 campaign was cut short by injury, which is the reason why Ernest Hausmann was forced to start as a Tr Fr last season. So long as these two are healthy, I expect they will get most all of the snaps at the position in 2023 and will range from somewhere between iffy and solid. I'm a bit more optimistic on their chance of a rebound and the presence of two multi-year returning starters is enough reason to slot the Huskers in at #6, no matter how they have played at times in the past. 

 

the problem with MSU's LBs last year [Bryan Fuller]

5. Michigan State 

LB	LB
Jacoby Windmon	Cal Haladay
Ma'a Gaoteote	Jordan Hall

The top six teams on this list all have two returning starters at ILB, with Michigan State next up. The Spartans have a similar situation to the Huskers in that their MIKE is a player who was admirable in 2021, only to fall on hard times in 2022. For MSU, that player is Cal Haladay, the gritty and athletically limited old school MLB who was an out of nowhere breakout player in '21 before a disaster factory '22. The real Haladay probably falls somewhere in between, a decent LB but one who has a ceiling on his abilities due to limited athleticism.

The WLB last season ended up being Jacoby Windmon, though he was only at that position a couple games before being suspended for the remainder of the season after the Michigan post-game incident. Windmon was a prized transfer from UNLV who dazzled in the non-conference while playing true EDGE before eventually moving to ILB. I don't think he was well-suited for that role, but MSU didn't have a better option at the time and they don't really have one now either. Windmon can definitely blitz, but whether he can perform the functions of being a true ILB remains to be seen.

The only viable alternative is the nominal starter at SAM (not listed in the above chart), ex-safety Darius Snow, who missed almost the entirely of the 2022 season with injury. The plan last year was to use him as more of a HSP sort of piece, but he could theoretically slot in at LB. That's a more attractive option than either Jordan Hall (talented, but a Tr Fr) or Ma'a Gaoteote (spot usage over two seasons), both of whom are still probably a year or more away from being starter-caliber. I put MSU a nose ahead of Nebraska because the level of play demonstrated by Haladay and Windmon has been a small bit better than that of Reimer and Henrich, but it's pretty close and both have thin depth at the position. This ranking is not an endorsement of MSU's LB room, just that it's slightly better than Nebraska's. 

 

4. Maryland 

LB	LB
Ruben Hyppolite II	Jaishawn Barham
Caleb Whitehead	Fa'Najae Gotay

Last year's The Enemy, Ranked: LB never once mentioned the name Jaishawn Barham. At the time, he was an incoming true freshman, decorated in the recruiting rankings but ILB is historically a difficult position to play as a true freshman. Instead, Barham forced his way onto the field, leaping over several of Maryland's Bad LBs With Great Names and snagging a starting role right from the jump. At the time I FFFF'd the Terps (week four), I was commending Barham's ability to perform despite his age/circumstances and that held up over the rest of the season. Barham wasn't just good-for-a-true-freshman, he was legit good. Not sure if he was quite star status in totality, but he was one of PFF's highest graded LBs in the conference. Now as a true sophomore with a year under his belt, Barham is a safe bet to be All-B1G. 

Barham's existence as a Dude in the making is why Maryland leaps up to #4 because the rest of this depth chart is just as iffy as it's ever been. The Turtles are still planning to start the spectacularly named Ruben Hyppolite II at WLB, a starter in '21 who was bumped to rotational status in '22 and hasn't been remotely good at football at any point in that span. Fa'Najae Gotay missed nearly all of '21 but came back in '22 and was alright... he honestly may be the better option to start at WILL. Caleb Whitehead hasn't seen the field much and it's not like the SAM option Gereme Spraggins figures to be much better than any of these names. In other words, it's the usual Maryland mess at WILL, but thankfully that's only one spot and it's next to an impact starter, which is enough to wiggle past a couple teams at 5/6 who I don't love and who emphatically don't have Jaishawn Barham on their depth chart. 

 

[David Wilcomes]

3. Rutgers 

LB	LB
Deion Jennings	Tyreem Powell
Moses Walker	Jamier Wright-Collins

All hail Lord Schiano!!! Last season, Rutgers slotted in 8th on The Enemy, Ranked: LB because nearly their entire '21 LB depth chart had moved on, leaving behind a lot of unknowns. I spared them from last place among B1G opponents because of Greg Schiano's track record developing LBs and frankly, that wasn't nearly enough credit. Schiano was able to install two new starters in Deion Jennings and Tyreem Powell who both were competent or better, nowhere near the weakness of the defense we thought it might be. Jennings was the higher graded of the two by PFF, but when I FFFF'd the Rutgers defense, I had little issue with either player. Now both are back and they're the first team on this list to have 1.) two returning starters and 2.) neither returner is a weakness. They may not yet have a stand-out star and none of the depth options have all that much experience, but if the two starters are on the field, there's no cyan potential to be found and that alone bumps the Scarlet Knights to #3.  

 

2. Ohio State

LB	LB
Steele Chambers	Tommy Eichenberg
CJ Hicks	Cody Simon

The Buckeyes are moving up this season, having placed 5th on this list a year ago due to the appalling performance of the LBs in the loss to Michigan at the Big House. They ran back the same two LBs in 2022 and with an extra year of experience and far better coaching from Jim Knowles, the two starters were able to each take a step forward in their play. Per my charting, the progression for Tommy Eichenberg was from "okay" to "awesome" and for Steele Chambers it was "get this stiff off the field" to "not great". Eichenberg was starred on the FFFF diagram last November and earned All-America honors (deservedly so), a tremendous run defender who finds the hole and hits hard.

Chambers was still cyan'd on the diagram but he was nowhere near the catastrophe that he was in '21 and with another offseason of growth, it's not unreasonable to expect him to reach a level of competency in 2023. The depth here has experience (Cody Simon) and talent (RS Fr 5* CJ Hicks) and when you mix that with a starting level of two multi-year starters, one of whom is a stud, that shoots OSU up to #2. Though the presence of a still-iffy starter knocks them one peg below #1. 

 

[Patrick Barron]

1. Penn State

WLB	MLB	SLB
Abdul Carter	Kobe King	Curtis Jacobs
Keon Wylie	Tyler Elsdon	Dominic DeLuca

Few teams bring back as much LB production as PSU does, two starters at WLB/SLB + the two players they rotated at MIKE last season. That's four LBs who played over 300 snaps last season and there's another reserve who played nearly 200 snaps too. The immense volume of returning production and none of it being true weak spots is why the Nittanys move ahead of Ohio State to claim the top spot, even if they don't have a player as good as Eichenberg at the position. 

Let's start with Curtis Jacobs, a multi-year starter who played SAM in 2021, then planned to move to WILL in 2022, but eventually ended back up at SAM. He's a good player, not a superstar, but a rock solid guy who will threaten for All-B1G honors, best used as a blitzer. Then there's Abdul Carter, the player who snatched the WILL starting job from him and came on strong later in the season. He finished up earning All-B1G honors last season from both the media and the coaches and is an EDGE-sized 250 who fits in well for Manny Diaz's desire to aggressively pressure. Carter's athletic exploits helped him find his way onto the Freaks List last weeks.

The tandem of Kobe King and Tyler Elsdon held down the fort in the middle as more pure ILBs, Elsdon playing more snaps last season to earn the "starter" label but they both played over 300 snaps and were fine. Both were young and inexperienced in 2022 and the hope is for them to become closer to impact starters this season after holding their own last year. The remaining depth pieces won't see the field much barring injury, but the presence of four starter-caliber players with experience, none of whom are bad, catapults PSU to #1. 

 

[Bryan Fuller]

Where would Michigan rank?

Michigan is very much in the mold of PSU to me at this positional group, returning starters and experienced depth, no one being a superstar (yet) but no one bad, either. Junior Colson and Mike Barrett have both played a lot of football at this point and both were solid starters in 2022. Price in the chance that Colson takes another step forward in year #3 towards his lofty recruiting ranking and things start to look real nice. Much like PSU, they have depth too, with one reserve LB who has played legit snaps in Ernest Hausmann (seven starts at Nebraska) and then even Jimmy Rolder got 150+ snaps last season. If I ranked PSU ahead of OSU because of the depth, experience, and no sore spots principle, I have to do the same for the Maize & Blue. But then how do we settle the score between the Wolverines and the Nittanys? Honestly, it's probably a coin flip. I like Colson's superstar potential more than anyone on PSU's side (though Carter has a lot of it) so I may lean to having Michigan #1, but it's very close. Penn State is well situated here too.