With spring practices having concluded Saturday, here is a post-spring look at The Wolfpacker's projected fall depth chart for the defensive side of the football.
Defensive Line — Starters: R-Sr. Daniel Joseph, R-Fr. C.J. Clark and So. Savion Jackson; Reserves: R-Fr. Terrell Dawkins, Fr. Davin Vann, and R-Jr. Cory Durden
Last year, the defensive line was a question mark at this point of offseason. Joseph, a Penn State grad transfer, had not yet arrived on campus, and the young players were unknowns.
Fast forward a year, and the position shows more promise, even with the loss of All-American Alim McNeill a year early to the NFL.
Joseph proved to be a valuable addition to the defense, making a team-best 6.5 sacks and third on the squad with 10 tackles for losses. Furthermore, Joseph decided to return for a repeat of his fifth-year senior season in a boost to the Wolfpack defense.
At nose tackle, it figures that Clark, a promising redshirt freshman that had 24 tackles and three quarterback hurries while starting twice in 2020, would seem to be the favorite to replace McNeill. That was further confirmed in the spring.
The other end is the bigger competition. In our pre-spring depth chart, we went with Durden, a transfer from Florida State expected to arrive after the spring semester.
In this update, we switched it to Jackson, who had a strong spring performance and capped it with two tackles for loss in the scrimmage. Jackson added 20 tackles, including two for loss and a sack, and was playing his best football late in the season. He also made four starts.
Durden though has the potential to be an instant impact. The 6-foot-5, 315 pounder may seem unusual to have on the outside, but Durden is an impressive pass rusher. He had 6.5 tackles for loss and five sacks in 2019 while starting 12 games for the Seminoles. In the three-man front, Durden may be well suited for the right end spot in a similar way that allowed Larrell Murchison to excel in 2019 before he was drafted by the Tennessee Titans.
There are other potential options however. Dawkins had a very promising rookie campaign, where he had nine tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks and made six starts. However, he missed the spring, and he may be better suited to play on the edge with Joseph.
Not listed above is redshirt junior Ibrahim Kante, who made 13 tackles, including two for loss, and made five starts in 2020.
Backing up Clark at nose tackle, we went with Vann and also considered redshirt freshman Joshua Harris. The pair were four-stars coming out of high school. Harris was a goal line defense specialist a season ago, and with improved conditioning could be ready for a larger role. Vann is the next in a recent line of freakish Wolfpack defensive line athletes who got a little experience in four games during the fall.
Vann appeared to be one of the first subs into the scrimmage on the defensive line on Saturday.
