1LDTFS, Post 7: Defensive End

Why did I do two seperate posts about the defensive line, but only one about the offensive? I wish I knew. Sorry bout the double standard, offensive linemen. 

Days Left Til Football: 46. (Woah, under 50?)

Who did it last year?: Primarily, three dudes. 

The one above is senior defensive end/beast/2008 team MVP/2008 first team All-Big Ten/2009 Preseason All-American candidate/2009 Playboy All-American/baby-eater Corey Wootton. Corey Wootton is the truth. Corey Wootton is so good, the Northwestern athletics department embedded a highlight clip in his player profile, which I'm pretty sure is a first for any Wildcat athlete in any sport. You may remember him from doing these things.

On the other end, most of the time, was Kevin Mims, who notched 38 starts as a Wildcat. Mims had been a starter since freshman year, when he recorded a 30 yard pick six in the Sun Bowl, and was Big Ten defensive player of the week once last year, but despite all the achievements, the youtube video he'll be defined by isn't a highlight reel like Wootton, but this:

Mims was also NU's most talented sideline celebrator, besides Pat Fitzgerald, of course.

When those guys took a breather, in came Vince Browne. Vince was a revelation as a RS Freshman, sometimes racking up more tackles or sacks than Wootton or Mims in less playing time. He even managed a Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week nod against Ohio. His year was cut short by injury, but he somehow made it back for the bowl game.

Who's doing it this year?: We return Wootton and Browne, which is great. Wootton was a prospect to go pro until his knee went one way and the rest of his leg went the other while pursuing the QB in the Alamo Bowl, and decided to rehab and return to college after getting surgery in January, a good choice for Corey, because the injury probably would've lowered his draft stock some. Corey will know the decision was worth it when he gets his NU degree 

when he has to walk to Tech in February with four inches of slushy gross stuff on the ground

when NFL DE Luis Castillo comes over to his tiny Evanston crib to visit and lights a cigar with a stack of crisp, clean $100 dollar bills, and flies away in his personal hot air balloon  

when he gets selected highly in April's NFL Draft.

Song/songs this unit reminds me of: 

From Kevin Mims...

To Corey Wootton. Errr, Victor Wooten. Who played a solo show at NU last year. It was awesome. 

I'm close to 100% sure that what he does in that video isn't humanly possible. But hey, same goes for Corey. 

Is that an improvement? Oh yeah. Corey Wootton has probably steadily improved, as he has his whole career, and Browne was arguably as good as Mims last year, and is still a sophomore. No offense to our secondary, but Browne and Wootton are probably the best unit we have on defense, and should put an absolute world of hurt on opposing quarterbacks next season. 

Who else we got? For those of you who are big fans of when I say stupid things about players deep on depth charts I've never heard of, sorry, this feature is done. The way I see it, if you don't actually have a history of playing for us, you don't deserve getting slandered by some dude online, so, no more. I apologize to all the fans of slander out there.