2023 Gophers Position Previews: Defensive Line

If you can believe it, football is almost here. Seriously. For the third year running, Ski-U-Blog will have previews of every position group entering Minnesota's season. In this post, we move to the defensive line.

Likely Starters

So far, we have not discussed a position group nearly as unsettled as Minnesota's defensive line. Just one starter from last year enters this fall basically certain that he will keep his job. The other spots either have opened up due to departures or cannot be called locks because of underwhelming performance.

Kyler Baugh is that one secure incumbent. Baugh was Minnesota's nose tackle despite not really showing that profile at Houston Baptist before coming up to the Twin Cities. His relative speed for his size and position was still there, but that did not translate into being a disruptive force in the Big Ten. Generating pressure and chasing down running backs from behind were not part of Baugh's game. He got moved off the ball a bit but not frequently enough to be a problem, and his mobility allowed him to maintain his gap on outside runs. At times, it put him in position to finish off a play himself.

Altogether, Baugh was fine. He could be better, but an experienced player whose floor is not too low has real use. Still, Trill Carter's departure to Texas means Baugh might need to raise that floor.

The only other player I am confident will start Week 1 is rush end Danny Striggow. Striggow's breakout 2022 season was interrupted by injuries but made his case as one of the defense's potential disruptors. His 7.5 havoc plays were the fifth-most on the team, despite only playing enough to record 16.5 tackles. Striggow led the team in sacks.

That is a less impressive fact, though, when you reframe it: No Gopher recorded more sacks than Striggow's 3.5.

P.J. Fleck said in the spring that the team has introduced pass rushing periods to their practices in order to both generate pressure and convert more of those pressures into sacks. On an otherwise top-of-the-line defense, this was the greatest problem last year. Too many times, the Gophers broke into the backfield but could not bring down the opposing quarterback. The secondary was quite effective at taking away any downfield options, but those up front could not convert that opportunity into a sack. And good coverage can only hold for so long.

Striggow, as the most productive pass rusher on the team, now faces the pressure of showing he is really that player and then some. The problem is... well, pressure.

Last year, I wrote about how in 2021, Thomas Rush converted an abnormally high proportion of his pressures into sacks. As recorded by Pro Football Focus, his pressure rate was fine, but like a hockey player with a high shooting percentage, Rush was a prime regression candidate because his pressure-to-sack rate was twice as high as the national average among edge rushers.

Sure enough, Rush's 2022 pressure-to-sack rate fell to a normal level (16.7 percent), and his production went down. It was even worse, though, since his pressure rate fell below the national average (16 percent or so) to just 7.0 percent.

Striggow, meanwhile, turned more than a third of his 11 pressures into sacks or assisted sacks while recording a pressure on just 7.5 percent of his pass rush snaps.

In other words, Striggow — one of the few players last year who could bring down an opposing quarterback last season — needs to get to the quarterback more often in 2023.

None of which is to say Striggow cannot build upon his performance from last year. He has the right physical traits for the position and, based on the passes he broke up or intercepted last year, the smarts as well.

Like everyone, though, he needs to prove that the program's increased emphasis on the pass rush has worked.

Position Battles

Finding more of a pass rush also requires getting more from of the spots other than the designated rush position. In 2021, Minnesota got 9.0 sacks out of their tackles and 5-technique ends. Last year, those positions produced only 5.5 sacks. The Gophers need both more production and a threat to draw attention from Striggow.

At 5-technique, if you want pass rush, Jah Joyner is your man. PFF credited him with 32 pressures, the most on the team and nearly twice as many as Rush. Joyner is long and twitchy. Those traits can get him off the line and into the backfield without really trying any pass rush moves. If he beats you off the line, he'll be in the quarterback's lap imminently.

Joyner did not finish a lot of his sacks last year, but you could argue that just as Striggow did not perform as well as his sack total suggests, Joyner is better than his sack total (1.5).

What's less debatable is that Joyner needs to work on the other half of his game. He just doesn't make enough of a mark defending the run. He gets a great first step off the line, for sure, but Joyner needs to hold his ground more often — meaning both that he can get pushed back too easily and that he needs to be more disciplined. He is primed for the pass rush and will overrun the play rather than staying at home to defend the edge.

When Joyner and Jalen Logan-Redding originally signed, P.J. Fleck said they would be hard to tell apart at a glance because they looked so similar. Ironically, almost four years later, they are each other's foil. Logan-Redding is not a pass rusher; at times, he is the last one on the line to come of out of his stance at the snap. But with an extra 25 pounds over Joyner and just a little more patience, he was usually the preferred choice at end last year because he was a more consistent run defender.

"More consistent" does not mean "game-altering," though. Logan-Redding's difficulties shedding blocks and inability to shoot past them, which limit his pass rushing capabilities, show up in this dimension of the game as well. He forces stalemates one-on-one with a blocker far more often than he creates negative plays, which isn't valueless but explains how he finished last year with just 2.0 non-sack TFLs.

So Logan-Redding is more responsible, and Joyner is more dynamic. The choice sounds like a test of what you value in a defensive end, especially in a run-heavy conference.

Except we may also need to consider Anthony Smith, the redshirt freshman who showed up to campus a year ago already catching the eye of NFL scouts. Smith's tools are obvious from watching his high school highlights, but we haven't seen much from him as a Gopher — his spring game performance wasn't too eye-catching, and he appeared in just two actual games in his redshirt year.

I do not expect Smith to start, but he will get into games. Fleck says he's playing "all over the field" this camp, which presumably means some snaps at both 5- and 3-technique. If Smith shows out and the upperclassmen in front of him struggle, he could move up the depth chart.

Another youngster in a monstrous frame, Deven Eastern, is vying for the full-time job at 3-technique. The former 4-star from Shakopee is poised to at least take a significant role in the wake of Carter transferring; the question is whether Eastern becomes the starter this fall or next.

The spring game did not offer much of a clue, since Eastern did not participate. Our most recent data, then, come from the late stages of blowouts. In the Colorado game, Eastern recorded a solo tackle by holding firm on the outside shoulder of his opponent and stepping into the hole to make the stop.

But on the next snap, that same guard completely dominated Eastern.

In 2022, Eastern had plays where he looked sluggish and unpolished. He also had plays where he came off the ball well, shed his blocker with active hands, and posed a real threat. In other words, it was an up-and-down small sample of snaps for a redshirt freshman who was a work in progress. There's a decent chance that as a redshirt sophomore, Eastern still is a work in progress.

If so, Darnell Jefferies is the alternative. Jefferies flashes the athleticism to provide a much-needed interior pass rush, but he didn't show last year he has the moves. He ended the year with only 5.0 total tackles (4 solo, 2 assisted). Including his time at Clemson, Jefferies only has only recorded 0.5 college sack. As a sixth-year player, he probably isn't going to unlock another level.

Jefferies' main advantages in this competition are seniority and quickness. Without knowing for sure, I think the Gophers will prefer the tackle with more size and more upside in a run-heavy division. At some point, if not in Week 1, I expect Eastern to become the starter.

Key Backups

There is no doubt over the role for Perham's own Logan Richter, as has been the case for the last three years. Richter, coming into the fall officially listed as 325 pounds, is one big dude. He's been a rotational player for the most part but last year got on the field a little more often. He made 2.0 tackles (1 solo, 2 assisted) and broke up a pass against Wisconsin but otherwise recorded no statistics. And that's fine for what Richter is. Nose tackles aren't often required to make plays so much as get in the way of the other team trying to make plays of their own.

New to the program is Chris Collins, a North Carolina transfer who will slot in at rush end. Collins did not make one sack last year, which does not make him sound like the kind of player who will bolster the team's pass rush. His film does not refute that impression. At 6-foot-5-inches, Collins is long and surprisingly fast in the open field. However, he's not particularly explosive off the line and does not generate pressure through deft pass rush moves nor through brute force and tenacity. He defends the run and drops into coverage responsibly but not convincingly.

In other words: Collins, with one year left of eligibility, is a stopgap depth player who will not impress much but probably is preferable to the inexperienced options behind him.

Notables Unlikely to Contribute

Lucas Finnessy left the Iowa game last year on a cart, and he may not be ready for the opener. If he does get into a game, it will be as a reserve rush end. Underclassmen Colton Gregersen and Jack Hawkinson (both walk-ons) serve as cover behind him. Hayden Schwartz, a leaner 5-technique than the players trying to win the starting job at his position, will sit again after redshirting in 2022.

If there's an injury on the interior, Luther McCoy will see the field. But with just one college appearance under his belt and four tackles guaranteed roles ahead of him, McCoy will probably only appear for blowouts.

The Gophers' highest-rated defensive line signee in this year's class was Martin Owusu. In high school, Owusu played all over Prior Lake's three-man line, but his tape shows off a profile made for 3-technique. He was not the fastest guy on the field but moved much better than most guys carrying 280 pounds (his official weight with the U of M) at the high school level, cutting through gaps at the snap and tossing quarterbacks with ease. We may start to see Owusu in the Big Ten in a couple years.