2024 Gophers Position Previews: Defensive Line

September's coming soon, so it is once again time to start thinking about football. Ski-U-Blog will analyze every position group on the Gophers' roster: starters, depth, and potential future contributors. We move to the defense, starting with its most promising area: the line.

Likely Starters

Jah Joyner's game has advanced. He always looked like a potential stud, with all his length and power and explosiveness. It just took him awhile for everything to click.

He generated plenty of pressure in his first season of meaningful action but only 1.5 sacks. Last year, the production matched the process. He finished with 7.5 sacks, tops on the team and tied for 3rd in the conference. Opposing tackles frequently could not keep up with Joyner after he fired off the ball, and if they got a hand on him, he had the bend and fight to make a play anyway.

If Joyner had not missed a few tackles (see the Purdue game for examples), he could have done even more damage with the opportunities he made for himself. And if he had more trust from the coaches against the run, where he has improved but still has plenty of room to grow, he would have played more snaps and gotten even more chances.

His physical traits mean someone in the NFL will take a chance on him, but this is Joyner's last chance to put it all together as a college player. He could be the top sack-getter in the Big Ten, something no Gopher has been since at least 2004. (It is shockingly hard to get a find a more exact year.) He could make All-Big Ten teams. He could ascend into one of the stars of the conference.

Danny Striggow has become an invaluable part of Minnesota's defense as a well-rounded rush end. At least with Joe Rossi as defensive coordinator — we'll see if this changes under Corey Heatherman — this was a demanding position, requiring its occupant to rush the passer, hold the edge, and occasionally drop into coverage. Striggow does not get after quarterbacks like Carter Coughlin or Boye Mafe but finished last season with a respectable 6.0 sacks. He is not big and strong enough to play the other end position but holds his edge fairly well, and he plays an intelligent spy or extra zone defender.

Striggow is a two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention, and his ceiling is probably only a smidge above that. That remains a very useful player.

Deven Eastern stepped into the lineup as a redshirt sophomore last year and did not quite stick the landing. There were certainly highlights, times when he showed why he was a 4-star recruit coming out of high school. When he's on, he can burst into the backfield, fend off a double team, or power through a block to make a play.

While he will probably never be a serious pass rusher, Eastern needs to more consistently hold his gap, especially with Kyler Baugh leaving the program. He had some fairly anonymous performances in 2023, as well as games where he was got moved too easily.

He enters 2024 not as a toolsy prospect getting his first real taste of action, though, but a second-year starter who showed he could become an impact player. Eastern does not need to take a huge step forward to be the kind of nose tackle the Gophers want.

Eastern's position change in turn allows Jalen Logan-Redding to become a full-time 3-technique tackle. The role suits him better than the edge, where for all his strength and discipline as a run defender, Logan-Redding could not best offensive tackles and sack quarterbacks. His level of athleticism will play better against guards, offering more of a pass rushing threat from the inside. At 290 pounds, he might need to come off the field in short-yardage situations or run-heavy teams but should be at least passable most of the time.

Key Backups

The transfer market in college sports is not a one-way road leading talent from the have-nots to the haves. It is more like a roundabout. Athletes go around and evaluate their options, and often the best turn they can take is not straight ahead to a helmet school, but to a side street not so different from the one they were on. Or maybe they decide they need to turn around and go the direction they came from.

Is that an excellent metaphor? No, but I'm going to use it anyway to talk about Jaxon Howard. The Robbinsdale Cooper alumnus was the highest-rated recruit in Minnesota in 2023. With reported offers from Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon, and plenty others, including the Gophers, Howard picked LSU. He was there for a year, getting defensive snaps in a blowout of Grambling State and in a bowl win over Wisconsin.

But for whatever reason, Howard left LSU and turned back to his home state. He will probably start at rush end in 2025 but for now is an athletic, work-in-project second-stringer. At LSU, he looked a bit slender and was pushed around a bit by the Badgers' offensive tackles. That is normal for a true freshman.

Hope for Howard is still a bit projection, though, since in high school he played three different positions: defensive end, linebacker, and tight end. The majority of his highlights are from linebacker, where he produced a number of laugh-out-loud plays, knocking over running backs and quarterbacks (and even linemen) like a pickup truck through a line of scarecrows. There is no doubting Howard's motor or meanness. He will nevertheless take time to develop pass rush moves and improve his pursuit angles now that he is not the fastest player on the field. Starting out, expect him to be a passing-down specialist.

On the other side, Anthony Smith will receive a lot more snaps with Logan-Redding clearing the way. Smith is a gargantuan figure the Gophers hope becomes a problem on any down and distance.

For now, he will probably sub in for Joyner most often in run situations. This is in part due to Joyner's weaknesses but also because Smith is still coming along as a pass rusher. He brute-forces his way through lesser players — which is where he pops out most on the screen — but Smith lacks finesse. With more active hands, he could shed more blocks and pose a more serious threat.

Smith's run defense is in a better but similar place. He is not afraid to take on blocks but cannot always get off of them. He can jump too far into the backfield and lose control of the edge as the backside defender, leaving him exposed to reverses and counters. His rare physical traits still allow him affect plays.

Even blue-chippers can take time to turn potential into consistency. I think Smith's breakout comes sooner rather than later.

The story on Logan Richter is the same as it has been for the last two seasons: He's the heaviest man on the Gopher defense, a nose tackle who could be better at the things in a nose tackle's job description but who is fine to have in the rotation. Lighter lines have trouble moving Richter off the ball, but he is not very noticeable against Big Ten teams.

Darnell Jeffries was injured for all of last season and will try to end his seven-year college football career on a positive note. At 285 pounds, Jeffries' best asset was his lighter feet, but he will need to show that he still has that quickness. Neither he nor Maple Grove's Nate Becker have made much impact as Gophers, though. These two will swap out as Logan-Redding's backup.

Potential Rotation Options

Redshirt junior Luther McCoy has almost never appeared on Minnesota's defense. He enters another season likely on the third rung of the depth chart, with seniors and super-seniors ahead of him and younger players coming up behind him. It only takes one tackle getting injured or underperforming for McCoy to get a shot.

Notables Unlikely to Contribute

Underclassmen Karter Menz and Hayden Schwartz have a chance to move up to second-string next season at each end position, but for now they are stuck near the bottom of the depth chart. The rush end Menz is behind Lucas Finnessy, a special teams veteran who towards the end of last year came back from a serious injury.

At 5-technique, Schwartz will compete against 6-foot-8 Adam Kissayi, the tallest player on the roster. Probably a bit of a project, Kissayi only landed at end after trying out quarterback and tight end in high school. He is faster than you'd think and seems comfortable getting physical. It is nevertheless strange to see someone so lanky play football, and he will need to bulk up. Since he never saw a fall at Clemson before transferring, Kissayi will have five years to play four seasons like any true freshman.

A year ago, I liked Martin Owusu's skill set as a quick-moving 3-technique tackle. He's still probably a year from the field just because of how many players are in front of him, but Owusu could challenge for a starting spot as soon as Logan-Redding is gone. Theorin Randle, another redshirt freshman, has a similar profile but may play nose.

Four-star Riley Sunram, the third-highest recruit in the Gophers' signing class, is in a similar boat. He played right end in a three-man front at Kindred High School (North Dakota) and could maybe end up at nose. What Sunram lacks in agility he makes up for with power and size, seemingly not requiring any effort to toss aside other kids. It would be a surprise to see Sunram this season, but he could be part of the mop-up squad in 2025 and in the mix for a big role in 2026.