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Myles Garrett. Carl Lawson. Jadeveon Clowney. Da’Shawn Hand.
It seems like every time there’s a five-star high school defensive end, an SEC team is ready to bring them in. It’s gone that way for the top DE three of the last four years, and despite not landing the top player at the position this year, the SEC is dominating recruiting at defensive end again for the 2015 class.
Josh Sweat, the top defensive end recruit in the country, chose Florida State over Georgia, Alabama and a slew of other top-notch programs. He’s not alone in spurning the SEC, but a big number of defensive ends have chosen the SEC.
Out of 25 high school defensive ends classified as four- or five-star recruits on 247sports.com’s composite rankings, eight have committed to SEC programs. Five of the six uncommitted recruits in that top 25 are considering SEC schools. Landing all five of them — a possibility, considering that 247sports.com lists all five with SEC teams as their top choice, and ESPN’s Hot Board predicts three of them will land with SEC programs — would give the conference an even more dominant edge in pass rushers this recruiting cycle.
The SEC has also landed a commitment from the top junior college defensive end in the country, with Marquavius Lewis committing to South Carolina.
Adding names like Byron Cowart, CeCe Jefferson and Terry Beckner Jr. to an already loaded class of defensive ends would send shivers down the spines of offensive coordinators across the conference.
There’s good reason for the push for top-notch defensive line talent in the SEC. There are only a few teams left — Georgia, LSU and Arkansas — whose primary mode of offense is a straight-forward running game. The rest of the conference does all kinds of things on offense.
There are the Air Raid disciples at Texas A&M and Kentucky, as well as Ole Miss’ hybrid spread-Air Raid attack. There are the read-option teams like Auburn, Mississippi State and South Carolina during the Connor Shaw heyday (which may return if three/four-star recruit Lorenzo Nunez lives up to expectation at quarterback). Even Alabama got with the program this year, spreading the field and picking up the tempo.
The moral of the story? In the SEC, teams need versatile, smart defensive ends to keep up with the conference’s prolific offenses. A DE needs to be able to rush the passer, defend against the run and know how to pick the right ball carrier on read-option plays. It’s no easy task, which is why the SEC goes after the best of the best to stock its defensive line coffers.
While nabbing the top players in the country is great, it’s not like the SEC has a problem developing talent. For every Garrett and Clowney, guys who stepped onto the field as five-star recruits and made an instant impact, there are players like Trey Flowers and Preston Smith, lower-ranked recruits that develop over time into dominant players. There are 13 more three-star recruits committed to the SEC among 247sports’ top 50 ready to step up as well.
The SEC has owned college football over the past decade, with a combination of great coaches, great talent and great recruiting. It helps to have many elite recruits sitting right in the backyard, but the SEC does as good of a job as anyone reeling them in.
That already holds true with defensive ends this year. As National Signing Day approaches, the SEC’s stranglehold on top-tier pass rushers could grow even tighter.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
