On paper, his 10 sacks and 18.5 TFL seem great, but like Athlon Sports pointed out, a lot of that had to do with the attention given the other DE who was just drafted by the Falcons For example, over the LAST SIX GAMES of the season, he was held to miniscule 2 sacks and 4.5 TFL Also, of his 10 sacks and 18.5 TFL, only 4.5 sacks and 9.5 TFL were vs the Big XII (9 games) He really padded his stats v Grambling and SMU ( 3.5 sacks and 7 TFL vs those two....only 6.5 sacks and 11.5 TFL v everybody else) against Kansas State, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State, he was held to zero sacks and 1.5 TFL (one TFL v K State, 0.5 TFL v WV)
I should also point out that this is an irrelevant if not dishonest comparison to draw. When aTm was still in the Big XII, they had a different coach, OC, and QB.
This works out great for LSU. This will likely be Collins 1st start at LT and only helps his transition.
For TCU, next man up... 6-3/260 soph DE Mike Tuaua - last season had 8 sacks, 16.5 TFL, 68 tackles as a freshman in JUCO
I was referring specifically to the Sooner beatdown in the Cotton. It's futile to try & extrapolate what a defensive player (particularly a DL) does in the Big XII onto what he might do in the SEC. He faces completely different offenses that try to run around you rather than over you. It's practically a 7-on-7 league.
This post by a TCU fan cracked me up: "DeVontay Filds great season last year was ALL HIM. PURE TALENT. Everyone knows that TCU has trouble producing prolific college DE's. It's kinda an Achilles Heel, of sorts. The defense will be like, 10 guys out there, instead of the normal amount. Without Divionte Felds, the GP defense will simply wobble along."
The same could be said of a dozen or so teams in any given season. If you would have said, "that if A&M would have still been in the Big 12 last season, that they would have been undefeated", I would agree with you.
