Top DTs in college football in ‘26

[THookem]

https://www.pff.com/news/college-football-top-10-returning-interior-defenders-for-the-2026-season

[Bunk Moreland]

For those who care, they have Arch as the #3 returning qb, Cam the #5 returning WR, Goosby #3 at OT. No Texas players at the top 10 of their position at RB, TE, OG, C, or DT.

[Roysterr]

Lies, lies lies

[Jerky]

Is this bulletin board material for Hero Kanu? Believe Hero is near the top 10 in PFF grades for returning IDL and he did it against some stiff competition. 

Some of those IDL in their top 10 are playing against a weaker schedule than Texas. PFF has gotten better but they are not perfect and the weaker matchups can skew ratings and make it harder to compare vs players with more challenging matchups.

Regardless, Muschamp and Baker should have our IDL rotation playing at a pretty high level.

Looking forward to seeing the development of January, Watson, Sharma, Terry and Charles.

Believe a more fit Geffrard at NT will perform what he is asked to do at a high level if he can take the next step and get his pad level down. 

Overall, the TX IDL should play at a high level due to talent, further development, coaching, scheme and a complementary rotation allowing our top IDL players to stay fresher and go 100%. 

NT:  Geffrard, Watson, Sharma January   

DT:  Kanu, January, Watson, Terry, Charles, Johnson, Carlton

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Jerky

[Bunk Moreland]

2 minutes ago, Jerky said:

Is this bulletin board material for Hero Kanu? Believe Hero is near the top 10 in PFF grades for returning IDL and he did it against some stiff competition. 

Some of those IDL in their top 10 are playing against a weaker schedule than Texas. PFF has gotten better but they are not perfect and the weaker matchups can skew ratings and make it harder to compare vs players with more challenging matchups.

Regardless, Muschamp and Baker should have our IDL rotation playing at a pretty high level.

Looking forward to seeing the development of January, Watson, Sharma, Terry and Charles.

Believe a more fit Geffrard at NT will perform what he is asked to do at a high level if he can take the next step and get his pad level down. 

Overall, the TX IDL should play at a high level due to talent, further development, coaching, scheme and a complementary rotation allowing our top IDL players to stay fresher and go 100%. 

NT:  Geffrard, Watson, Sharma January   

DT:  Kanu, January, Watson, Terry, Charles, Johnson, Carlton

 

Couldn’t agree more. I think Kanu is gonna be a monster this year.

[Here for the Wins]

3 hours ago, Jerky said:

Is this bulletin board material for Hero Kanu? Believe Hero is near the top 10 in PFF grades for returning IDL and he did it against some stiff competition. 

Some of those IDL in their top 10 are playing against a weaker schedule than Texas. PFF has gotten better but they are not perfect and the weaker matchups can skew ratings and make it harder to compare vs players with more challenging matchups.

Regardless, Muschamp and Baker should have our IDL rotation playing at a pretty high level.

Looking forward to seeing the development of January, Watson, Sharma, Terry and Charles.

Believe a more fit Geffrard at NT will perform what he is asked to do at a high level if he can take the next step and get his pad level down. 

Overall, the TX IDL should play at a high level due to talent, further development, coaching, scheme and a complementary rotation allowing our top IDL players to stay fresher and go 100%. 

NT:  Geffrard, Watson, Sharma January   

DT:  Kanu, January, Watson, Terry, Charles, Johnson, Carlton

 

The discussions on Kanu are interesting.  There really isn’t anything in his history to show that he was under consideration as a high draft pick.  I’m not sure he has an overwhelming trait and his production is not particularly special.  He hasn’t played a huge number of snaps either. I certainly have no inside information on what his draft grade was.

In looking at PFF, I don’t see anything that has him inside the top 10 in grading.  You are correct in that we played more difficult competition with respect to teams, but the OUs and OSUs were better defensively than offensively.  They do show that in our 3 losses he only had 1 pressure.  I wouldn’t say PFF skews things, but there certainly should be context applied to the information.  Our opponents had Simmons and Hill to contend with whereas others may have been able to focus on the interior Dline.

Overall, we have the personnel to be impactful, but it needs to happen.  Kanu and Watson have received a bit more hype than what has been earned.  They should be better, but we certainly need more impact plays from them.