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DT Tommy Togiai (Barrel Strong, Cleveland Browns)

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RB07OSU said:
Bump. Watched the MSU game again and man was it crucial to pluck Tommy out of Southern Idaho. Kid can't be moved and he's disrupting damn near every play. It's been a short year but I think Tommy and Haskell have been the most disruptive interior DL I've ever seen here.
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A guy by the name of Wilkinson on line 3 asking how old you are
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
A guy by the name of Wilkinson on line 3 asking how old you are
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Big Daddy was probably the best, but (I'm old enough to have actually seen another guy) Jim Stillwagon was pretty good too.

1970 Lombardi Award and Outland Trophy Winner

Jim Stillwagon made college football history in 1970 by becoming the first player to win the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award in the same year.

Stillwagon, a three-year starter at middle guard for the Buckeyes between 1968 and 1970, was a unanimous All-American as a junior and senior.

During “Wagon’s” three seasons at Ohio State, the Buckeyes compiled a 27-2 record, won three Big Ten championships, played in two Rose Bowls and won a pair of national championships.

With Stillwagon clogging the middle, the Ohio State defense simply shut down opposing offenses. In 1969, the Buckeyes gave up just 93 total points. In 1970, only two opponents scored more than 13 points and five were held to under 10 points.

Tough, strong, aggressive, intelligent, relentless. All are adjectives that can be used to describe Stillwagon. He was quite simply the best defensive lineman in college football in 1970. No one was surprised when he walked off with the Outland and Lombardi awards. The surprise would have come if someone else had been chosen.

https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/jim-stillwagon/
 
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ScriptOhio said:
Yeah, it was a different era, before specialized strength and weight training, dietary supplements, and/or steroids, etc. Regardless, when he played, Stillwagon was literally the undisputed best in college football at his position.
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Schematically as well.

The 5-2 defense is all about the interior D-line slanting. You gotta move to be able to do it properly which favors smaller defensive linemen. Bull-rushing wasn't nearly as prevalent back then.
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
A guy by the name of Wilkinson on line 3 asking how old you are
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I am 32, so Wilkinson played when I was too young to remember him playing. From everything I've read on him though, he was the best we've had at DT. But I was referring to the tandem of Togiai and Garrett together being the most disruptive interior DL I have watched...should probably qualify that by saying its been a very short season and I should probably see how they play the next 2-3 (hopefully 3) against better competition. Probably the best interior I recall in contention would be Kenny Peterson, Darrion Scott and Tim Anderson back in our championship season in 2001-2002...those dudes could play.
 
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bucknut502 said:
How do you know that he saw Big Daddy play at Ohio State?
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That was me asking if he had, which he has since clarified that he hasn’t

I would contend that Wilkinson plus a sand bag is the most disruptive interior DL I’ve seen. And to Script’s point, I did see Stillwagon. I also saw the guy that came along when Stillwagon was a senior and, horror of horrors, lifted weights. Pete Cusick was that bad ass, and he personally stopped TTUN on more goal line stands than anyone else ever will. Then there was Aaron “chunky” Brown, followed by the Earl Bruce years, which TTUN seems to be using as their model for their current DL recruiting.

The point being that the Buckeyes had a great run of DTs from the late 60s to the mid 70s... and then nothing until Wilkinson. For a beast like that to follow that kind of drought was amazing. It’s why he’s the legend he is.

Then you have Togiai. I was on record that I expected him to have a great season; he’s exceeded my expectations. What I did not expect was that Haskell would be even better, but in my opinion he has.

I think Tommy’s unique place in Buckeye history is this: If you take all of the DTs who were ever the 2nd best tackle for the Buckeyes in a given year, 2020 Tommy Togiai just might be the best of them all. Probably the best, 2nd best DT the Bucks have ever had.
 
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OHIO STATE NAMES 12 CHAMPIONS ON OFFENSE, 11 CHAMPIONS ON DEFENSE FOR BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME WIN OVER NORTHWESTERN

OHIO STATE'S 2020 DEFENSIVE CHAMPIONS

DT TOMMY TOGIAI... 6 games... NEBRASKA, PENN STATE (PLAYER OF THE GAME), RUTGERS, INDIANA, MICHIGAN STATE, NORTHWESTERN
DE JONATHON COOPER... 6 games...NEBRASKA, PENN STATE, RUTGERS, INDIANA (PLAYER OF THE GAME), MICHIGAN STATE, NORTHWESTERN

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...-on-defense-for-big-ten-championship-game-win

The only 2 defensive players named a "CHAMPION" for all 6 games!!!
 
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