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Greatest Buckeye Linebacker

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Greatest Buckeye Linebacker

  • Tom Cousineau

    Votes: 9 7.0%

  • Randy Gradishar

    Votes: 28 21.7%

  • A.J. Hawk

    Votes: 18 14.0%

  • Andy Katzenmoyer

    Votes: 18 14.0%

  • James Laurinaitis

    Votes: 10 7.8%

  • Chris Spielman

    Votes: 43 33.3%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 2.3%
  • Total voters
    129
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Not a team in college football can boast a 2-deep that amazing at LB. Simply fantastic.





Some other names that deserve mention here:
Ike Kelley
Steve Tovar
Pepper Johnson
Marcus Marek (for whom my parents named me after)

Pretty damn cool when 2-time All-Americans don't even make the ballot.
 
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BuckTwenty;2016497; said:
Not a team in college football can boast a 2-deep that amazing at LB. Simply fantastic.





Some other names that deserve mention here:
Ike Kelley
Steve Tovar
Pepper Johnson
Marcus Marek (for whom my parents named me after)

Pretty damn cool when 2-time All-Americans don't even make the ballot.
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Na'll Diggs, was a bad man and still playing pro
 
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Marcus Merek. Disappointing that he's not even a choice.

First, he was an All American. Second, Merek was a four year starter - how many others on the list of choices can claim that?

Mainly though, he is still the all time leader in career tackles with 572. He is still the all time leader in assists with 316. These numbers were recorded before the bowl game was counted as a regular season game, which would only help Hawk and Laurenitis.

Each year Merek played, they went to a bowl game. During the four seasons he played, the Buckeyes only lost a combined eight games.

Marcus Merek averaged 11.92 tackles per game. He has the highest career average of all Buckeyes. Second place, Tom Cousineau, only averaged 11.85 per game. Randy Gradishar is in sixth place with a whopping 9.70 tackles per game. To vote for anyone besides Merek is to vote for someone statistically inferior.

Statistics aside, Merek's best feature is that, per the record books anyway, he had his best performances against Michigan.
Chris Speilman said, "There was no linebacker who played as well as Marcus Marek did in the Michigan games. To me, that was Marcus? signature."
 
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great post.......but I have to question the statistic of only losing 8 games while he was in college. Earle Bruce lost 3 games in every year he coached except his first one when he went 11-1 in 1979. And from my recollection, OSU lost at least 3 in 1978. I'd say OSU lost 10 games while MM was playing.....still damned good.

MightbeaBuck;2016543; said:
Marcus Merek. Disappointing that he's not even a choice.

First, he was an All American. Second, Merek was a four year starter - how many others on the list of choices can claim that?

Mainly though, he is still the all time leader in career tackles with 572. He is still the all time leader in assists with 316. These numbers were recorded before the bowl game was counted as a regular season game, which would only help Hawk and Laurenitis.

Each year Merek played, they went to a bowl game. During the four seasons he played, the Buckeyes only lost a combined eight games.

Marcus Merek averaged 11.92 tackles per game. He has the highest career average of all Buckeyes. Second place, Tom Cousineau, only averaged 11.85 per game. Randy Gradishar is in sixth place with a whopping 9.70 tackles per game. To vote for anyone besides Merek is to vote for someone statistically inferior.

Statistics aside, Merek's best feature is that, per the record books anyway, he had his best performances against Michigan.
Chris Speilman said, "There was no linebacker who played as well as Marcus Marek did in the Michigan games. To me, that was Marcus? signature."
Click to expand...
 
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You get a lot of tackles by being an elite player on an average defense. Gradishar was an all-timer on an elite defense. Spielman got 29 tackles in a game against scUM once; and OSU lost. Both the 29 tackles and the loss were because the defense could not get off the field and no one but Spiels was making plays. Gradishar played LB on one side, with Rick Middleton in, of course, the Middle. If a team ran into the middle, Pete Cusick and Middleton would end the play quickly. If a team ran away from Gradishar, which happened a lot, he would run the play down from behind more often then not. Either way, it was 3 plays and a punt for the other team followed by a 10 play drive by Corny Greene, Archie Griffin and Pete Johnson. Rinse and Repeat. There would often be players on the other team that would have more tackles than Randy, but they lost 60-0.
 
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I agree with most of what you say.

DaveyBoy;2016544; said:
I have to question the statistic of only losing 8 games while he was in college.
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The only "seasonal" statistics counted at the time were the games prior to the bowl game. Wins, loses, touchdown passes, rushing yardage, sacks, anything. Cousineau, for example, accumulated 569 tackles only during regular season games. If you were to add in post season tackles, Merek's lead would jump even higher, as his teams went to bowl games each year he started. Meanwhile Na'il Diggs's, Randy Gradishar's, and Chris Spielman's would lag due to not going to bowl games in at least one year of their career.

To compare the stats of a season, tackles for example, it was always done without the bowl game. To keep things apples to apples, the season's bowl game win (or loss) is not counted in any of our linebacker's records either.

Of course we could count the bowl games and their statistics (and the three additional loses.) Then it would also be necessary to point out that Merek took his teams to more bowl games than Gradishar, Spielman, etc. :wink2:
 
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I picked Hawk because you could argue any one of them as a top 10 B1G linebacker of all time, I never saw him miss a tackle and he has the best name.

WoodyWorshiper;2015858; said:
Randy Gradishar.

I've always thought it would take an extremely extraordinary player here to convince me that he was better than Randy. We've had some extraordinary ones since (Cooz, Chris, and Marek) but NONE have achieved the "extremely" like Randy did.

For one, dude was HUGE. Most people don't realize that Gradishar was damn near as big as the guys on the line in front of him. 6'3" and about 238, he had lineman size and safety speed. He coud smash you in the mouth head on, and also could run you down from sideline to sideline, better than anyone we've ever had here.

On top of that, as a little kid I always hated my name I was the only "Randy" I knew. Starting when I was 10, if someone asked me my name, I'd always reply "Randy, just like Gradishar."

Peace
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I don't get that as a solid part of the argument...he was a little smaller as a Buckeye than Etienne Sabino? Got it. Say no more.
 
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Pheasant;2016687; said:
I picked Hawk because you could argue any one of them as a top 10 B1G linebacker of all time, I never saw him miss a tackle and he has the best name.



I don't get that as a solid part of the argument...he was a little smaller as a Buckeye than Etienne Sabino? Got it. Say no more.
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no further comment
 
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