Delving the Depth Chart - Defensive Line

Every True Son will take a position-by-position look at the Tigers headed into this season. Today, "Delving the Depth Chart" takes a look at the defensive line.

Two VERY different defensive lines showed up in 2006. In the first half of the season, the defensive line was solid against semi-mediocre competition, helping propel the Tiger D to tops in the nation heading into the Colorado game. The unit's premier game came on the road in the trademark victory of 2006 against Texas Tech. The unit pressured Graham Harrell several times, forcing four fumbles and recovering three (the other came on a play where Harrell fumbled twice). Xzavie Jackson even picked off an errant screen pass, running it back for a touchdown, solidifying the lead, and seemingly announcing the line's prescence as a force.

Then, two things happened - injuries and Jorvorskie Lane.

Mizzou's defense was on a high after the Tech win, entering College Station 6-0. Then the Aggie ball-control offense slowly wore away at the interior defense, as the J-Train rolled up 127 yards, primarily up the gut, with Stephen McGee and Mike Goodson adding another 84 combined yards. The rushing trio helped the Aggies possess the ball for 41:30 minutes to Mizzou's 18:30.

Yet, the defensive line still appeared to be in decent shape until injuries devestated the unit. Brian Smith broke his hip in what he termed a "freak accident" blocking following an interception against Kansas State. The loss of Smith, MU's all-time sack leader, was a tremendous loss to the defensive front, a loss the unit never seemed to recover from. Ziggy Hood missed the middle of the season with a broken bone in his foot, returning later in the year but never at 100 percent effectiveness.

This season, it's hard to fully gauge what remains. Both Smith and Jackson are gone on the ends, leaving Stryker Sulak and Tommy Chavis the massive burden of developing a pass rush that was non-existant late in the season. Inside, Lorenzo Williams and Ziggy Hood must shore up a run defense that EVERY scouting report in the nation says is the Achilles heel of this football team. A stronger run defense last year would have allowed Mizzou to hang on to a victory at Texas A&M, avoid the upset at Iowa State, and force Oregon State to take the ball out of Yvenson Bernard's hands in the Sun Bowl.

Behind those four, the rest of the squad is similar to the enitre Missouri bench: talented, but inexperienced. DEs John Stull, Tarell Corby and Jayson Corbatt have had impressive camps according to different reports. The depth behind Hood is extremely questionable, but the depth behind Williams at nose tackle may be surprising strong. Andy Maples, Jason Baston and Dominique Hamilton have a lot to prove but potentially a lot to add to a line that could use some fresh enthusiasm.

How the line holds up against Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas A&M will likely determine whether Tiger fans should start making December reservations in San Antonio. Tiger message boards even consider Hood among Mizzou's "most indispensible players" after seeing how badly his injury cost the team in 2007.

While a lot of the players on the line are not marquee names, the performance of the defensive line may be the difference between a 10-2 year and a 7-5 year.

Photos courtesy Google images