Best of the Big 12: Demarvion Overshown, Dillon Doyle at top of conference linebackers
The weeks before the start of the college football season have become known as the talking season.
There’s lots of talk.
Not much else.
But at least one other thing helps us pass the days until the games finally start: rankings.
Preseason rankings are all the rage in July and August. Conferences do them. So do media and coaches. While these rankings don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things ― no trophies for being ranked No. 1 in August ― they certainly get our attention. We debate and discuss, analyze and argue.
So we figured we’d join the fun.
We continue our series of Big 12 rankings with linebackers:
1. Dillon Doyle, Baylor
It’s probably no surprise that the best linebackers in the Big 12 come from small-town backgrounds where you had to get tough to get out. That’s how it goes for Iowa native Dillon Doyle, a National Honor Society member in high school who heads into his fifth season looking to bring down anyone carrying the football.
Doyle started all 14 games last season for the Bears and was second on the team with 91 tackles. He also had 8½ tackles for loss, also the second highest total. He was everywhere against Texas, getting 12 stops and a forced fumble. The Bears had the second-best scoring defense in the league last season, partly because of Doyle’s hard-nosed demeanor.
Asked about his younger teammates' progress in training camp, Doyle said, “I think it’s just serving the guys around me. It’s asking what they need. It’s asking if I can help them do anything to help learn the defense better. When I ask those questions, I really want to answer the questions.”
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2. Daniel Green, Kansas State
Going into his senior season, Green is 88 tackles away from being the 27th player in school history with 250 stops. He’d also be the first to do it since 2014 in Manhattan. He’s only 54 tackles shy of moving into the school’s all-time top 10.
Green had 5.3 solo tackles per game last season, which ranked 18th nationally and fourth in the Big 12. He’s one of the best at tackling in open space. Green also tackled the books. He got a sociology degree in December.
3. DeMarvion Overshown, Texas
Every year, Overshown takes another step in his development. “Agent Zero,” as he’s known around Austin, was a Butkus Award semifinalist last season and had a team-high 74 tackles (34 solo) along with 5½ tackles for loss. He had a career high eight solo tackles against TCU last season.
Overshown, from the tiny East Texas town of Arp, was the 2020 Alamo Bowl Defensive MVP. He started wearing more armbands and joked about wearing one for every sack or big play. If that’s the case, the Longhorns would love to see him covered head to toe.
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4. DaShaun White, Oklahoma
A three-year starter, White returns for one last year with the Sooners smack dab in the middle of the defense. He had 66 tackles last season at middle linebacker and needs only 31 to have 200 tackles for his career. Not too shabby at a place like Oklahoma, a school with a long history of defensive stars.
Like everyone else, White had to adjust with the coaching change. But he’s already in lockstep with well-known OU strength coach Jerry Schmidt.
“You can tell speed and physicality is there,” White said. “The intention and purpose, those two words are really big things we've been working to focus on the last two weeks that you can tell were there in these first few days of practice.”
5. Dee Winters, TCU
The Brenham product started all last season and led the Frogs with 74 tackles. He’s another player heading into his senior season closing in on 200 tackles; he has 167. His career best was 10 tackles against Texas Tech last season. Winters also had his first interception last year against SMU.
While some TCU players hit the transfer portal after the coaching change, Winters stayed.
“The reason why some guys left is because the defense didn’t fit them,” Winters told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the spring. “But the reason I stayed was to pick up my brothers. We had some guys stay, so I wanted to be a part of that and be something great.”
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6. O’Rien Vance, Iowa State
Vance might be a familiar name to some. He sure is in Ames. He was the Fiesta Bowl Defensive MVP in 2020 but suffered a hamstring injury in the 2021 season opener and was bothered by injuries all season. Vance finished with 36 tackles, 2½ tackles for loss, one sack and one pass breakup. He’s going into his sixth year with 194 career tackles and 10 sacks.
“You talk about a guy who when he steps into that locker room and when he speaks, everybody listens, it’s that guy,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. “O’Rien Vance is the epitome in terms of great leaders that we’ve had in this program. He fits it.”
7. Xavier Benson, Oklahoma State
Benson might be one of the biggest surprise newcomers to the Big 12 this season. He had 120 tackles at Tyler Junior College in 2021. It was the highest total among all NJCAA schools. ESPN ranked him the 23rd-best junior college prospect in the nation for the class of 2022.
His name might ring a bell in Lubbock. Benson started 10 games at Texas Tech in 2019 after redshirting. He was fourth on the team in tackles for the season. He opted out of football in 2020, but now he’s back with a vengeance.
8. Rich Miller, Kansas
Miller started nine games last season for the Jayhawks and was second on the team with 79 tackles. He had a career-high eight solo stops and one pass breakup in Kansas’ huge upset win over Texas. Linebacker is all he’s ever known. Miller was the linebacker on his high school state championship teams in 2016 and 2018.
Miller is one of the few mainstays from last year as the Jayhawks retooled their roster through the transfer portal. They allowed a league-high 42.2 points per game last season. “We understand that all the little things we do now are going to help us in the fall,” Miller said in the spring.
9. David Ugwoegbu, Oklahoma
Ugwoegbu came to OU rated as one of the nation’s top defensive ends. He’s played three straight seasons, starting off and on, and racked up 102 tackles and 8½ tackles for loss. The guy is consistent, always around the ball. Ugwoegbu had seven tackles against TCU, six against West Virginia and six against Oregon last season, for example.
“I had to lose a lot of weight to get my speed up, and that’s exactly what I did,” Ugwoegbu said during training camp. “I think I see it in my transitional movements as I get in and out of my breaks in coverage.”
10. Mason Cobb, Oklahoma State
Cobb played in all 14 games last season, mostly on special teams. But he’s moving into a defensive role this season on what could be one of the top linebacker units in the league. He’ll be working for new defensive coordinator Derek Mason. Cobb is the only returning player who has started at linebacker for the Cowboys.
“I feel like I've come into a time where the game is slowing down for me,” Cobb said, “so I feel like I'm very comfortable on the field making plays and stuff.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Best Big 12 linebackers include Dillon Doyle, Demarvion Overshown
