Continuing my series on the upcoming senior class in the Metroplex, I'll break down the defensive line for the next few days with the help of a list compiled by Greg Riddle of The Dallas Morning News and recruiting Web site Rivals.com's Barton Simmons.
I actually have quite a few disagreements with their list's order of players, but not the players on the list. We'll start with 5-7 today and 3-4 on Friday and 1-2 on Monday.
7. Michael Daniels, Garland Naaman Forest HS - The 6 foot 3 inch, 240-pound defensive end is a prototypical strongside end with his power and 4.7 speed in the 40-yard dash. Daniels' stats were hard to come by, but I've heard from some of my sports writer buddies that he's the real deal and can take over a game. He doesn't have any offers as of now, but he's garnering plenty of interest from big-time programs. To date, he has interest from Kansas State, Kansas, LSU, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Texas A&M.
6. David Johnson, Argyle HS - At the 3A level, Johnson might not get the publicity some of these other players do, but he's well deserving of it. Johnson is 6 foot 2 inches, 250 pounds and a certified man-beast. He plays all positions on the line. I saw him multiple times this year and he was utilized at both tackle and end, but he'll likely play tackle in college at TCU, where he's orally committed. He racked up 77 tackles last season, including 24 behind the line of scrimmage to go with 12 sacks. He also had an offer from Stanford.
5. Jackson Richards, Southlake Carroll HS - The 6 foot 4 inch, 240-pound strongside defensive end is a great athlete for his size. He's committed to Texas Tech, but also had offers from UCLA, Kansas State and LSU thanks to his thanks to his good "combine" numbers of 4.8 40, 30-inch vertical, 325-pound bench and 500 squat.
Stay tuned on Friday for the third and fourth best defensive linemen in the 2010 class.
Adam Boedeker is a sports writer/blogger for the Denton Record-Chronicle. He still has Louisville.
