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Question: Is Darrin Smith the best OLB in modern UM history?

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Armstead was the bell cow until his injury. Wow what a freshman year he had.
 
Armstead was a phenomenal talent before shredding his knee at that FSU game. The best special teams tackler I have ever seen. One of my favorites ever. that said, he STILL had a great NFL career.

I loved Smith as well. 225-230 pound guy that ran a low 4.4 was rare in those days and he started as a sophmore. He could do it all - tackle, cover RBs one on one, etc.

He was also renowned for his work ethic. He came to UM as a 205 pound guy running a 4.7+ and was a standout in the weightroom and made himself into an AA.

As for Williams, one of the most graceful athletes ever to suit up. You want to get an idea as to his speed? Watch the 1990 (?) game against ND where Rocket returned a KO for a TD. Williams made so much ground up and was a couple yards from making the tackle on aguably the fastest guy in CFB that year. And he did that as a second year kid. Unreal talent.
 
I love Darrin Smith and i loved the Bermuda Triangle guys, but DJ Williams is incredibly underrated because he didn't play in a downhill system as much as he should have.
 
AUcane said:
Armstead was a phenomenal talent before shredding his knee at that FSU game. The best special teams tackler I have ever seen. One of my favorites ever. that said, he STILL had a great NFL career.

I loved Smith as well. 225-230 pound guy that ran a low 4.4 was rare in those days and he started as a sophmore. He could do it all - tackle, cover RBs one on one, etc.

He was also renowned for his work ethic. He came to UM as a 205 pound guy running a 4.7+ and was a standout in the weightroom and made himself into an AA.

As for Williams, one of the most graceful athletes ever to suit up. You want to get an idea as to his speed? Watch the 1990 (?) game against ND where Rocket returned a KO for a TD. Williams made so much ground up and was a couple yards from making the tackle on aguably the fastest guy in CFB that year. And he did that as a second year kid. Unreal talent.
Click to expand...

Think about it. Armstead was an 8th rounder. That's an UFA today! God he was a stud coming out of Dallas Carter.
 
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Smith was every bit as good and as important to the Triangle as the other two. He really didn't have any weaknesses to his game, but the one strength that always stood out to me was his speed for a LB. Tremendous.

Darryl Williams was a tremendous player at UM. 1st team All-American who could really lay the wood on receivers. They used to call him Hitman back in the day. Dynasty is right...Williams forced Pharms to compete against Hurlie Brown for the other safety spot.
 
I think all three of the Bermuda Triangle linebackers were all studs and now that their careers are over, come out about even. You really can't differentiate between any of the 'triangle linebackers.
 
those defenses were amazingly nimble along the line of scrimmage, rarely ever did you see more than one canes linemen on the ground on a run play, simply amazing quickness by the big guys...

which led to linbackers filling holes like badasses like smith used to love watching him stone running backs in the hole, which was two yards deep due to the quickness of the dline...

and another thing i vividly remember is when the linebackers from those d's hit you in the hole there was none of this, fall back towards the line of scrimmage and make the tackle while allowing the runner to pick up a couple of yards, it was one of those hits you could hear on the television and knew that mug wasn't going forward anymore and most likely was regretting his decision to suit up for miami's opponent that day....

ah the glory days of miami defense.... nothing else like it....
 
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