A good story about Mike Stonebreaker
One of my favorite players from the Holtz era is Mike Stonebreaker.
He was an absolute one man wrecking crew in 1988, and had he stayed healthy in 1989, I think that the Miami game would have swung our way. Craig Erickson was connecting on way too many easy passes, and while Don Grimm had a fine season as his replacement, he was getting picked on too easily during that game.
In 1990, after those awful injuries, he wasn't nearly in as good of a physical shape, but his football instincts and IQ were off the charts. He had some of the best anticipation out of any linebacker to have ever played the game, and was in the right place to secure a couple of game changing turnovers that season.
Link: https://247sports.com/college/notre-dame/Article/Etched-In-Stone-Michael-Stonebreaker-Notre-Dame-Football-College-Football-Hall-of-Fame-188795253/
Replies to: A good story about Mike Stonebreaker
So glad to hear about his success. The guy I thought was great was Ned Bolcar who was kind of the
linebacker to replace Stonebreaker and Prtichett at the time. He was playing well for the Dolphins but then injuries hurt him. A lot of guys from that era had injuries as pros that limited their productivity. Rocket blew it when he went to Canada and then lost the equivalent of about 4 years by going to shitty teams and being hurt. He should have been one of the best. Ironically one of his best seasons was when Beuerlein was the QB for Carolina. Troy Aikman said about Rocket that he never saw such a fast receiver run perfect patterns like Rocket did.
Seems not to be having any mental issues from football...
Mike reminds me of SC's great linebacker, Scott Ross. He lost everything due to the game. But Stonebreaker looks to be doing fine...
Much better tackling mechanics
Mike Stonebreaker's tackling technique was much more sound than just about any other linebacker out there. He would put himself in a much better position to make the tackle, due to his excellent anticipation abilities, and try to take the guy down using leverage, instead of going for the gigantic hit.
Five 1990 SC linebackers died prior to 50...
They were taught to tackle by leading with the head into the ballcarrier. It's so damn tragic...
https://www.si.com/college/2020/10/07/usc-and-its-dying-linebackers
One of my all time favorites. Thanks.
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