Re: If you were going to rate our top 5 DT's if all time, who would they be?

RememberTheDanny

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Jun 16, 2025, 5:49 PM [ in reply to Re: If you were going to rate our top 5 DT's if all time, who would they be? ]

1. Christian Wilkins - because he (a) played all 4 years in era when he’d gone Round 1 as a Jr. -&- (b) played DE ‘taking one for the team’ one year -&- (c) Tigers won TWO national championships. IMO, C.Wilkins is tied for the greatest Clemson FB player of all time.

2. Fridge Perry - in that era, W.Perry was physically superior to every other DT and physically outmatched every other O-Lineman the moment he set foot on campus. He destroyed opposing OLs and we won our first national championship with him. He changed the game of college FB.

3. Chester McGlockton - his size and strength were obvious, but my goodness could he RUN! Everyone remembers his Fr year bowl game strip sack / fumble recovery TD vs Major Harris’ West VA team. Not talked about as much, I remember watching him in his last game with us as Cal blew us out in Orlando. McGlockton chased down the Cal QB for what (to my recollection) was a ~ 16 yard sack. I could never understand why he didn’t get drafted until late in NFL round 1. Seeing that he quickly became an All-Pro DT, I suspect that the rest of the NFL teams felt, in retrospect, as I did.

4. Dexter Lawrence - not a bunch of showy stats, but OMG did he destroy opposing teams’ interior OLs. He gets extra credit because we won 2 Nat championships while he was murdering opposing OGs and Centers.

5. Michael Dean Perry - he was the original prototype for Grady Jarrett. His ability to hold his ground (leverage + strength) vs bigger opposing O-linemen, combined with his quickness and speed to live in the opposing team’s offensive backfield, were unmatched.

Trevor Pryce didn’t make the list because he only played one year for us. Among the others listed here (above), three of them played 4 years and the other two played 3 seasons.

Jeff Bryant deserves to be on your honorable mention list, along with Grady Jarrett and Jim Stucky (as others had already noted).

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Perry dominated in his freshman year when under 320 lbs to the extent that Clemson wins the national championship with Perry dominating supposedly all-time best college center Dave Rimington throughout the game. The story is Rimington had more holding calls vs Perry than he had all season. Perry set conference and NCAA leg press records with little training. A natural in a steroid era.

After an All-American career at Clemson, Perry wins the Super Bowl as a rookie as the dominant athlete defensive lineman on the best defensive team maybe ever in the NFL - a team full of Hall of Famers. He dominated the Bears so much, Ditka would not let other OL and DL compete often against Perry in practice due to risk of injuring the whole team. His ability to dunk at barely 6 feet and well over 300 lbs and his speed and quick twitch power were amazing. Ditka realized Perry was an unstoppable force and played him at FB. A few years later, Ditka said the chicken population of SC was halved every time Perry went home to Aiken, and drafted Nose Guard Chris Zorich to replace him. Zorich could not. Perry was too big to move but also too big and naturally strong to be moved.

Perry was a natural, and with some eating discipline and work ethic, he would be an NFL Hall of Famer himself.

Love Christian Wilkins, an all-time great and the best leader in Clemson history. Also possibly even better player Dexter Lawrence. And of course perennial All-Pro Michael Dean.

If you were going to rate our top 5 DT's if all time, who would they be?