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Always College Football with Greg McElroy

Top 10 Defensive Lines heading into 2026! | Always College Football

Always College Football with Greg McElroy

ESPN

Football, Sports

3.91.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What is the most expensive real estate in college football? Answer: the 7 yards between the OT's outside shoulder and the QB's chin. So why not rank the Top 10 defensive line units in college football heading into the 2026 season. Can A.J. Holmes Jr. lead a rebuilt Texas Tech line back to the CFP, is Will Heldt ready to continue the Clemson D-line NFL pedigree, and is everyone sleeping on David Stone and the Oklahoma front?  McElroy goes over all it plus tells you why this is the deepest Notre Dame defensive line in a generation, if anyone will be able to run on Texas and why Oregon has far and away the best defensive line in the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:30.2

Oregon's defensive line doesn't just lead the country, but it leads by so much that the second place team is not even really in the conversation.

0:44.8

Hello and welcome in. It's always college football. I'm your host Greg McElroy.

0:48.1

Glad to have you with us today. It's a very important show here on ACF.

0:53.6

Today we will rank the top 10 defensive line units in college football.

0:59.9

I've said it for a while now.

1:01.1

Most important position in the sport is quarterback.

1:03.3

We know that.

1:04.4

But tell me a team in the last 10, 12, 15 years that won a national championship without great defensive line play as well.

1:13.6

There's not many because I want to ask you a question.

1:16.6

What's the most expensive real estate in college football?

1:19.4

You might think, well, it's the stadiums.

1:21.7

You might think, well, practice facilities.

1:24.8

You might think NIL collectives and places where they do their business. But no,

1:30.2

the most expensive real estate and college football is the seven or eight yards between the

1:34.8

offensive tackles outside shoulder and the quarterback's chin, because that might very well

1:40.2

be where championships are decided. That is where defensive lines earn their money.

1:45.5

And right now, here we are in May of 26, spring football is behind us. Rosters are locked in,

1:51.9

or at least as locked in as they're going to be heading in the fall camp. We have a much better

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