I don’t want to jinx him, but Dax Hollifield is quietly putting together an excellent season for Virginia Tech. I say quietly because when the team is losing, we (myself included) have a tendency to focus on the things that aren’t going quite so well while ignoring the good individual performances. Therefore, today I want to reverse that trend and talk about what a good season Hollifield is having for the Hokies.

Depending on how closely you were watching the UNC game, you may have noticed that just about every time the Tech defense made a good play against the run, Dax was involved in some way. As it turned out, he ended up with a PFF grade of 90.8 against the run, which is the highest of his career. In fact, the two highest grades of his career against the run have come this season, with the other being the BC game (85.4).

Two of his three best overall performances of his career have come this season as well (ODU, 90.0, and UNC, 80.6). But these other numbers will blow you away even more. I ran the numbers for every linebacker in the country who has played 200+ snaps this season, and here’s how Hollifield ranks…

Overall: 82.7, No. 7 out of 227
Rush Def: 81.3, No. 21 out of 227
Pass Rush: 90.0, No. 4 out of 227
Coverage: 75.3, No. 18 out of 227

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