The High Production of Pheldarius Payne

We’ve gone over the fact that Pheldarius Payne had a great season at defensive tackle for Virginia Tech in 2023. We’ve highlighted his PFF grades, but we can also use traditional numbers to show you exactly how effective he was for the Hokies.

The top 100 players in terms of tackles for loss in college football this season all had 11 or more. That’s too many players to go through, so I’ve got to find a way to sift through things a bit. I’m operating from this list on CFBStats.com. It can be a little tricky because it lists some defensive ends as ends, but others as simply “DL”. So I had to simplify things because of that, and because there are so many players to begin with.

I threw out the non-Power 5 players, just because there are so many to go through, and because the level of competition is different. For example, JMU had three of the nation’s top eight players in tackles for loss…

• Jalen Green: 21 (in nine games!)
• Jamree Kromah: 19.5
• Mikail Kamara: 18.5

That’s insane. But as much as I respect what the Dukes have done, we’re focusing on P5 players today.

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