Ohio State Football: Top 5 defensive ends in Buckeye history

2. Mike Vrabel

The current head coach of the Tennessee Titans, many Buckeye fans remember Mike Vrabel as one of the best Buckeyes to ever suit up for the team.

Playing from 1993 to 1996, Vrabel started making his mark for the Buckeyes as a sophomore. He was able to sack the quarterback 12 times in 1994, a number that still stands as fifth all-time in a single season for a Buckeye defensive linemen.

As good as that sophomore season was, Vrabel’s junior season was better.

He racked up a career-high 13 sacks on the season, one-upping his previous number of 12 the year prior and at the time holding the one and two spots for single-season sacks as a Buckeye.

Now though, he stands as the fourth and fifth spots on that list, impressive considering he played over 20 years ago. For his efforts in 1995, Vrabel was named the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year, a feat he obtained in his senior season as well.

As much as I would love to tell you that Vrabel one-upped himself again in his senior season, I can’t tell you that. The senior defensive end obtained just 9 sacks in 1996, a number that is still very good, but four less than the number he put up the year before.

That being said, Vrabel also made 48 tackles for the Buckeyes that year and once again was named the Defensive Lineman of the Year, winning the award for the second straight season and becoming only the second player ever to accomplish that feat. That is a record that still holds up today.

The most impressive statistic that Vrabel holds, however, is the whopping 36 sacks that he accumulated in his career, a number that is No. 1 in Buckeye history and 8.5 more than a current Buckeye.

Vrabel, like everyone else on this list, proved his worth by not only racking up statistics but by being a major headache for anyone that had to face him.