TOP 50 MSU

MSU's top 50 football players: No. 3 Darqueze Dennard

Graham Couch
Lansing State Journal
Darqueze Dennard won the Jim Thorpe Award in 2013, given annually to the best defensive back in college football. Dennard was seldom tested as a senior, and for good reason.

This is the 48th in a 50-day summer series counting down the top players in Michigan State football history, as I see them. As with last year's MSU basketball top 50, the criteria is performance and impact at MSU only, professional career irrelevant. Have your own opinion? Leave a comment or tweet at me @Graham_Couch.

No. 3 - Darqueze Dennard

Cornerback, 2010-13, Dry Branch, Ga.

The skinny: Dennard embodies MSU's famed "No Fly Zone," headlining a secondary unlike anything seen before in East Lansing. He is the most complete corner ever to suit up for the Spartans, playing in an era of complex passing games and within a defense that relies heavily on its corners to be able to survive on an island. Dennard is the only MSU player to win the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's best defensive back. He was also a unanimous All-American as a senior in 2013 and first-team All-Big Ten selection for the second straight year. Like any revered corner, Dennard's contributions cannot be measured in stats — instead in consistency, big moments and opponents' fear. When challenged, he delivered. He lived on the hip of his receiver, breaking up a would-be big plays regularly and sometimes appearing as if he were the intended target, with ideal positioning on several of his 10 career interceptions. But he was more than a cover corner at MSU. He was a physical presence on the edge and a sure tackler in space. That's a rare trifecta.

Without Dennard, there is no Big Ten championship in 2013 or Rose Bowl a month later. He was a massive part of the most suffocating defense at MSU in the modern era. Opponents' couldn't run the ball against talented and stacked fronts. They had little chance against Dennard — often on his own — either. With good recovery speed, unending confidence and a nose for the football, he could be a demoralizing matchup.

The Cincinnati Bengals selected Dennard 24th overall in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.

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Why he's No. 3: He's the most complete college cornerback in memory — albeit a memory that's immensely limited in scope. But there there hasn't been a more prolific corner at MSU. Dennard played the position that makes MSU's modern defense and MSU's modern defense is what's allowed this program's improbable rise to among college football's elite. One could argue there is no more significant defensive player in nearly a half a century of MSU football. Actually, I'm making that argument.

It's easy to dismiss players who are too recent when looking at the big picture historically. But there is not a more impressive or important era for MSU football than this, and Dennard was at the forefront of making it happen.

Previously ...
No. 4: Charles Rogers
No. 5: Don Coleman
No. 6: Andre Rison
No. 7: Bubba Smith
No. 8: Percy Snow
No. 9: Brad Van Pelt
No. 10: Tony Mandarich
No. 11: Connor Cook
No. 12: Javon Ringer
No. 13: Kirk Cousins
No. 14: Gene Washington
No. 15: Dan Bass
No. 16: Kirk Gibson
No. 17: Julian Peterson
No. 18: Sherm Lewis
No. 19: Plaxico Burress
No. 20: T.J. Duckett
No. 21: Lynn Chandnois
No. 22: Le'Veon Bell
No. 23: Clinton Jones
No. 24: Max Bullough
No. 25: Blake Ezor
No. 26: Flozell Adams
No. 27: Larry Bethea
No. 28: Tico Duckett
No. 29: Carl Banks
No. 30: Sedrick Irvin
No. 31: Jeremy Langford
No. 32: Dan Currie
No. 33: B.J. Cunningham
No. 34: Earl Morrall
No. 35: Joe DeLamielleure
No. 36: Ed Budde
No. 37: Eric Allen
No. 38: Walt Kowalczyk
No. 39: Charlie Thornhill
No. 40: Jack Conklin
No. 41: John Pingel
No. 42: Billy Joe DuPree
No. 43: Trae Waynes
No. 44: George Saimes
No. 45: Greg Jones
No. 46: Ed Smith
No. 47: Bob Apisa
No. 48: Derrick Mason
No. 49: Ed Bagdon
No. 50: Denicos Allen