MSU's top 50 football players: No. 7 Bubba Smith

This is the 44th 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. 7 - Bubba Smith

Defensive end, 1964-66, Orange, Texas

The skinny: There are lots of football players from the 1960s, linemen especially, who would be too small to play today. Charles "Bubba" Smith wasn't among them. A 6-foot-7, 280-pound defensive end, Smith overwhelmed and intimidated offenses during his three years playing for MSU. He was twice an All-American, beginning in 1965 when he helped MSU's defense push Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame backwards — literally. All three teams compiled negative rushing yards and the Spartans led college football in rush defense, allowing less than 46 yards per game on the ground (34.6 in Big Ten games, which remains a conference record). Smith headlined the "Gang Green" defense, which allowed 6.2 points per game that season and 7.6 the next. By 1966, offenses either double- and triple-teamed Smith or fled, running away from him. Smith helped MSU to a 19-1-1 record in 1965 and '66, resulting in back-to-back Big Ten titles and a host of national championships by different voting bodies.

Smith arrived at MSU as part of a wave of black players in the 1960 recruited to Duffy Daugherty's program in an otherwise mostly segregated college football landscape. He became a legend, aided by his Hollywood profile after football. While at MSU, the student section would chant, "Kill, Bubba, Kill." In the "Game of the Century," the famed 10-10 tie with Notre Dame in 1966, Smith just about did kill Notre Dame starting quarterback Terry Hanratty (pictured above). Smith's early first-quarter tackle separated Hanratty's shoulder.

The Baltimore Colts selected Smith with the first overall pick of the 1967 NFL Draft. He won a Super Bowl with the Colts in 1970 and made two Pro Bowls. Post-football, he became an actor, best known for his role in the "Police Academy" films.

Smith was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988. He died in 2011 at the age of 66.

Why he's No. 7: Smith played in an era before sacks were a recorded stat. He likely wouldn't have set any records there — teams didn't throw enough in those days and did their best to run the other way. He is considered by to be among the top 10 defensive players in college football history, by a multiple rankings. If this countdown was based on the size of the legend, Smith would be No. 1. He was a larger-than-life figure and the Spartans' most coveted pro prospect on a team with four of the NFL's top eight draft picks in 1967. But he wasn't the catalyst of MSU's defense or its most consistent star, according to those who remember those teams of the mid-1960s. That player is still to come on this countdown.

Previously ...
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​