Outside linebacker Riall Johnson (1997-2000) was quite simply one of the best defenders ever to wear the cardinal and white. Sacks have only been an official NCAA statistic for the past thirty years or so, but no Cardinal defender can compare to Johnson as a sack artist. He holds the school career record with thirty-five, including five in a single game (also a school record) against Washington State in 1999. Not surprisingly, he also sits pretty high on the season and career tackles-for-loss lists. Named team captain in 2000, he was selected All-Pac-10 following that senior season.
An interesting note about the statistics. Johnson's sack totals seemed pretty impressive, so I was curious as to how his numbers might stack up against the best totals of all time. I checked four or five different sites and found four or five different lists, but there was one thing all the lists had in common -- Riall Johnson did not appear on any of them, even though the numbers reported in the Stanford media guide should have put him near the top. Finally I decided to go straight to the source, and I found a PDF of NCAA football records at NCAA.org. Johnson's thirty-five career and five single-game sacks should've been there, but they weren't.
All I can figure is that Stanford and Pac-10 statisticians must be recording sacks differently than the NCAA does. Perhaps at Stanford a half-sack is counted as a full sack, so maybe Johnson's numbers are inflated. (It should be noted, however, that the Stanford media guide lists Willie Howard, Johnson's teammate for four years, with 22.5 sacks.)
It doesn't really matter, though. Riall Johnson is at the top of all the Stanford lists, so he belongs on this one.
Previously ranked:
#14 Kailee Wong
#15 Eric Heitmann
#15 Chris Marinelli
#16 John Lynch
#17 Kwame Harris
#18 Chase Beeler
#19 Willie Howard
#20 Shayne Skov
#21 DeRonnie Pitts
#22 Anthony Bookman
#23 Sione Fua
#24 Richard Sherman
#25 John Hopkins
*My first thought was to try to come up with a list of the best Stanford football players of all-time, but I quickly realized that I'm not qualified. I've only been watching Stanford football since the fall of 1987, so I can't really comment intelligently on players who suited up before then. Sure, I know that Jim Plunkett belongs, but I know nothing about Randy Vataha. Sports Illustrated once named Ernie Nevers the greatest college football player of all-time, and that's certainly good enough for me, but how can I possibly rank him against players of a more modern era? So I decided to create a list of the best Stanford players that I've actually seen in my time as a fan, and since that's roughly twenty-five years, I'm calling it the Silver Squad. (Catchy, isn't it?) Anyway, I'd love to hear your own memories of these players, and I won't be offended if you argue about who should or should not have been included on this list. Enjoy.
[Photo Credit: Dave Gonzales]
