Syracuse Football: Get To Know Your Orange Man - #13 Deon Goggins

The "Get to Know..." three-a-days roll on.  To catch up on anyone that you've missed, click here.

Few SU players have garnered the fanfare that Deon Goggins did during his recruitment.  He's from California.  He has a ridiculous sack dance/nickname combo.  He makes awesome proclamations about his style of play.  He wants to like, quadruple-major in four different colleges at the University.  He wears #13 as a D-Lineman.  "Diesel" is the total package.

Position:  Defensive Tackle

Year:  Senior (Junior eligibility)

Height:  6'1"

Weight:  272

Hometown:  Los Angeles, CA

High School:  Sommerset HS

Community College:  Cerritos CC

2010 Stats:  Many predicted that Goggins would come in and if not start, have an immediate impact in the middle of our defensive line.  However, Deon took a bit longer to adjust to Division 1 ball, and ended up taking a redshirt last season. 

2011 Projections:  You may have noticed that I never ended up finishing my spring report cards, the last one I wrote was the offensive line (sorry).  However, to this day, I don't know what grade I would've given to Deon Goggins for his spring.  I've never seen someone perform so consistently inconsistent over a decently large sample size.  I'm not even talking about weeks of good play followed by weeks of bad play; with Deon every practice was radically different from the one before it.  Some days he looked absolutely unblockable, and other days he was barely noticeable on the field.

From what I've read on the summer camp, Deon seems to be getting a bit more consistent, and that is a great thing to hear.  Out of our entire defensive line, I think that Goggins has the most potential for an Art Jones-at-Notre Dame type performance, where he puts the team on his back and essentially wins us a game.  Luckily there is a game on our schedule that may require that kind of Herculean effort, and it happens to be right at home for Deon.

How'd He Get Here?:  Deon cites Newhouse, proximity to NYC, going to another part of the country, Syracuse's football tradition, and the coaching staff as various reasons for his commitment to SU on 2010's signing day.  He chose SU over Baylor, San Jose State, Utah State, and Washington State.  Greg Adkins was his main recruiter.

What'd Scout/Rivals Say?:  Scout gave Deon 3 stars.  Rivals never rated him.

Money Quote:  Was there ever any doubt?  Nolan:

When asked about his style of play, Goggins said, "Rough — or my favorite word, brutal."

Pressed to describe what that means, Goggins said he aims to become a player "resembling a beast without human sensibility."

Links of Wonder:  Dave Rahme discusses Deon's struggles adjusting to football and life at Syracuse last season, and how he looks to turn it around and make an impact this year.  There are some awesome quotes from Deon and Jimmy Brumbaugh in here, it's definitely worth the read.

Doug Marrone Thinks:  Rahme:

"You’re starting to see some flashes now of what we’re looking for him to do at this level," head coach Doug Marrone said after this morning's practice. "There’s always a transition for players who come from high school or junior college to the Division I level. So what we see from Deon now is we see some flashes of what we want done more in the individual drills or the one-on-one competition drills. That has to be converted over into the team drills, so he’s probably exactly where he should be right now."

Interesting Nugget O'Interest:  Besides all of the ones that already litter this blog?  I think my favorite Goggins tidbit is that the man played running back in high school.  He's definitely a freak athlete.  He's also a boxer, as well as an avid skier and snowboarder.

Let Us Get a Good Look Atchya:

Oh god I want to see this sack dance like 20 times this season.

2009 #95 Deon Goggins DT (via CerritosFalcons)

A Beast Without Human Sensibility (via HoyaSuxa)

This is quite literally the greatest interview in Syracuse Post-Standard history: