BYU Football Top 100: No. 11 Glenn Redd, Turnover Machine
The start of the BYU Football season is down to only 11 more days!
Next week we will be watching BYU Football. NEXT WEEK! This week there will be live college football. The wait is just about over! As I was finishing the Utah previews yesterday, I realized that the Utes are in fact a really good team. It wasn't that I doubted that they were, but with so many questions in the kicking game and not the best offense historically, I was doubtful.
They are the real deal, and if BYU Football is able to take them down, it won't only be a great win over a rival, but one of the greatest wins ever for the Cougars. Maybe not up there with No. 3 Pittsburg, No. 3 Oklahoma or No. 1 Miami, but still up there in the Top 20 wins of all time.
Today's player in the countdown is a linebacker whose stats are absolutely incredible.
No. 11 Glenn Redd - Linebacker - 1976-1980
Unless you are 50 years or older, you may not know about Glenn Redd. I know that before starting this project I had never heard about him. Yet, he is one of the greatest defenders, and players all time for the Cougars.
Imagine a player that AVERAGES a forced fumble every 2.5 games and an interception every five games for a total of a forced turnover every 1.9 games. That is ridiculous! The only other player in BYU Football history to have a higher average was Dave Atkinson with a turnover every 1.65 games. Redd wasn't just good at forcing turnovers though, he was a tackling machine as well.
Redd died in 2007.
Rankings
Impact A-
Turnovers are one of very few key indicators in winning. If a team wins the turnover battle, the team will likely end up winning the game. Stats weren't really good at play by play back then so there isn't an accurate way of knowing when he forced turnovers, but given their 28-5 record while he was playing, it is safe to say he made a positive impact on the team. He also had 17 games with at least ten tackles, which is another obvious indicator of leaving a positive impact. The only thing that hurts his is, he isn't well known. Part of that could be the teams he played on and the other talent with him, but given the fact that I had heard of four or five others players on the teams he played on but not him makes me question his lasting impact.
Statistics A+
Glenn Redd essentially only played for three years. He technically did play his freshman season but only totalled two tackles. For the other three seasons he was phenomenal totalling 382 tackles, 12 forced fumbles, 6 interceptions, 18 pass breakups, 10 tackles for loss, 4 sacks and 5 quarterback hurries. That is 11.6 tackles per game! Also, he was consistently getting better every season which scores big points in the statistics category.
Memorable Moments B+
I consider myself a BYU Football expert. I've honestly spent probably 10,000 hours either researching, watching or reporting on the Cougars. The fact that I never really heard of Glenn Redd is either a major fluke for me, or he just didn't have the memorable moments that are talked about to this day. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was an extremely memorable player and had very memorable moments (there is no film on him). He did play during the Miracle Bowl in 1980 but there are no stat sheets that recorded his play in that game. Watching the game, he was an impact maker on that team His statistics alone are memorable and having a guy get that many turnovers is something that doesn't happen very often at all.