Defensive Line | Letters 06-08
Lamonte Nelms is probably the most overlooked of all the recent defensive linemen for the Bearcats. Since the Minter era began UC has become something of a haven for defensive linemen. Of all those units through the last decade the best of the bunch was the 2008 group. They consistently dominated games despite playing more robust competition than those early 00's groups.
Nelms had a whale of a year in 2008 with 6 sacks and 14 tackles for loss. While his career numbers of 11 sacks and 24 TFL place him just outside the top 10 in program history I still feel like he deserves a spot on this list. Its easy to forget that the strength of the 2008 team was on defense and on the line in particular because the narrative of the Kelly years is all about offense. That front controlled so many games that year that it made the entire defense more effective, even when the offense wasn't, which was surprisingly often. Nelms contributions to that team merit inclusion on the list.
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