Top five defensive performances of college football Week 10 by Dan Mullen

Each week in college football there are some standout performances and each week many of them are highlighted by the various analysts out there, including ESPN’s Dan Mullen.

On Monday, Mullen provided his list of the top five defensive performances in college football, looking at both individual players and teams. He came away impressed by a few different individuals and one team.

Let’s dive into the picks for Dan Mullen’s top defensive performances in Week 10 of college football below.

1. LB Jeremiah Trotter, Clemson

Clemson hasn’t had the kind of season it would have hoped for, and Saturday’s contest against Notre Dame was a key one to salvage some momentum. Luckily one of Clemson’s best showed up in a major way, impacting every facet of the game defensively.

Trotter turned in 11 tackles total, with two going for sacks and two and a half going for a loss. He also broke up a pass, then picked off another and ran it back for a touchdown to give Clemson some defensive points. That’s a pretty tremendous outing for a linebacker.

2. LB Leo Lowin, Army

Army managed to stun Air Force and end its unbeaten season with an all-around effort anchored by a tremendous defensive performance. Leading that charge defensively was Lowin, who was perhaps even more impactful than Trotter by the numbers.

Lowin recorded 12 tackles, two tackles for a loss, a sack, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and a pass breakup. That’s a terrific day’s work for someone at the middle level of the defense and well deserving of the recognition from Dan Mullen.

3. DB Keenan Leachman, Alcorn State

Want to talk about takeaways? How about the day Leachman had in a game against Southern? He was all over the place and absolutely phenomenal in the contest.

Try this on for size: Leachman had a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and two interceptions, to go along with three tackles. On the season Leachman has racked up 28 tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, three interceptions and a pass breakup. So the majority of his takeaway production came on Saturday in a special outing.

4. DE Andrew Chatfield, Oregon State

There’s a bit of a personal connection to this one for Dan Mullen, as he recruited Chatfield and coached him at Florida before his transfer to Oregon State. But Mullen’s not wrong about the kind of impact Chatfield had on Saturday in a win over Colorado.

Chatfield had only three tackles, but those three tackles went for a loss of 36 yards and all three were sacks. He also forced a fumble, broke up two passes and had two quarterback hurries in the win, showing some serious versatility.

5. Penn State Defense

Penn State faced a potent Maryland offense and made it look hapless for most of the day in a thoroughly dominant 51-15 win. Maryland was absolutely stifled on the ground and quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was harassed throughout the game.

The Nittany Lions limited the Terps to -49 yards rushing (with lost sack yardage counting against rushing totals). Maryland gained only 234 total yards in the contest, while Penn State forced four turnovers. All in all a perfect way to wrap up Dan Mullen’s Week 10 accolades defensively.

Those were Dan Mullen’s picks for the best defensive performances of the week, but he listed a number of other accolades too. Be sure to check out his top offensive performances from Week 10, as well.