Members of the Inaugural TAJ-Talented 10th Black College All-American Team.
During the month of February, (Black History Month) one member of the All-American team will be featured on the UrbanmediaToday.com website daily. Today we put the spot light on:
South Carolina State’s Darius Leonard : (Linebacker)
#10 Red -Shirt Senior
6’3″ 235 lbs
Lake View, South Carolina
(Lake View High School)
#3 Nationally HBCU Football Total Tackles (113)
#7 Nationally HBCU Football Sacks per game (0.8)
-BOXTOROW All-American Team
-SBN Black College All-American Team
-First Team FCS AP All-AMerican
-Stats FCS All-American Team
-NFL Reese’s Senior Bowl Defensive MVP
Im just out here trying to prove that I belong! #MANIAC pic.twitter.com/PufA8YNV7W
— Darius Leonard (@dsleon45) January 28, 2018
Darius started this season with 12 tackles in the Bulldogs season opener against South Western Athletic Conference power Southern University. Nine of those tackles were solo tackles and his way of putting the college football world, specifically the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference on notice. The Senior linebacker actually averaged a tackle for loss (12 total) in every game he played this season helping put the bite in South Carolina State’s defense.
?@Eaglesnest365 ?#2018NFLDraft Sleeper Prospect #Eagles Should Watch!!!!
ILB- Darius Leonard, South Carolina St, 6’3 236lbs. Tall, fast, Physical shoots gaps very well. Showed some good coverage skills. Think he can play in a 43 or 34 front
Watch!!!!!https://t.co/w2tyHXeJ8Y— Matt Anzio 365 Scout (@MAnzio77) February 16, 2018
Leonard is and has been a potential NFL Draft Prospect for at least two years now and yet in 2017 he did not rest on his laurels. This season the Bulldogs all-time leading tackler (394 Total) amassed double digit tackles in 7 out of 10 games. Darius had a season high 18 tackles in the SCSU 35-14 win over Morgan State and pulled in two interceptions. he followed that performance a week later with 15 tackles against Bethune-Cookman including his season high of 7 solo tackles.
2018 NFL Draft Prospect Profile: Darius Leonard, South Carolina State https://t.co/euEkAubJ10
— Revenge of the Birds (@revengeofbirds) February 7, 2018
The South Carolina native finished the season with 8.5 sacks and wrapped up his senior season in Orangeburg with 2 sacks per game in the final two contest of the season. But that was not the end of gridiron action for the pride of South Carolina State this season. Leonard playing as only one of three HBCU products playing in this years Reese’s Senior Bowl; finished with a game high 14 tackles and earned Defensive MVP honors.
SC State’s Darius Leonard invited to NFL Combine https://t.co/VgmpILWpaP pic.twitter.com/NMoPGY4bsY
— ABC Columbia (@abc_columbia) February 6, 2018
Look for this young man on Sundays in 2018, according to NFL reports he has a good chance of following former teammate Javon Hargrove (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Temarrick Hemingway (Los Angeles Rams) to the next level.
Off Ball LB Rankings
1- R. Smith UGA
2- T. Edmungs VTech
3- Vander Esch Boise St
4- Malik Jefferson UT
5- Darius Leonard SC St
6- Jerome Baker Ohio St
7- R. Evans Bama
8- Josey Jewell Iowa
9- Fred Warner BYU
10- Matt Thomas FSU
11- Tegray Scales Indiana
12- Skai Moore S Carolina— Chad Forbes (@NFLDraftBites) February 16, 2018
