JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The first time Brandon Scherff watched game film of Derek Barnett, the Iowa left tackle thought the Tennessee defensive end was a second- or third-year player.
Then one of his coaches told the Outland Trophy winner Barnett was just a freshman, and the 6-foot-5, 320-pound fifth-year senior said “absolutely” surprised him.
“I didn’t even know that the first time I watched him,” Scherff recalled on Wednesday after the Volunteers and Hawkeyes held their news conferences for Friday’s TaxSlayer Bowl. “I asked coach who this was, and he was like, ‘Yeah, he’s only a freshman.’ I was like, ‘Good for him, he’s going to be a really good player.'”
The 6-foot-3, 267-pound Barnett showed he’s better than good with an impressive debut season. The former four-star recruit finished second in the SEC, trailing only Missouri’s Shane Ray, with 20.5 tackles for loss and added 11 sacks and 69 tackles to his All-SEC freshman season.
Scherff’s resume is far from shabby, too. He won the Outland Trophy given annually to the nation’s top lineman in December and earned a second straight All-Big Ten nod. He likely will be one of the first tackles off the board in the upcoming NFL draft.