Year, Name, School, Position, Solo-Assisted–Total
Jr. Brendan Pyne, Brown LB, 48-36—84
Jr. Jacob Martin, Penn DB, 47-30—77
Jr. Jelani Taylor, Cornell DB 41-31—72
So. Jordan Hill, Harvard LB, 30-40—70
Jr. Michael Hoecht, Brown DL, 37-42—69
Fr. Brian O’Neill, Penn LB, 32-25—57
So. Dxxx Stallworth, Princeton DB, 33-23—56
Fr. Clayton Perrin, Brown DB, 33-20—53
So. Chima Amushie, Brown DB, 39-12—51
So. Lance Blass, Cornell LB, 29-20—49
Jr. Ryan Burke, Yale LB, 41-7—48
Jr. Mo Bradford, Cornell LB, 23-24–47
Jr. Nigel Alexander, Dartmouth LB, 22-24–46
Fr. Jason Madeiros, Brown LB, 32-14–46
Fr. Noah Pope, Yale LB, 31-13—44
Leading returnee from a school without a leading tackler in the top-15:
Jr. Michael Murphy, Columbia LB, 15-24–39
* Please note that in order to make this an apples-to-apples comparison the list does not include players who will be returning as fifth-year seniors. While we know Dartmouth linebacker Jack Traynor (26-30--56 in eight games) will be returning next fall, we don't know about fifth-year seniors at other schools and there will likely be others who belong on this list.
For what it's worth, this list is the trickiest of them all because a tackle is about the most arbitrary of statistics, and because players on struggling teams have the most opportunity to make tackles.
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Don't like the college or NFL tiebreaker rules? A Slate story tells us about the "California tiebreaker," which it compares to a "tug-of-war without the rope." From the story:The ball is placed at the 50-yard line, and the teams run four plays each (a coin toss decides who gets to go first), alternating possession at the spot of the ball after every play. If no one manages to score (field goals aren’t allowed), then the team that’s in its opponents’ territory at the conclusion of the eight plays is awarded one point and declared the winner.BGA Take: The story points out some of the shortcomings of the idea but it would be fun to watch.
BGA Take II: While the NCAA will never adopt anything quite that radical, I do have a suggestion for the governing body of college football. Please, please, please do not include overtime numbers in the final season statistics. The 2003 Arkansas-Kentucky game was 24-24 at the end of regulation and finished up 71-63. Team, individual and national statistics were distorted by the 86 combined points scored in overtime.
