Team Texas Defensive Line: Ziggy Hood

Ever wondered what a Mizzou team that was comprised of only Missouri kids would look like? Or wonder how good an only-Texan Mizzou squad would do? Well, you’re in luck! This offseason, the Rock M Masthead is assembling the best team of Mizzou players by state that they graduated high school from. We compiled a list of the significant starters on every team from the year 2000 on and voted on the best players at their position group in order to create three “All-State” Mizzou squads: Team Missouri, Team Texas, and Team USA. Over the next nine weeks you’ll read about these Mizzou Greats that hailed from the respective regions and, hopefully, come away impressed with just how good these fictional teams could actually be.

This week, we’re deciding who’s going to be representing D-Line Zou!

When we talk about D-Line Zou, I think most people think about the long list of pass rushers on the edge. Very rarely do we discuss the players on the interior who have represented and dominated the A and B gaps. Ziggy Hood was that guy for four years at Mizzou.

The voting here was razor thin, and Michael Sam was a worthy candidate. The argument for Sam is that his peak at Mizzou was something we’ve never seen. He was voted SEC Player of the Year and had a senior season to remember. Hood got the nod for his overall career production.

Ziggy Hood was a three-star recruit out of Amarillo, Texas and received legitimate snaps right away as a true freshman in 2005.

In ‘06, he was a starter and unfortunately broke his foot three games into the season. I think for most players, that may have ended their season but Hood managed to come back after only about a month to help finish the season. Even with the injury, he still managed to bring in decent production, finishing with 3.5 sacks and 29 tackles.

It was the 2007 and 2008 seasons where Hood really distinguished himself as a difference maker. In those seasons, he combined for 108 total tackles, 15 tackles for loss, and 9.5 sacks. He started every game, and was a factor in eating up blockers so that guys like Sean Witherspoon (Editor’s Note: SPOOOOOOOOOON) could come clean it up. He was never the flashiest player on those defenses, but he was one of the most important.

Photo by Paul Nisely/Sporting News via Getty Images via Getty Images

His skillset was coveted at the next level, as Hood would go on to be drafted in the first round to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009. Hood played in the NFL for 9 years, and was a nice piece on a few of those Steeler defensive lines of the recent past.

Team Texas is on a roll. This squad has a lot of winners on it. From top to bottom so far, it just seems like there are a lot of guys who found themselves being super productive on good to great Mizzou teams of the past.

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