North Texas DT Dion Novil Has NFL Aspirations

[Coach Andy Mac]

Joe Greene and Brandon Kennedy are the two greatest defensive tackles in North Texas history.

Freshman weren’t allowed to play college football in the 1960s so Greene lettered only three seasons at North Texas. But he earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors all three of his seasons and remains the only consensus All-America in school history.

Freshman are now allowed to play college ball and Kennedy became one of only four players in North Texas history to win all-conference honors all four of his seasons. He was second-team All-Big West as a freshman and then first-team All-Sunbelt Conference in his final three seasons. He also was the Sunbelt Defensive Player of the Year in both 2002 and 2003.

Greene became the fourth overall pick of the 1969 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He went on to win four Super Bowl rings and earn spots on both the NFL’s 100th anniversary team and in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Kennedy went undrafted in 2004 and never played a down in the NFL.

Dion Novil is anxious to find out if and where he fits in between Greene and Kennedy in the historical pecking order of North Texas defensive tackles.

Novil was a three-year starter and a two-time first-team All-Conference USA selection. He collected 37 ½ career tackles-for-loss and 10 ½ sacks – far short of the school-record 61 tackles-for-loss by Kennedy and his 18 sacks. But Novil is not short of Kennedy in one key aspect – his height.

Kennedy did not fit the NFL’s prototype for the defensive interior – not at 5-9 ½, 332 pounds. Which is why he went to training camp as an undrafted free agent with the Denver Broncos and didn’t last the summer. Players that size tend to get smothered by all those 6-3 and 6-4 guards in NFL blocking fronts.

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