When Joe Dineen sacked Texas Tech quarterback Alan Bowman in the final minute of the second quarter on Saturday, it didn’t occur to him that he had just tied Kansas football great Wilie Pless for the all-time program lead in career tackles for loss.
“I knew I was close. I knew I needed two more to tie him,” the redshirt senior linebacker from Lawrence made clear this week, sharing he was told following the loss he had reached Pless’s longstanding number of 41. “But just throughout the course of the game you don’t necessarily count that stuff. I knew I was close, and after I heard that I got it, it’s quite the accomplishment. I’m excited that I got it.”
Now, Dineen added after making two TFLs at Tech, he intends to keep up that type of production, and perhaps more importantly, not let fellow captain Daniel Wise catch him.
Entering the Jayhawks’ Saturday home game against TCU (2 p.m. kickoff, FOX Sports 1), Dineen and Pless, who starred for KU’s defense from 1982-85, sit atop the record book in TFLs. But redshirt senior defensive lineman Wise is only 1.5 behind them, with 39.5 tackles for loss — fifth all-time at KU, behind Nick Reid (2002-05) and Jim Zidd (1977-79), who both finished their careers with 40.
Previously unaware of another pertinent fact in what Dineen and Wise have described as a friendly competition between the two, it wasn’t until earlier this week that KU’s 6-foot-2, 235-pound linebacker learned what has given him an edge over Wise in TFLs.
Nick KrugDineen got to play three extra games in 2016, the year in which he suffered a season-ending hamstring injury and received a medical redshirt.
“That is true,” Dineen said. “How many did I have that year?”
Actually, the linebacker made three stops behind the line of scrimmage in his shortened season.
“Did I have three TFLs that year? Everything counts,” he asserted.
Dineen has played in 45 career games for Kansas, while 6-3, 290-pound lineman Wise, from Lewisville, Texas, has played in 42.
As one might expect, this information sparked Wise’s interest.
“That’s what it is?” a laughing Wise responded to Dineen’s three-game boost. “I’m gonna get on him about that.”
Mathematically, Wise’s 0.94 tackles for loss per game edge Dineen’s 0.91 per game.
“I’ll give it to myself,” Wise joked of being the real leader.
Then again… Dineen’s KU career did actually begin with a four-game stint his freshman year as a running back for then-coach Charlie Weis, in 2014.
“I’m sure I helped someone’s stats when I was out there,” Dineen said of getting tackled. “The running back days, man. That was crazy.”
With just five games remaining in their KU careers, Wise predicted the competition may heat up if he and Dineen are both after the same ball carrier in the weeks ahead.
“I’ll look at him and wink or something like that,” Wise said of any chance to have a half-step lead on Dineen and beat him to a TFL. “But it’s fun to be competing with him in the tackles for loss record, for the school’s record.”
Both Dineen and Wise, as they have previously, stated how “cool” it was for both of them to be so close to each other in the record books.
“You’ve got two guys,” Dineen said, “coming in the same recruiting class, fifth-year seniors, I think we’re like two of three who have been here freshman year, all the way up through it all. It’s pretty cool that both of us are up there and competing for it.”
On Wednesday Dineen became one of 10 FBS student-athletes selected as a finalist for the 2018 Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible for it, a player must have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
Dineen currently leads the FBS and Big 12 in solo tackles per game (8.6 pg) and ranks second in the Big 12 in total tackles per game (11.9). He was a Sports Illustrated Midseason First Team All-American.
A Lawrence native and former high school standout at Free State, Dineen earned his KU bachelor’s degree in management and leadership, with an entrepreneurship concentration, in May. Dineen is a two-time Academic All-Big 12 Second Team honoree, an Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team award-winner and he has earned Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll and KU Athletics Director’s Honor Roll four times during his KU career.
2018 Senior CLASS Award finalists
Joe Dineen, LB, Kansas
Will Grier, QB, West Virginia
Hale Hentges, TE, Alabama
Patrick Laird, RB, Cal
Drew Lock, QB, Missouri
Bryce Love, RB, Stanford
Dalton Risner, OL, Kansas State
Cameron Smith, LB, USC
Christian Wilkins, DL, Clemson
Khari Willis, S, Michigan State
