Alabama Crimson Tide
It's little surprise that Alabama has been a factory for defensive backs over the past decade since Nick Saban puts together one of the best recruiting classes every year. Landon Collins, Eddie Jackson, Marlon Humphrey and Minkah Fitzpatrick have each earned All-Pro honors once in the past five seasons. There's hardly any history here, though. Roman Harper was the only Alabama DB to be named to the Pro Bowl from 1955 to 2014.
LSU Tigers
Similar to Alabama, the past decade has been rich with LSU alumni in NFL secondaries. Patrick Peterson, Tyrann Mathieu, Jamal Adams and Tre'Davious White are excellent active defensive backs. The Tigers might have cracked the top three if more of Johnny Robinson's career counted in this exercise. The six-time All-Pro Hall of Famer dominated the 1960s.
Miami (FL) Hurricanes
Ed Reed is an all-time great, and over the years Miami has had a bunch of defensive backs who provided better-than-average value. Reed was the only All-Pro, though, earning that distinction five times. Definitely worth noting and considering that Sean Taylor likely would have gotten there (several times) if he hadn't been killed at age 24.
Michigan Wolverines
Aside from USC's duo of Ronnie Lott and Troy Polamalu, good luck finding any school with a better one-two punch than Charles Woodson and Ty Law. Michigan had a few other Pro Bowl defensive backs in the 1970s and 1980s, but no one particularly unforgettable. And aside from Leon Hall and arguably Jabrill Peppers, Michigan hasn't produced a good DB since 1998.
Texas Longhorns
Earl Thomas has been outstanding over the past decade, and Bill Bradley was a two-time All-Pro DB in the 1970s. Not a particularly deep or rich collection for the Longhorns compared to the teams in our top three, though. Thomas is the only one with Hall of Fame potential. If we went back to the pre-1970 era, though, Texas would have had a much better case because of Bobby Dillon and Tom Landry.
UCLA Bruins
Only one UCLA defensive back (Fabian Moreau) has appeared in an NFL game in the past two seasons, and Alterraun Verner (2013) was the only Bruins DB in the past two decades to make a Pro Bowl. Suffice it to say, I was shocked UCLA had the numbers to even enter this conversation. But Jimmy Johnson, Kenny Easley, Carnell Lake and Eric Turner gave the Bruins an impressive top tier of talent. Shame they haven't been able to tap into that pool since the pre-Y2K world.
