VOTE: Who was the best Northwestern defensive end over the last 25 years?

It's been 25 years since Northwestern's magical run to the Rose Bowl in 1995. WildcatReport is celebrating that Silver Anniversary by finding out who's been the best player at each position since that legendary team revitalized Wildcat football.

BEST IN 25 YEARS SERIES

OFFENSE: QB Dan Persa l RB Justin Jackson l WR D'Wayne Bates l TE Drake Dunsmore l T Zach Strief l G Ryan Padgett l C Rob Johnson

Northwestern has been blessed with talent at the defensive end position over the last quarter century.

We had to expand the field to six, from the customary four or five, to accommodate the worthy candidates. Five of the six were first-team All-Big Ten picks, and five of the six were drafted by the NFL. Fittingly, you'll also find all six of them among the Top 10 in school history for both single-season and career sacks.

Read about the careers of each of the half-dozen candidates below, and then vote for your the best one on the WildcatReport Football Board. You'll find the link at the end of this story.

Reason he deserves it: He won two Big Ten titles and still holds the Northwestern career mark for TFL and single-season records for sacks and TFL.

The skinny: Dailey was a three-year starter for the Cats and was the best pass rusher on the 1995 and 1996 teams that won back-to-back Big Ten titles.

But Dailey's best year was 1997, when he set school records that still stand for sacks (12) and TFL (26). His single-season TFL mark is 5.5 more than anyone else in NU history.

Dailey was named first-team All-Big Ten that season also won Northwestern's Defensive Player of the Year Award.

A quick and disruptive edge rusher, Dailey also held the school career record of 28 sacks for 22 year, until Joe Gaziano finally broke it in 2019. He sill holds the Northwestern mark for most career TFL with 53.

Dailey was selected by the New York Jets in the fifth round of the 1998 NFL Draft.

Reason he deserves it: He was a Big Ten champion and ranks in the Top 5 all-time in sacks and TFL.

The skinny: Missouri earned the starting defensive end job as a sophomore in 1998 and didn't let it go. As a junior he registered 20 TFL, which still ranks third all-time for a single season in school history. It also set him up for a standout senior year.

In 2000, Missouri registered nine sacks, fifth all-time at Northwestern, as well as 16 TFL. He made a total of 51 tackles that year and created five forced fumbles, the most in the conference. He was named first-team All-Big Ten and was a key defensive piece for a Wildcat team that won a share of the Big Ten title in 2000, the school's last one to date.

Missouri ranks second all-time at Northwestern with 45 career TFL, and seventh in career sacks with 17.

He was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the seventh round of the 2001 NFL Draft.

Reason he deserves it: No one was more dominant as a defensive end than Wootton in 2008, when he was NU's MVP and a first-team All-Big Ten pick.

The skinny: A neck injury forced Wootton to redshirt his first year, but he exploded on the scene as a redshirt freshman in 2006, when he led the team in sacks and TFL and became the first Wildcat since Hudhaifa Ismaeli in 1995 to record every major defensive statistic in a single season (tackles, TFL, sacks, pass deflections, interceptions, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries, QB hurries and blocked kicks). He earned Freshman All-America and All-Big Ten honors.

Wootton repeated that feat in 2008, when, as a junior, he was named first-team All-Big Ten and received the Northwestern MVP award. His 10 sacks led the team and ranked fourth in the Big Ten.

A knee injury suffered in the 2008 Alamo Bowl slowed Wootton in 2009, but he still made an impact. Wildcat fans will remember his game-altering sack of Iowa QB Ricky Stanzi in the end zone, when he forced a fumble that was recovered for an NU touchdown, knocked Stanzi out of the game for good and led Northwestern to a shocking road win over No. 4 Iowa.

Wootton, who also picked off four passes at NU, was a fourth-round draft choice of the Chicago Bears in 2010.

Reason he deserves it: He doesn't have gaudy stats, but Lowry was Mr. Consistency, a contributor from his first day to his last. Just ask Nebraska how good he was.

The skinny: Lowry was one of those rare defensive ends who cracked the lineup as a true freshman, playing in all 13 games in 2012 and racking up 14 tackles in backup duty, as well as ESPN.com All-Freshman Team honors.

He started nine games as a sophomore and registered a career-best 4.5 sacks. As a junior, he started all 12 games and ranked second on the team with 8.0 TFL while making honorable mention All-Big Ten.

As a senior in 2015, Lowry was a second-team All-Big Ten pick and turned in one of the most dominant performances by a defensive lineman in NU history in a 30-28 win over Nebraska. In that game Lowry set an NU single-game record with six tackles for loss, which is also tied for sixth-most in Big Ten history. The Huskers simply couldn't block him as Lowry set up camp in their backfield all day.

Lowry was picked in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers.

Reason he deserves it: He started just one year, but what a year it was, as he led the Big Ten in sacks and was named first-team all-conference.

The skinny: Odenigbo was a four-star, Top 100 recruit who chose Northwestern over home-state Ohio State in 2013. But it took him a good, long time to earn an every-down starting job.

Odenigbo was a third-down pass-rushing specialist for three years, but he managed to make his presence felt. As a redshirt freshman in 2013, he made just 9.0 tackles, but 6.5 of them went for a loss and 5.5 were sacks, second-most on the team. As a sophomore and junior he continued that role, though he didn't reach the numbers he did in his first year.

He finally earned the starting job in 2016 and made it count, leading the Big Ten with 10.0 sacks on the year and earning first-team All-Big Ten honors from conference coaches. He also turned in a sensational performance in a win over Iowa that season, when he set a Northwestern record for a single game with 4.0 sacks.

Odenigbo was selected in the seventh round of the 2017 draft by the Minnesota Vikings.

Reason he deserves it: We like to measure defensive ends by sacks and No. 97 registered more than any Wildcat in history.

The skinny: Gaziano was strong against the run, he was strong against the pass and he got to the quarterback more often than any Wildcat in history. That's his resume in a nutshell.

Gaziano started his career with a bang in 2016, when, as a redshirt freshman, the first sack of his career was a vicious takedown of Michigan State's Brian Lewerke for a safety. He finished the year with 4.5 sacks, second-most on the team.

He made second-team All-Big Ten in 2017 and 2018, when he registered a total of 16.5 sacks. Then came his senior year in 2019, when another safety, this time a sack of Minnesota's Tanner Morgan, enabled Gaziano to pass Casey Dailey as NU's all-time leader on his way to earning first-team All-Big Ten recognition.

In all, Gaziano registered 30 sacks, the most in school history. His 49 career TFL rank second in NU annals.

Gaziano is the only candidate on this list that didn't get drafted, but he was signed by the Los Angeles Chargers as a free agent in April.

Go to our Football Board to cast your vote. You can vote for any of the six defensive ends on our ballot, or you can vote for "Other" and identify your write-in candidate in your reply the message.

Hurry! The poll will close on Sunday night.

Ready? CLICK HERE TO VOTE