It's not easy. In fact, it's the hard way. BG has turned walk-ons into starters--I give you Konowalski, Burbrink...there are probably others. Schweiterman.
Point being is that these players don't count against the limit of who you bring in every year. And if you have an eye for talent and you can develop players, you can certainly create starters. You can also create special teams players and depth keeps pressure on the starters. And there are injuries.
But you have to find guys who were overlooked. You have to project and see things others did not.
I give you two players.
First, we have Nate Damron of Elyria Catholic. The linked article tells an interesting story. Nate was a role player his junior year, which probably stunted his recruiting. (He was playing behind Griffen Davies, who signed a scholarship at OU).
He broke out as a senior, making all-state first team in Division V, earning 109 tackles, including 26.5 for a loss, and 11.5 sacks as a D-End. In the story, he talks about his willingness to be a role player.,.something that you would need if you were going this route. His coach says he's a little "thin in the hips" to project to D-End in college, but he's 6'5" and 200 pounds.
So you know what Scot Loeffler sees: tight end. Everyone looks like a TE.
I kid.
Anyway, the report is that BG projects him at TE. Like most good players at a small school, he played both ways. He did play some TE but moved to RB.
Key thing here is that he would appear to be a natural-born football player. Which is what we need.
Great story. They were way ahead and he ran out of bounds at the 1-yard on a sure score. That was so the team's senior kicker-- Sadie Hutsenpiller--could score a touchdown. They are not dating.
The other young man is Cole Lakatos of Franklin, MA. He's a WR who is 5'8" and 160 pounds. You don't see a lot of stats on him, but if you google him you see news stories where he is scoring a TD. He's a coach's kid--you know how much recruiters love that--the Dad coaches secondary at Bryant and has coached at Georgia.
Anyway, there's no idea what's going to happen this Fall. But, at FalconBlog I am keeping my eyes open. We all need diversions.
Welcome to the Falcons, Nate and Cole.
No comments:
Post a Comment