Your highlight film is your resume.\u00a0 Your job is to get a scholarship.\u00a0 Your resume is what gets your hired.\u00a0 So don’t take that highlight video for granted.\u00a0 If you play outside linebacker and want to have a chance at continuing to do so at the college level,\u00a0 there are some things you are going to need to have on your resume.<\/p>\n
We are going to go on the assumption that you have the height and athleticism requirements to play college football.\u00a0 Sometimes telling people that ruffles their feathers.\u00a0 It gets put into better perspective when we draw an academic example.\u00a0 No one is yelling at Harvard and Yale when they don’t accept you for having an 800 SAT score.\u00a0 Likewise,\u00a0 there are some physical requirements that an athlete needs to meet to be considered for a football scholarship.\u00a0 That,\u00a0 my friends,\u00a0 is what we call the facts of life.\u00a0 Perhaps you lack those things and it bothers you.\u00a0 Trust me,\u00a0 I totally understand.\u00a0 I am not saying that your goal is impossible but I am telling you that it will be very difficult.\u00a0 The only way that you will have a chance is to have and present these five things on your recruiting highlight video.<\/p>\n
(1) Tackling<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a no brainer.\u00a0 Linebackers tackle.\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0 linebackers are the best tacklers on the football team.\u00a0 Defensive linemen are often entangled with offensive linemen and defensive back’s primary job is to cover.\u00a0 A linebacker’s job is to tackle.\u00a0 If you can’t do that,\u00a0 then you aren’t a linebacker.\u00a0 Nice form tackles,\u00a0 aggressive tackles with technique are the beef in your taco when it comes to a highlight video.\u00a0 Get those solid tackles on film early and often.\u00a0 Football is an aggressive game and as such,\u00a0 it grabs the attention of college coaches and evaluators.\u00a0 I’d avoid the drag down,\u00a0 had to spin him around tackles on film unless you did something highly athletic before you got there. Weak tackles from a linebacker do little to convince a college coach that you are his guy.<\/p>\n (2) Ability to Blitz<\/strong><\/p>\n Blitzing is a big part of playing linebacker in many schemes.\u00a0 Often times,\u00a0 outside linebackers are the ones bringing the heat off of the edge.\u00a0 Having the ability to show good timing along with an ability to get through gaps is a great thing.\u00a0 If you play linebacker then you also know that most blitzes don’t result in you getting to the quarterback or ball carrier untouched.\u00a0 Despite that,\u00a0 the job still has to get done.\u00a0 Show on film that you know how to blitz,\u00a0 defeat a blocker and still accomplish the goal.\u00a0 Truth be told,\u00a0 anyone can go in and blow up a play when no one blocks them.\u00a0 The superior linebackers know how to either avoid or run through a block to make the big play for the defense.<\/p>\n (3) Ability to Cover<\/strong><\/p>\n Football is a passing game now.\u00a0 Offenses are sending out four and five receivers into patterns regularly.\u00a0 It’s nice for a coach to not have to sub guys out because they are a liability in the pass game.\u00a0 If you have coverage ability and you should,\u00a0 get that on film within the first 10 plays.\u00a0 If you can lock down a tight end,\u00a0 running back or slot receiver,\u00a0 your value goes up sharply in the eyes of college football scout.<\/p>\n (4) Hustle<\/strong><\/p>\n When you are playing outside linebacker,\u00a0 you will definitely have times when the play is run away from you.\u00a0 Nothing is worse than a guy who shuts it down when the play is not coming his way.\u00a0 Few things are more exciting than watching a guy hunt down a ball carrier from the other side of the field.\u00a0 Even if you are not blessed with tremendous speed,\u00a0 you can appear to be fast just by keeping your foot on the gas at all times.\u00a0 Many guys slow down on the football field when the action isn’t coming their way.\u00a0 If you hustle to the ball always,\u00a0 you will look fast on film zooming past all of the slackers.\u00a0 If you inspire the rest of your team to hustle then you can be on a great defense that attracts a lot of college scouts.<\/p>\n (5) Take on Blocks<\/strong><\/p>\n If you play defense then you know that taking on blocks is a big part of your job description.\u00a0 Getting off of blocks is a highly valuable skill.\u00a0 Being an un-blockable defender is the stuff that legends are made of.\u00a0 If you possess this skill,\u00a0 you most certainly want to display it.\u00a0 There’s no scheme played on defense that allows a defender to run free every time.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 if you are good at beating blocks then the offense has to use two guys to do the job.\u00a0 Every defensive coach wants a unit full of guys that require a double team.\u00a0 You don’t have to be the president of the math club to know that this won’t work for the offense.\u00a0 Show your ability to beat blocks so you instantly become a prize for a college football coach prowling for recruits.<\/p>\n So there you have it.\u00a0 If you possess all of those skills then congratulations.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 don’t be an idiot.\u00a0 Everyone one of those skills better be on display in the first 10 plays on your highlight video.\u00a0 Don’t make the coach wait to see all of the tools in your toolbox because he may not stick around to find them.\u00a0 If you are missing one or more of those skills then you had better get busy on acquiring those skills.\u00a0 This goes for you athletically gifted studs too.\u00a0 At some point,\u00a0 just being big, tall and fast is not going to be enough.\u00a0 Be a skillful player and show it on film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your highlight film is your resume.\u00a0 Your job is to get a scholarship.\u00a0 Your resume is what gets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":4091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[767,995],"tags":[1041,1042,1044,1045,1040,713,1043],"class_list":["post-4090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recruiting-school","category-recruiting-tips","tag-get-offers","tag-highlight-film","tag-hudl","tag-outside-linebacker","tag-recruited","tag-recruiting-tips","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}