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As the 2020 college football season winds down, 2021 NFL Draft talk will heat up. Here are the top five linebackers in college football, a group of future NFL Draft prospects.
Just missed the cut: Cameron McGrone (Michigan), Nick Bolton (Missouri), Jabril Cox (LSU), Chazz Surratt (North Carolina) & Nate Landman (Colorado)
1. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (Notre Dame)
Owusu-Koramoah came in as a three-star safety recruit and he stills has that slim buld at 6’1”, 215 pounds, as well as that kind of skill-set with freakish athletic ability. When I watched those those Notre Dame edge rushers and safeties for the 2020, this guy flashed time and time again. This joker for the Notre Dame defense plays the ROVER spot primarily, where he can cover slot receivers one-on-one and shows no discomfort playing in space, plus he looks like a cannonball when coming on blitzes off the edge. While he is certainly undersized for an in-between-the-tackles role, he does not shy away from slipping gaps and chooses excellent angles when chasing things down towards the sideline. He is one of those guys who shows up around the ball constantly and that’s how he came up with a huge fumble return TD against Clemson earlier this season, as a pitch went off the hands of Travis Etienne. With that being said, you see him get shielded by slot receivers even on plenty of occasions (see USC’s Amon-Ra St. Brown in 2019) and he leaves his feet too much as a tackler for my list – in part because his play-strength isn’t at the level of those 250-pound inside backers.
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2. Zaven Collins (Tulsa)
One of the biggest risers from this 2020 season has been this 6’4”, 260 pound-listed linebacker that is the heart of a Hurricanes’ 21st-ranked scoring defense. Collins fills those pads out nicely and he is a beast as Tulsa’s stack WILL backer. Collins IDs run schemes quickly and lets pullers lead him to the ball. Unlike a lot of college LBs nowadays, he can still take on and shed blockers coming right at him, thanks to his robust base. He meets ball-carriers head-on in the hole and even when he doesn’t get that clear shot, he has strong arms to still bring those guys to the ground, making him a very reliable tackler. In coverage, he is primarily responsible for shallow zones, but I think he has become much more light on his feet in 2020, in terms of the ground he can cover, which has led to four INTs in seven games (including a pair of pick-sixes), but it also allows him to be more aggressive with shooting gaps, putting him at 7.5 TFLs already, including one for a safety against UCF. Unfortunately he is overshoots his run fits at times, creating cutback opportunities, and while they bring him off the edge quite a bit, he doesn’t bring a whole lot as a pass-rusher, while aiming at the wrong hip of the QB at times.
3. Dylan Moses (Alabama)
Moses was supposed to head the Alabama defense in 2019 after a lot departures in the front-seven, but with him missing the entire season, that entire unit suffered and did not live up to their usual standards. Now back with him in the lineup, they have really grown this season. Moses has a pep to his step and is a very easy mover. In the pass game, he has a safety-like skill-set, with a very natural ability to move any direction and take away throwing windows. Plus, he is a very dependable open-field tackler, which is why the Crimson Tide use him as a QB spy in certain matchups. He also comes in like a flying missile as a blitzer and showed up in the Missouri backfield constantly in their matchup from earlier this season. Moses has the speed to scrape over the top of blockers and take away angles towards the sideline, limiting the amount of big plays against the Crimson Tide defense. However, while I like the patience he displays in reading run schemes, he is a little too conversative for my taste and when big linemen work up to him, he struggles to disengage.
4. Paddy Fisher (Northwestern)
I know I’m probably a lot higher on Fisher than most people, but I have been following his young man’s career ever since his freshman season. Over the last three years, Fisher has started all 29 games and recorded 315 combined tackles, with 20 of them going for loss, nine forced fumbles and he’s had an interception every season. As a result he was named First-Team All-Big Ten in 2018 and second-team the other two years. And he is on that same track again this season. Fisher plays with all-about from start to finish and been leading this Wildcat program ever since he stepped on that field. When you want to engage with this guy in the run game, you better have guards who can climb up quickly to him, because he show in the backfield quickly and has a feel for sorting through the trash. Fisher shows good discipline in zone coverage and contests a lot of stick and hook routes. With that being said, he needs to play with more extension working against blockers in the run game and there are question about this athleticism as to how it projects to the next level, as we’ve rarely seen him get tasked with man-coverage duty. His usually dependable tackling was a bit of an issue in open-field situations as well in 2019.
5. Monty Rice (Georgia)
Rice was called the next Roquan Smith after the All-American linebacker was drafted following the 2017 season. In his first year as a starter, he missed just three percent of his tackles and in 2019 he led the Bulldogs with 89 total tackles. Rice quickly attacks downhill against the run, while not being afraid to stick his nose in the face when it comes to countering blockers and working to get their hands off himself. He is really sudden in his movements when the ball gets to the edge and he quickly flashes against screen passes. Georgia has also used him as a blitzer on passing down frequently, to create negative plays. Rice is pretty fluid mover in coverage, who can run downfield with flexed out tight-ends and shut down throws into the flats. I think as a blitzer, his timing and hand-usage has gotten a lot better too. Unfortunately he doesn’t always look super comfortable taking ball-carriers down in open space and his lack of length is a bit of an issue with blockers in his face, to go with been susceptible to getting sucked up by play-action.
If you enjoyed this content, I would really appreciate if you could check out the original full piece - https://halilsrealfootballtalk.com/2020/12/12/top-five-college-players-at-every-position-defense-edition/
