We’ve watched enough Colorado linebacker film at this point to have some opinions, and since having loud opinions about teenagers playing football is literally our business model, here goes.
These are the kids who read at the snap, step correctly, and arrive. They may or may not be the most athletic linebackers on the field, but they are always, ALWAYS in the right place. On film they look like the play was designed for them to make the tackle, which is the highest compliment you can give a linebacker. Colorado produces maybe 5-8 of these per year across all classifications. Most of them play at the college level. Some of them play at a level below where they should because their measurables don’t match their processing.
These kids have the measurables AND they can read. They step correctly most of the time (75%+), and when they step wrong they’re fast enough to recover and still make the play. These are the kids who get D1 offers. Not because they read better than Tier 1 (they often don’t) but because the combination of processing and physical tools projects to the next level in a way that scouts can see and measure. Colorado produces maybe 3-5 of these per year. They usually end up at the right level.
These kids are fast, strong, explosive, and they have no idea what they’re looking at pre-snap. Their first step is a coin flip. When they guess right, they look like the best linebacker in the state. When they guess wrong, they’re out of the play entirely. Their stats are wildly inconsistent game to game (because some offenses are more predictable than others, which makes the guessing easier) and their highlight tape is incredible because you only see the snaps where the coin landed heads.
Here’s the problem: Tier 3 kids get offers over Tier 1 kids constantly. Because Tier 3 looks like Tier 1 on highlights (you only see the correct guesses), and Tier 3 has measurables that make scouts drool, and nobody is breaking down the film snap by snap to count first-step accuracy rates. Nobody except us, apparently, because we have insomnia and no social life and access to Hudl.
What We’re Asking Coaches to Do
This isn’t a rant. Okay, it’s a little bit of a rant. But it’s a rant with a specific ask.
If you’re a college coach evaluating Colorado linebackers this offseason, we’re asking you to do one thing: watch five consecutive snaps instead of five highlights. Pick any five snaps. We don’t care which ones. Just watch what the kid’s feet do in the first half-second after the ball is snapped, and ask yourself: did he know, or did he guess?
Because the kid who knew, the kid who stepped correctly on all five, is probably not the kid at the top of your board. He’s probably the 5’11” 205-pound kid at the 3A school with 200 Hudl views whose coach describes him as having “great instincts” because even his own coaching staff doesn’t have the language to explain what they’re seeing.
And that kid can play for you. Not because he’s athletic (he might be, he might not be). Because his brain is 0.5 seconds ahead of everyone else on the field, and 0.5 seconds is everything in football. It’s the difference between a TFL and a seven-yard gain. Between a coverage sack and a first down. Between a kid who starts as a true freshman and a kid who redshirts because he can’t figure out where to go.
You can teach a kid to get stronger. You can sort of teach a kid to get faster. You absolutely cannot teach a kid to process at the speed this kid processes. That’s either there or it isn’t, and when it’s there, it looks like “instinct.”
It’s not instinct. It’s the best trait in football. And Colorado has kids who have it that you’ve never heard of.
We’ll be publishing our linebacker film breakdowns through March. Yes, we’ll be tracking first-step accuracy. Yes, we’ll be ranking on it. No, we will not be apologizing to the parents of Tier 3 kids who don’t like where their son lands.
We never do.