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Bearcats Signee Landon Brazile Is A Rarity

Once upon a time it was not uncommon for high schoolers to play just a year or two of football and still manage to find their way onto the radar of coaches. With the changes in the football recruiting over the last decade that happens less and less, but it still happens. Landon Brazile is a living embodiment of that.

Jim O'Connor-USA TODAY Sports


There are a lot of hyper athletic 6'6" guys playing basketball, there are considerably fewer hyper athletic 6'6" 230 pound guys playing football. That athleticism differentiates Brazile from his peers, and its not difficult to pick out why. He is a towering presence on the edge of the defense.

At the same time there is more polish and production to Brazile's game than you would expect from someone playing varsity football for the first time this season. He was first team all city league and was named the Dayton City League Defensive Player of the Year.

At the time of his commitment many recruitniks found it to be a head scratcher. The great and venerated recruiting duo of Tuberville and Gran were taking a commit from a guy who had never played varsity football. It made little sense to that crowd, but that is irrelevant.

If there is one thing that Tubs knows above all else its defense. Brazile's play this year more than validated the staffs faith in him. He might be new to the game, but he doesn't play like it. One of the things I liked in watching his highlights is the way he squeezes space, both when the play goes away from him and also when he is being read. Its a simple thing, but it speaks of solid fundamentals and positional understanding.

Like almost all of the guys being signed today It will be a couple of years before Brazile makes an impact on the field. He still looks like a Basketball player today, but he has the frame to get much bigger, and he will with a year in a college strength and conditioning program.