The good thing about evaluating a player over the course of a few seasons, is it allows you to establish a trend line.

Simply imagine a graph and start drawing dots that illustrate where a player is at after his freshman, sophomore, and junior seasons. If the line on the graph has an upward slope, it seems to indicate upside! The steeper the slope, the more one should pay attention.

14 months ago at the end of the 2010 season, we featured Mike Love, DE out of Countryside High School. A high effort player whose motor rarely slowed down, he established himself as a force coming off the edge. Fast forward a full season, add 20-30 pounds, and you now begin to see a prospect who is becoming the total package as a junior, and UCF has made their move once again in the Bay Area!! SEE 2011 HILITES HERE

As a 6’4″ 220 Junior, his game film begins to reveal his true talent while at the same time, indicates a high ceiling while you graph out his progression from one year to the next! In the film you will see a player who is relentless off the edge. You see a player beginning to refine his rip/swim techniques. You see a player with natural strength in his bull rush and has the upper body strength to throw opposing OTs to the side. Stands his ground at point of attack on double and triple teams and you will also see him on back side pursuit (something that is rather uncommon with good size kids because they usually shut it down once out of the play).

What’s in store for the 2012 season remains to be seen but chances are Pinellas county will have yet another big time talent on their hands and will be celebrating a multi-BCS offered talent come signing day. Can UCF keep him so he plays right here in his backyard for the Knights??