2013 Recruiting: Wyatt Teller

Wyatt Teller has played defensive end, offensive tackle, linebacker, and H-Back for Liberty High School in Bealeton, Virginia. Both Rivals and 247 rate him a 4-star recruit, and both Virginia Tech and Virginia want to sign him, and they're the favorites.

"Not many people can scratch their kneecap without bending over." — Liberty football coach Sean Finnerty (via http://www.fauquiernow.com)

After watching his film, it was no surprise that he holds 14 I-A offers including: Tech, UVa, Michigan, Notre Dame, Tennessee, South Carolina and Clemson. On his highlights he's relentlessly aggressive, physically superior in size and speed to everyone he lines up against. Liberty coach Sean Finnerty was gracious enough to talk to me about his stud player.

How is his play when he becomes engaged with blockers, is he able to separate well, move down the line and maintain good position?

He moves very well once he's engaged. He's very good with his hands, and because of how good he is with his hands, with his strength, whether it is a swim, or a bull-rush, or a rip he's able to get off the blocks very quickly.

Do you guys do anything special with him, like drop him off in coverage on a zone-blitz?

When we do bring a zone-blitz, he's the one that we drop into coverage. And he'll either drop into coverage covering the flat, or he'll drop and replace the two blitzing inside linebackers. He does it fairly well just because of his size and length, he can cover the zone fairly well... without working with him a lot on it.

On his film he's all over the place, I saw on the film at H-Back and linebacker a little bit, have you put inside at defensive tackle?

He's obviously the kid that can play anywhere. We're going to keep him at defensive end, because being at that place he can basically shutdown a whole side. You put him inside, maybe you can get outside of him, so that's a good way to shutdown one side of the field, hopefully, by keeping him at end.

When he's playing at end, how often is he getting double-teamed?

He probably gets double-teamed or chipped, maybe 30% of the time. For the most part, how teams have kind of dealt with it are real quick patterns, 3-step drop, so it doesn't matter if he beats his guy or not.

When teams aren't running away from him, and he gets caught up in a double-team or chip, is he polished enough at this level to split or shed it, and get back to working one-on-one instead of two-on-one?

We work on that, those are actually the exact ways we deal with double-teams. Athleticism can't win it, when you get into that situation, so he does a good job at going back to his fundamentals.

I know everyone is kind of recruiting him as a defensive end, but when I saw him at tackle, I was like, "wow". How would you rate his footwork, does he have quick feet?

Great footwork, very quick feet! I was his offensive line coach, and defensive end coach last year, so he's had me for three years. I think he can be a premier offensive tackle if that's what he ends up going to. I think there's a chance he could get moved from a d-end spot to an offensive tackle spot. If he's not able to slow down how much weight he gains, it might be the best thing that's ever happened to him.

How are his leverage and balance? Is he able to keep his hands inside, and shove off defenders?

Being an offensive linemen long arms are your best friend. He's able to get into people before they even get their hands on him because of his length. That benefits him well. He still works his offensive line drills, on his own, as much as he does his d-line drills.

Would you say he's a better run blocker or pass blocker right now?

Just because of how aggressive he is, and the motor that he has, and you can see that on his highlight film, he stays in contact with a kid 20 yards downfield. He's very good at pass blocking, he doesn't lose one-on-one drills, but run blocking would be his strong suit.

Other than his athleticism, what would you say makes him such a great football player right now?

His best thing, the one that sets him apart from most football players is his motor, he just has an engine that doesn't stop.

Tech's recruiting him at defensive end, but if he continues to gain weight he could move inside to d-tackle, or possibly move to the other side of the ball at offensive tackle, where he might be able to see the field sooner than end. Coach Finnerty noted he's a former swimmer, and he played last season at 240. He's been in the weight room since it ended, and is now 6-5 265. He's a monster. Expect Wyatt to commit sometime between June and July. The school that signs him is landing one hell of a player.