WORCESTER – Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney develops linebackers who can defend the field with out being boxed in.
Seniors Jacob Dobbs and Liam Anderson are fierce all-purpose interchangeable linebackers that match Chesney’s definition and infrequently come out of the sport no matter down and distance.
The two transformed highschool safeties posted mind-boggling numbers in all the numerous classes final season on a workforce led the FCS in whole protection, permitting 254.4 yards per recreation.
Punishing tackles at or behind the road of scrimmage are the hallmarks of their respective video games, however Dobbs and Anderson are equally efficient speeding the quarterback and dropping again in protection.
“As much as you might want to paint them into a box, they both can do all the other things just well and they are complete football players,” mentioned Chesney throughout the Crusaders’ media day Wednesday at Fitton Field.
“We have a ton of NFL scouts coming through here looking at these guys and they should be. They were kept pretty clean (healthy) over the past few years and they are just phenomenal instinctual tough football players,” Chesney added.
Dobbs is a 6-0, 232-pound bearer of dangerous information for opposing talent place gamers and his efforts final season have been nationally acknowledged. Dobbs registered 137 tackles, 75 solo tackles, 17.5 tackles for a loss, 9.5 sacks, six quarterback hurries and three cross breakups.
Dobbs was chosen the Patriot League’s Defensive Player of the Year and was named a primary workforce All-American by Stats Perform. Dobbs garnered extra All-American honors from AFCA, HERO Sports and the Associated Press and was a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award given yearly to the highest defender in FCS.
On most FCS defenses, Anderson would anchor the entrance seven for his skills as a tackler and a turnover machine. The 6-3, 225-pounder from Flanders, N.J., completed with 81 tackles, 15 tackles for a loss, 7.5 sacks with three interceptions and a pressured fumble. Both gamers have been named first workforce Patriot League All-Stars.
“You can show me any two you want in the country and I don’t know if there are any better than these two as a pair,” mentioned Chesney. “They are the yin and the yang.
“One is very physical and tough and downhill and the other is just that with a whole other side to him.”
The Crusaders are ranked No. 16 within the nation and consensus favorites to win their fourth consecutive Patriot League title, a viable alternative that has purple reign written throughout it. Holy Cross was awarded 71 factors and picked up 11 of the 14 out there first-place votes.
“We constantly say we need to get better every single day,” mentioned Dobbs, a local of Macomb, Mich., and an unabashed long-suffering Lions and Wolverines followers. “You want to enhance each day and with the teaching employees that now we have, we’re by no means glad with what now we have performed.
“In order to go where we want to go which is ultimately being the last team standing at the end of the season, you have to do something you have never done before. Every single day we are trying to do something we haven’t done before and compete at a new level.”
Dobbs and Anderson have been constructing towards this season despite the restrictions and abbreviated scheduling attributable to the pandemic. The Crusaders took a giant step in direction of Dobbs’ goal final season once they gained the primary FCS playoff recreation in program historical past, a 13-10 defensive grind towards Sacred Heart at Fitton Field. Holy Cross made a very good displaying within the second spherical however fell 21-16 at Villanova.
“Every year we are trying to build off the last and last season we are coming off a playoff win,” mentioned Anderson. “How can we take one playoff win and make it one other win and go on a run from there?
“That’s been the goal since we had our breakup meeting last season. How do we make that next step on the national level in the playoffs?”
Source: www.bostonherald.com