One of the most dominant defensive seasons no one talks about

one of the best things about college football is that in any given season anyone has the chance to absolutely dominate That season and when I say that I'm talking about college players who are viewed as average but decide to just put on random displays of talent in any given year this is something that happens a lot more than we think and although there's no way to bring attention to all of these random Seasons I do want to point out one before we get into the subject of today's video in 20121 I'm willing to bet that you don't know who the leader in rushing yards and yards from scrimmage was well it was this random dude from Central Michigan named Lou Nichols who had 1,841 rushing yards in 16 touchdowns along with 338 receiving yards and two touchdowns to give him a total of 2,178 yards from scrimmage so I just point that out to make it known that there are a lot of seasons like this from random players from random colleges but the dude we're going to talk about today had one of the most dominant defensive Seasons we've ever seen yet had absolutely no business being in the NFL in this video we go over the crazy dominant and random season of Gerard Hollowman so let's get into [Music] [Music] it so the first thing I'm going to point out is that when someone has an overwhelming amount of interceptions it's hard to distinguish if it's due to the skill of the player or if it's due to the error of the quarterbacks he plays against and when you have a crazy amount of interceptions like 14 I definitely think that it's a mix of both but this is something we'll revisit later in the video and find out why despite the number of interceptions gerro pulled in he was ultimately not a very high Prospect in the draft he attended Miami South Ridge High School in Miami Florida and became a pretty high recruit during his time there he actually had one game where he took an 80 yard kickoff to the house had a 38 yard pick six caught six passes for 78 yards and rushed the ball six times for 118 yards yards and a touchdown so clearly he just possessed a high level of athleticism that was a threat no matter what position he was playing he was a four-star recruit being ranked the seventh best safety in the country so he had a lot of offers from really solid schools but decided to commit to Louisville his first year as a true freshman he only played in three games due to a shoulder injury but also red shirted that year one quick thing that happened in between his first and second year was that they switched his listed position from DB to safe which has me thinking if they made that move because they thought he would be better at safety or if they thought he just couldn't play Corner anyway his second year was not much better looking as he only played in Eight Games and had 16 total tackles and three pass deflections and zero interceptions and the only reason I point out the fact that he had no interceptions is that when you go from zero interceptions one year to 14 the next I don't care who you are you can only attribute a certain amount of that to skill again I already touched on this but with every interception there's a certain percentage that's attributed to the DB skill and the quarterback's error and as we'll see gerro is able to benefit from both of these in some way with that being said I am in no way trying to understate the incredible season that he had in 2014 by all means he deserves the recognition and accolades he received but there's a reason he was not a high Prospect coming out of college and didn't work out in the NFL but getting into that great 2014 season season Louisville had actually changed conferences for the second time in two seasons going from the Big East to the American in 2013 and then the American to the ACC in 2014 so not only gerro but his whole team was playing against totally different competition from the year before which has me thinking if that contributed in any way to the amount of interceptions he had he played in 12 games that season had 44 total tackles three tackles for loss a sack and 14 interceptions with that 14 interception he tied an NCAA record for interceptions in a season Louisville as a whole also had a pretty solid year as they finished 9 and4 with the 24th ranking in the final AP poll so during research for this video I Came Upon a very articulate and well- written article that not only talks about Gerard Hollman but goes over the position of safety as well and specifically the expectations for a safety in the NFL I strongly encourage you guys to read this article for yourselves because for being written in 2015 I feel that this applies more than it ever has in today's NFL essentially what he says is that with the advancement of offensive schemes in the NFL defenses don't really have the luxury of having players with one main skill looking at the safety position strong safeties are supposed to make the majority of their impact in the Run game or down low while the free safety is there to cover space and make their impact in the pass game but what this dude is saying is that the sheer advancement of offense in the game has forced defenses to find safeties that are able to contribute in every aspect on defense opposed to someone who say can cover better than anyone in the league but is horrible in run support now the reason he points this out is because Gerard Falls right into this category later in the article the author points out that what made him great in that season was his aggression combined with his quick feet and recognition it specifically highlights Louisville's game against Florida state that year where gerro picked off jamus Winston twice and should have had a third during that game gerod showed off his aggression and ability to recognize routes that drop into his Zone and when you look at the fact that this was his greatest and primary skill it makes sense that he got a crazy amount of interceptions like 14 because that is the exact set of skills that lead to interceptions but on the flip side of that coin his ability and run support was nowhere to be found although his aggression helped him in the coverage game it was something that held him back in run support not just aggression but his aggression paired with his awful Pursuit there were many times throughout the season where his inability to locate the ball pursue and tackle the guy was fully on display and I highlight those three parts for a reason because he would regularly fail to locate the running back quickly he over pursued the player allowing a cut back for a big gain or when he did get to the ball his tackling technique was awful he constantly attempted to tackle players above the waist and since he was listed at 6t and just under 220 lb that is not luxury that he had so anyway I say all of that to make this one point this is how the article is concluded and it summed it up too perfectly for me not to use it but there were too many things that needed to change for gerro for him to be a valuable NFL player and this is the last time I'll touch on it but it's hard to use purely interceptions as a way to prove your skill or ability because so many other factors contribute to interceptions things like Gerard's defense of teammates doing their job well enough that the QB has to go to Gerard's guy or the QB making a bad throw or the receiver running the wrong route so with that said it's not exactly shocking that gerro was not a high NFL prospect he ended up being picked in the 7th round of the 2015 draft by the Steelers they released him in September and he would go on to join the Bucks practice squad but didn't last very long there either and he was released in April of 2016 so looking at ger Rod's college career and specific specifically his amazing 2014 season I think it could be perceived as me trying to downplay or discredit his amazing year but that's not at all what I'm trying to do 14 interceptions in a season is the NCAA record for a reason and anyone who even comes close that let alone ties it possesses great skill however one of the main takeaways from this video is that no one remembers this season or talks about it and that is also for a reason although 14 interceptions is without a doubt an impressive number of takeaways the player responsible wasn't exactly a legend but I'll end on a positive note which is that gerro cemented his name in college football history in that 2014 season and regardless of the player he turned out to be he'll always be able to say that at one time he was the most dominant defensive back in the entire country all right guys that's going to do it for this one if yall enjoyed make sure to like and share the video as that helps the channel to grow besides that until next [Music] time

Channel: Dubl-T

Views: 13,277

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Id: Aw0U_glLZkc

Length: 8min 44sec (524 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 05 2024