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It's about damn time. For those of us worried Mike Leach and staff weren't bringing in enough big guys on both sides of the line, the news out of CF.C that 275 pound defensive lineman Gerald Sterling is more than welcome. Sterling plays both DE and DT for his high school in Alabama (Aliceville), as well as TE and FB (!). It's been reported that he runs a 4.7 in the 40, but he did put on 30+ pounds since last season, so I'm not sure that number is still (or ever was) completely accurate. The fact that he's played TE and FB, though, means he's certainly athletic enough to play multiple positions on the DLine for the Cougs.
To be honest, it's tough to take away anything from the video, other than "Wow, this was very poorly shot." It's tough attempting to evaluate players off of grainy, shaky handy-cam that's not properly zoomed in. They tried, so I guess the school's videographer gets an A for effort.
At 6'4 and 275 pounds, he's large enough to play DE or move inside and play NT in Mike Breske's 3-4 defense. Ideally, I'd like him to be a little bit bigger, and his frame suggests he can handle pushing close to 300 pounds. I think he could comfortably play at around 290 without sacrificing too much speed.
Scout only lists Sterling as having an offer from us, but they do list him as a 3 star DT. Rivals lists his offers as Alabama A&M, Arkansas State, Middle Tennessee State, Troy, and WSU. So, take that, Sun Belt conference!
Hopefully Sterling's camp releases some better quality video, and I can go more in-depth on an evaluation. I am intrigued by his size and apparent athleticism, though. For now, I'll list my grade as incomplete, but keep an eye out for a future re-evalutaion.
Lastly, a random fact: Aliceville high school in Aliceville, Alabama is the same high school that Seahawks great Walter Jones went to. So, obviously, this means Sterling is going to hold out during the summer workouts and then come in and dominate.
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