Some players go through their entire football careers playing one position. Others have to be much more versatile, either changing positions or lining up at several different spots within a position.
The hows and whys of who plays where come down to ability, size, need and “getting the best 11 football players out on the field,” University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Russ Huesman said.
Mocs linebacker Ryan Consiglio is the starter at the Sam (strongside) spot heading into preseason practice, which starts Aug. 4. Last season, as a sophomore, he played all three linebacker positions – Sam, Mike (middle) and Will (weakside). In fact, he played all three in one game, at Samford.
Consiglio prefers the Mike and Sam spots, which are more traditional linebacker positions and require basically the same skill set, whereas the Will in UTC’s 4-3 scheme has more pass-coverage responsibilities and often plays more like a third safety.
“Mike and Sam, they’re both in the box so they’re very similar,” Consiglio said. “It doesn’t take much to learn those, meaning if you know one you pretty much know the other. Will was just a lot more space. I was out in space all the time and I didn’t like it as much as Sam and Mike because I felt like I was out of it a lot.”