Creating a highlight reel for offensive line athletes isn’t just about showcasing all of your “pancake” blocks. The purpose of this reel should be about shining a light on your “transferable skill sets.” Your ability to bowl over opponents is nice, but it doesn’t sell your true DNA as a player. College coaches want to see what you know.

Why?

This gives them an opportunity to create a timeline in their heads as to how long it will take for you to become a viable college player.  This is why it’s paramount for your highlight reel to paint the most accurate picture for college coaches. It gives them the best chance to assess what you are as a player.

Highlight Backside Cutoffs

The genetic lottery winner generally wins drive blocking at the high school level. If you’re bigger and stronger than the guy lined up across from you, the odds greatly swing in your favor. The backside cutoff tells a different story. A coach is going to be able to assess several “transferable skills” through this block. He’s going to be able to evaluate your understanding of angles, your hip mobility, and your effort.

Why is this so important?

The biggest separating factor between a good and great run game in college is the quality of the backside blocks. The point of attack in college is much stiffer than a high school point of attack. Running backs are looking for a crease, not a gaping hole. Oftentimes those creases are found on the backside. Another separating fact between high school and college football is the speed of backside pursuit. The bulk of TFL’s in college and the NFL come from backside pursuit.

Highlight a skill set coaches can envision carrying over to the demands of the job you’re “interviewing” for.

Highlight Your Stance

A college coach will be able to assess the quality of your coaching background based on your stance. This allows him to begin to process how much work it’s going to take to get you to unlearn bad habits or reinforce the good ones. The good college coaches will also be able to project in their minds as to what you could be as a player. If you are playing in an inappropriate stance, but you’re able to work effectively out of a bad starting point, the coach can project how much better you could be if you were actually starting from a positive position. This gets coaches excited.  Coaches love untapped potential. Now, if you are playing from a great stance, but struggling to move effectively, the coach understands his impact is greatly reduced. He’s going to need to be patient while the S&C staff works out underlying performance limiting factors (Strength, Mobility, Body Composition).

The coach can now begin to fairly assess the clay he’s going to be working with.

Highlight Your Pass Set

The craze today at all of these offseason camps is the 1 on 1 pass rush segment. It’s absolutely foolish.  Imagine if race car drivers were asked to test the track at full speed, but were asked to do so without wearing a safety harness, helmet, burn suit, driving on old tires, no roll cage, and while the emergency rescue crew was on lunch break. They’d be crazy to do so. Well, it’s the same with 1 on 1 pass rush wearing t-shirts and shorts.

Use your highlight reel to showcase what you understand about pass blocking. A coach should not be forced to “evaluate” your ability to pass block by looking at camp film. If your highlight reel consists of 20 run plays, 5 rollouts, and 1 drop-back pass, it’s not helping you. I understand some high schools don’t really throw the ball, and a player may not have a true pass set on film. If this is the case, video one yourself, and then add it to the reel.

Don’t put coaches in a position where they have to guess.

Don’t Highlight Your Taste in Music

I love Future and Drake just as much as you. But you must remember your audience. Do you think Nick Saban wants to hear Young Thug jibber jabbering in the background while he’s assessing your film? Keep the film about YOU. Don’t create any potential misrepresentations to whom you are by having a track laced with cuss words play over your performance. If I were a coach, it would say to me, “you don’t pay attention to the details.” Perception is NOT reality, reality IS reality. But in the world of college football, perception can make the difference between being offered, or being perceived as something you may not be.

These are just a few ideas that will hopefully get your mind going. You want to be sure the reel you put together paints a fair picture. If you were interviewing for a job as a mechanic, don’t send in the resume highlighting how many words per minute you can type. Send in the resume pointing out the skills required for the job. The knockdowns are great, but they don’t help frame the complete image of who you are as a player.