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(Defensive Positions) How Big Do You Need To Be To Play College Football?

This is the follow up graphic from yesterday with the average, maximum and minimum size of college football players for defensive positions. Consistently, the D1-A players are an inch or two taller and 10-15 lbs heavier. Also, when looking at these numbers keep in mind these are all college players, and the weights you see listed for many of the positions include seniors who have had four to five years of weight training to reach those weights.

Football by Defensive

Something that is common in the D1-A football is for coaches to recruit the best athletes they can find and move them to defensive positions. This is especially true for positions like safety, corner and sometime linebacker. At these positions, the height is not as valuable as speed and strength.

However, positions on the defensive line are more difficult to fill because they require a more specific body type. This is especially true at the defensive end position. It is not a coincidence that the #1 football recruit in the country two of the last three years have played the defensive end position. Looking back to 2011, Jadeveon Clowney measure in at 6’6” 245lbs coming out of high school. The consensus #1 recruit for the class of 2013 is Robert Nkemdiche another freak Defensive End at 6’5” 260lbs.

The best way to use this graphic as a potential college football player is to be realistic about your prospects in college. Height and weight are not the only measure of a football player, but when coaches are faced with looking through recruiting class of thousands of athletes they often break their searches down by height and weight at the start. That is why as an undersized player, it is so difficult to get coaches attention in the recruiting process.

Learn more about defensive positions in football.

Do you play offense as well?

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