We broke the news last weekend that Virginia Tech grad transfer S Khalil Ladler had committed to play his final season at La Tech.
Ladler made his decision public yesterday afternoon.
Ladler played over 1,000 snaps during his career at Va Tech. He had 95 tackles, 6.5 TFL, 1 sack, 3 FR, and 2 FR.
Even better, I’ve spoken to a source at Va Tech to get a scouting report on him.
Strengths:
He’s a really versatile guy. He played a bit as a cornerback, was mostly a nickel/safety, and didn’t have to come off the field when VT wanted to run their base defense (where the nickel plays a bit more like a linebacker). The ability to play multiple roles allowed the Hokies to do a lot of different things without having to sub. He’s a reasonably big hitter for a small guy, and has a knack for getting after the ball, whether playing it in the air, forcing fumbles, or scrambling to recover fumbles.
Weaknesses:
Ladler is definitely on the smaller side when you take into account his skillset. He’s not big enough to take on blockers as a true linebacker or a guy who’s playing in the box as a bit of a nickel safety. He doesn’t have the pure athleticism to be a deep-field safety or regularly play man-to-man coverage as a cornerback. At a Group of Five level, that may not be as regular a problem. Of course, we all know that there are going to be really good athletes in the slot in the C-USA, so if he’s a nickel guy, you don’t want to man him up on some of those guys, because they’ll definitely be able to run away from him. If Holtz wants to play him somewhat conservatively and deep, he can be a middle-third safety in a cover-3, but he’s really more a head-hunter or ball-hawk in the intermediate areas.
Overall:
Ladler’s a guy who’s going to excel mostly likely as a guy who plays in zone coverage and can be assignment-sound while still having a bit of a playmaking flair. He’s more physical than you might expect given his size, but not as athletic as you’d like to play him in more traditional positions for someone with his frame. There are obviously a lot of ways you can use a guy like that - if he hadn’t wanted to find a program where he’d have an opportunity to be an every-down guy, Virginia Tech would have been happy to have him back for situational use - even if the physical attributes aren’t ideal for any particular position you’d otherwise want to slot him into. There’s a bit more potential in him if he can be an every-down player, because ball-hawks seem to get into the rhythm of the game, and the Hokies simply had better overall athletes they recruited over him to give him the type of minutes that would let him grow into each game. He was on the field regularly in 2019 and especially 2018 because VT had massive injuries in the defensive backfield, but it’s totally understandable he thinks he could be an every-down player in a Group of Five situation.
Ladler made his decision public yesterday afternoon.
Ladler played over 1,000 snaps during his career at Va Tech. He had 95 tackles, 6.5 TFL, 1 sack, 3 FR, and 2 FR.
Even better, I’ve spoken to a source at Va Tech to get a scouting report on him.
Strengths:
He’s a really versatile guy. He played a bit as a cornerback, was mostly a nickel/safety, and didn’t have to come off the field when VT wanted to run their base defense (where the nickel plays a bit more like a linebacker). The ability to play multiple roles allowed the Hokies to do a lot of different things without having to sub. He’s a reasonably big hitter for a small guy, and has a knack for getting after the ball, whether playing it in the air, forcing fumbles, or scrambling to recover fumbles.
Weaknesses:
Ladler is definitely on the smaller side when you take into account his skillset. He’s not big enough to take on blockers as a true linebacker or a guy who’s playing in the box as a bit of a nickel safety. He doesn’t have the pure athleticism to be a deep-field safety or regularly play man-to-man coverage as a cornerback. At a Group of Five level, that may not be as regular a problem. Of course, we all know that there are going to be really good athletes in the slot in the C-USA, so if he’s a nickel guy, you don’t want to man him up on some of those guys, because they’ll definitely be able to run away from him. If Holtz wants to play him somewhat conservatively and deep, he can be a middle-third safety in a cover-3, but he’s really more a head-hunter or ball-hawk in the intermediate areas.
Overall:
Ladler’s a guy who’s going to excel mostly likely as a guy who plays in zone coverage and can be assignment-sound while still having a bit of a playmaking flair. He’s more physical than you might expect given his size, but not as athletic as you’d like to play him in more traditional positions for someone with his frame. There are obviously a lot of ways you can use a guy like that - if he hadn’t wanted to find a program where he’d have an opportunity to be an every-down guy, Virginia Tech would have been happy to have him back for situational use - even if the physical attributes aren’t ideal for any particular position you’d otherwise want to slot him into. There’s a bit more potential in him if he can be an every-down player, because ball-hawks seem to get into the rhythm of the game, and the Hokies simply had better overall athletes they recruited over him to give him the type of minutes that would let him grow into each game. He was on the field regularly in 2019 and especially 2018 because VT had massive injuries in the defensive backfield, but it’s totally understandable he thinks he could be an every-down player in a Group of Five situation.
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