Despite lofty college career, Laurinaitis must tackle NFL skeptics

It's rare for a linebacker -- even an Ohio State linebacker -- to be the face of college football. But that's precisely what James Laurinaitis was for much of his career with the Buckeyes. Most football fans know Laurinaitis by name. Most are also aware that his father is Joe Laurinaitis, a professional wrestler who went by the character name "Animal" of the tag team The Road Warriors. And fans know of the tradition at linebacker at Ohio State, that becoming a star there and following in the footsteps of Randy Gradishar, Tom Cousineau, Chris Spielman and A.J. Hawk, among others, comes with immense expectations.

Laurinaitis has been labeled an overachieving, highly instinctive -- if marginally athletic -- linebacker whose rise to NFL glory was predestined the day he chose Ohio State.

And as it turns out, most would be wrong.

James Laurinaitis was an All-American for three consecutive seasons. (US Presswire)

It's hard to imagine Laurinaitis, the fifth player in NCAA history to earn AP All-American honors three consecutive seasons, was barely recruited out of high school. But only two Division I programs offered a scholarship -- his home state Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Buckeyes. It wasn't for a lack of prep achievement. Laurinaitis racked up 193 tackles, including 28 tackles for loss and five forced fumbles, on his way to leading Wayzata High School to the 5A Minnesota state championship game. He was the state's Defensive Mr. Football in 2004.

Why didn't more schools pay attention? Many thought Laurinaitis was going to be the next Wayne Gretzky.

Laurinaitis played hockey and baseball in addition to football in high school. He gave up baseball after his sophomore season, but continued to play hockey. By his senior season, he had been voted team captain and all-conference in one of the top hockey regions in the country. The US Junior National Team invited him to their practices in Colorado. He declined because that was time Laurinaitis wanted to dedicate to preparing for football. Laurinaitis does believe his hockey background pays dividends off the ice. "I think it helps a lot," Laurinaitis explained in a phone interview. "The thing with hockey, I was one of the bigger guys and I was forced to learn to take angles to cut off smaller, quicker guys. It helps you flip your hips. If you have to make a 180 degree turn, you really have to flip your hips. It is harder to do it on the ice than it is to do it on the football field."

His agility has many scouts intrigued with his upside as an outside linebacker. Though all 51 of Laurinaitis' career starts came at middle linebacker at OSU, his smooth footwork and relatively loose hips allow him to change direction quickly, prompting many teams to evaluate him as primarily as a weak-side linebacker. Comfortable and alert in coverage, Laurinaitis has nine career interceptions, more than Illinois' Vontae Davis (seven), one of the premier corners in the 2009 draft. At weak-side linebacker, Laurinaitis' time in the 40-yard dash becomes vitally important. Whereas his 4.80- and 4.81-second times on record at the combine are adequate for an inside 'backer, they also feed the perception that Laurinaitis' stock is slipping as the draft approaches. Like many prospects tested at the combine, Laurinaitis expressed surprise when he heard of the times broadcast by NFL Network. Athletes get immediate feedback from scouts on the field or from their agents shortly after finishing their workout, and those times can differ greatly from unofficial times that are broadcast. "The fastest time I heard for myself was a 4.68. The slowest I heard was a 4.76. To me, that is right about where teams expected me. I have run in the low 4.6s and that is what I was hoping for (at the combine), but with my pro day coming up, it gives me something to shoot for," Laurinaitis said.

"The thing is, there really isn't one exact 40 time anymore. There is the electronic time that some people are going by, but the scouts are probably going by their own times. I mean, if you have a scout who has been timing guys for 20 years, he's more likely to trust his own hand than what some machine says." Some have compared Laurinaitis to former Big Ten standouts Dan Connor and Paul Posluszny, Penn State stars who generated first-round buzz before their stock plummeted after disappointing workouts. Laurinaitis doesn't consider those comparisons fair. "They (Connor, Posluszny) were great players at Penn State. They're just starting in the league. I don't think you can judge a Big Ten linebacker or an Ohio State linebacker or anyone else based on the performance of other players who happened to have played there," he said. "One Ohio State guy coming out can be way worse or way better than the next one."

The comparisons remain valid and appropriate in the minds of some scouts. The same knocks that led to Connor and Posluszny slipping on draft day are causing some to wonder if Laurinaitis isn't a limited athlete whose eye-popping 366 career tackles weren't a product of his uncanny instincts. Considering that Posluszny, after missing most of his rookie season with a broken left arm, came back to lead the Bills with 110 tackles in his second season, the parallels aren't all negative. "He doesn't fit every scheme like some of the other guys this year, but you know what you're getting with him," one NFL general manager told NFLDraftScout.com. "(Laurinaitis) is a smart guy that you can throw the playbook at and know that he's going to be prepared from game one." Here's the talk in scouting circles: If Laurinaitis doesn't run better at Ohio State's March 16 Pro Day, he could slip out of the first round as Connor and Posluszny did. Is the ability to run on a track more important to some scouts than Laurinaitis' standout college career? "To me, it doesn't matter if you're a 4.7 or a 4.5," he said. "If you are a step slow in your first move to the line of scrimmage and the guard cuts you off, then it really doesn't matter how fast you ran in shorts."

Rob Rang is a Senior Analyst for NFLDraftScout.com, distributed by The Sports Xchange.