Film Study: Breaking Down a High School LB Oklahoma State Needs

Well, after much begging and a small monetary contribution to Kyle’s children’s college fund, I get to keep writing for PFB. I’m moving on from breaking down plays to breaking down recruiting film.

On to today’s recruit, Mique Juarez. Juarez is an athletic OLB. He could potentially play the star position with his speed and size. The star position is basically a third safety. In the Big 12, defenses need as much speed on the field as possible. Jordan Burton was OSU’s star linebacker this year. Burton is 6’3 215, Juarez is listed at 6’2 215.

As you can see, Juarez is an athlete. His 40 time is listed in the 4.6 range. That’s solid for a linebacker. Juarez plays DE, LB, QB, and WR, he also had some kick return action in there. Juarez looks like a college athlete playing pee wee. He’s aggressive, mean and likes to head hunt. His combination of speed and power are too much for high school players to handle.

Juarez also shows nice patience in waiting for the play to develop before attacking. That is something OSU needs badly. On Perine’s big touchdown run, OSU’s linebacker shot inside and there wasn’t anybody to the outside to contain the edge. Juarez also has the make up speed if he does step the wrong direction.

His vision is probably his greatest strength, he sees the play, and he understands what the offense is trying to do. His experience at QB will pay off big time when it comes to defense.

He does have some things to work on, he often times slings people to the ground. That works when you are considerably bigger and stronger than everyone. It won’t work against D1 level running backs. What skills he lacks in are coachable; you can’t coach speed, vision, and power.

Strengths: Speed, field vision, power, explosiveness, and size for the position.

Weakness:  Arm tackling, and getting by on athletic advantage instead of using good technique.

Player he reminds me of: Eric Striker, they have similar size, athletic ability and explosiveness.

Juarez would be a game changer for OSU’s defense. The linebackers are really good players, they just are missing someone who can take over a game, similar to how Striker took over Bedlam. OSU had no answer for his relentless attack. OSU has recruited well at DE, imagine having a good DE and putting blitzing Juarez on the same side.

Likeliness of OSU getting him: I’d say 25 percent, it’ll be tough to fight through the California schools and OU. Hopefully he picks the good guys this winter.

I’ll be back later on to break down some of our other big name recruits.