Luke Kuechly: Filling big shoes and making his own mark

This article is part of Fansided’s College Friday – if you look around the college network, you’ll likely see a bunch of articles similar to this one (but probably not about Luke Kuechly, although I think I’d like that quite a lot).

I don’t really think there’s any debate as to who is the best player on the 2011 Boston College football Eagles. You might have others that you think are good, and I agree that we have some fine players on this squad, but none are on Luke Kuechly’s level (and please note, for example, that while I think four-star recruit Albert Louis-Jean will be a very good player for us, I won’t call him anything but the “best incoming recruit” until he actually plays in games).

In a previous article, one in which I assessed his draft stock for future years, I listed his accomplishments in his freshman and sophomore years, which are plentiful. Why not list them again?

-Eagles’ all-time single-season tackles leader with 183 (2010)
-FBS leader in tackles with 183 (2010)
-ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year (2009)
-All-ACC first team (2009 & 2010)
-First-team All-American (2009 & 2010; consensus 2010)
-Named to 2011 Lott Award watch list
-Finalist for 2010 Nagurski and Butkus Awards

I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’ll make it a thousand and one: I sincerely believe he will add “ACC Defensive Player of the Year” to that résumé. If you see this video, you’ll know what I mean:

Keep in mind that this video only represents one game’s worth of his many highlights.

Kuechly is a guy who not only has speed and athleticism, but great football instincts. It seems like on just about every play throughout the year, when he’s on the field, he knows where the football is and who he has to knock the snot out of to stop it.

This is a defensive unit as a whole that has produced some very good talent over the years. In just the last few, the Eagles have sent Mathias Kiwanuka and Ron Brace to the NFL, should have sent Mark Herzlich to the NFL (no, I’m not bitter), and has claimed other past successes like Bill Romanowski and Hall-of-Famer Art Donovan, amongst many others. Luke Kuechly is following in a long line of solid Eagles players on that side of the football.

By lumping him in with such players at this stage, I do say with confidence that barring the unforeseen, we will rank him high atop the list of the best defensive players to come through Boston College in modern times. While he does merit those comparisons, however, it is important to note that Kuechly made this name for himself through his fearsome play. When he joined the Eagles, it went without saying that he would have big shoes to fill and that he’d have plenty of expectations. To this point, he has exceeded them. It is perhaps somewhat of an injustice to him to say that he’s merely filling shoes, though: he is making it so that the guy who comes after him will have even bigger shoes to fill.