101 Days of BC Football: Mike Strizak, #30

Yes, he’s another 2012 newcomer from New Jersey.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can assess another one of the fresh faces on the Boston College football team and additions to the solid linebacking corps: Mike Strizak.

This young man played his high school football for one of the top preps in the Garden State, if not the country: Don Bosco. His head coach was Greg Toal, father of former Eagles Greg (the younger) and Brian Toal. At Don Bosco, Strizak was an Army All-America and All-North Jersey first-team player following his very good senior season, in which he amassed 72 tackles and 13 sacks. They do a lot of winning at Bosco, and Strizak was involved in two high school national championship victories, including his final year in 2011.

Playing for this school will get you noticed, but being a good player for this school will get you offers. Strizak got eight of them; aside from BC, the others were UConn, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan State, UNC, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers. Reports conflict on if Virginia offered him and MSU didn’t, but what matters is that he chose Boston College, probably to the joy of his high school coach.

Across the board, Strizak was considered a three-star recruit. His particular skills are on the inside of the linebacking unit, where he has done a good job at helping to stop the run. Strizak’s scouting report is mostly favorable, though it did call him “undersized.” I don’t know if that counts for much, though, because he’s 15 pounds heavier than the best linebacker on the team at present, Kevin Pierre-Louis.

I would bet on a redshirt this year for Strizak, barring the unforeseen. The linebackers on this team are fine as presently constituted and there is no rush to get him in there.