However Brent Venables known across the country for his defensive coordination skills, it’s always been on the front lines where people have the most Venables involved. One of the players hoping he’ll one day be on the long list of Venables success stories is Monday night’s pledge Phil Picciotti. With his decision, it was to watch the film of the Perkasie (Pa.) Pennridge Upper Sr. production. and see what Venables and colleagues have. very excited.
SoonerScoop.com Editor Josh McCuistion: In most tapes, you can spend a few seconds getting a feel for a player’s position on the field, and from shot to shot it can be very difficult to figure out where he is. Picciotti has an outstanding reel that removes any of those concerns.
Either find the big guy with the ball and get off the field as quickly as possible or find where the tackler is moving in the wrong direction, usually in the air, and you’ll find the Sooners’ newest blocker commitment.
It would not be simple to say that Picciotti is a man of action on the pitch.
What probably stands out the most on Picciotti’s tape is how assertive he is. As he reads the gameplay, he warms up quickly and attacks downhill furiously. And with that aggressiveness comes an explosive play that allows him to make missed tackles and often poor tackles.
As a runner he shows off some of his long paces and overall fitness but even as a runner you can see Picciotti’s overall football… personality comes through. He wants to attack, he wants to make contact and he wants to simply impose his will on his opponent.
There will be some who feel Picciotti is too downhill and may not have stellar inner movement but as an inner defender the athletic comeback seems to be more than that to succeed in the role. similar to other full-backs over the years at both Clemson and Oklahoma.
He’s someone who can be a good embodiment of Venables and Oklahoma’s defensive ideals as he roams the midfield. And as he gets bigger and stronger, he assumes it will only become more dominant in the running game.
Basically, on both sides of the ball, Picciotti plays well behind his pads and at full-back is really skilled at cutting the ball and keeping perpendicular to the boundary of the script.
What will ultimately determine how big his impact is is that Picciotti will continue to grow with his change of direction and learn more from his passes – something he rarely gets. Requests made on tape are available.
Compare players: Picciotti is one of those people who may not have the most obvious comparisons but one of my favorites is the former Sooner insider. Hands of Evans.