Connor Colby is a dominant OL
With size and a tenacity to dominate, Cedar Rapids Kennedy offensive tackle Connor Colby has established himself as one of the premiere football players in the Class of 2021. We caught up with his head coach, Brian White, and talked to him about this future Hawkeye.
Q: How would you describe him overall as a football player?
WHITE: I have known him quite a long time because he and my son are the same age. They played on some travel teams that I coached. As a football player, he is one of a kind. He has got an attitude to him where he plays so hard. He usually dominates the guy across from him. He finishes well and gets that last push in as a lineman. He also has a mean streak, but he is not a boisterous guy. He is not an in your face kid. He doesn’t talk a lot of smack.
Q: What do you feel are his main strengths at this point?
WHITE: First of all, he has really good size. He is a big who has tremendous strength. He puts a lot of work into the weight room. He takes pride in lifting. He can also move for a big guy. He is playing basketball right now and has really good feet. He can stand under the hoop and dunk it flat footed. He is agile for his size.
Q: What areas is he going to continue working on as he prepares for the rest of this season and beyond?
WHITE: What we are going to focus on as a staff is his leadership and getting him out of his shell. We are working to get him more boisterous and step into more of a leadership role that will help him as he gets to the next level. Physically, he is in good shape. He will continue to improve on the mental side.
Q: What separates him from his peers to get the type of attention and honors that he has received?
WHITE: The size helps, but I think the fact of the matter is what he is a football player. He loves the game of football and is a throwback type of kid. You can compare him to linemen of the 80s and 90s. We are a power run offense. We get him downfield. You’ll see him blocking safeties and corners. He gets after it. That is what really separates him. He is a complete offensive lineman.
Q: What type of junior season did he have overall?
WHITE: Really good. Team wise, we got beat in the semifinals and he was a big part of our offense. We led the state in rushing and had two 1,000-yard rushers. We have another Division I lineman at guard, so we had two good kids to run behind. We had a really good year running, and he was a big part of that.
Q: Where does he project out at the college level position wise?
WHITE: I think he’ll be an offensive tackle, as of right now. Next year we’ll play him a lot on the defensive side, but they are looking at him at offensive tackle now.
Q: When did you know he was going to be a special player for you?
WHITE: That is funny because I’ve known his parents forever. His dad is not a real tall man. We always kept think Connor would stop growing, and he never did. He has always been probably the best offensive lineman on the field since fourth grade. I think he is still growing. He wears a size 18 shoe. You just knew when he was a freshman at 6-3 or 6-4. Now you think this kid has a chance to play big time football.
Q: How did the Iowa staff find out about him as a recruit?
WHITE: They stop by the school quite a bit. We got a lot of kids at Iowa now. When we brought Connor up as a sophomore, I told them about him a little bit. Iowa State was the first school to offer him. They offered him right away and Iowa was next. He made a highlight video from his sophomore year that was four minutes long. Every clip had him body slamming or pancaking kids. Physically he was mauling kids that were two or three years older than him. Iowa jumped on him and then last summer it blew up with Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State. Virginia Tech flew a coach in to offer him without seeing him because they just knew. He was a pretty hot commodity, but all along he wanted to be a Hawk.
Q: Were you surprised with how quick things picked up with those national offers?
WHITE: I was a little surprised that he was getting those big time offers so fast, with him not even starting his junior year. We knew he had a chance to be a big-time player, but when he was getting those offers, it was a big deal.