[LeeCoUKFan]

Firios has high ceiling for improvement

Justin Rowland
CatsIllustrated.com Football Recruiting Analyst

Nico Firios may have as much athleticism and raw physical ability as any other prospect currently committed to Kentucky but he still has a ways to go as far as polishing his game.

According to his coach at Longwood (Fla.) Lyman, Jeff Gierke, Firios has already come a long way.

"Last year was my first season coaching Nico and when I got there he looked the part but to be honest he was terrible," Gierke said. "He was just one of those kids that looks the part but couldn't play. He had gone through Pop Warner and just made plays. He wasn't coached. If no one's coaching you then you're not going to be a very good player.

"In the spring he was not very good. I saw flashes of what he could do. He could definitely run. He was a big kid and a very strong kid but he needed someone to coach him. That's his best quality, that he's coachable. That's why he's going to be very successful in college. He's a four-star player with just a year of being coached.

"If you would have saw him when I got him, it's a tribute to his work ethic and his desire to be a good player. He's put the time in. There was a point where I was going to bench him last year. He whiffed on so many tackles and didn't read anything. By the end of the year he was just an animal, and through the spring. I think he's going to have a tremendous year. He's gotten even bigger and stronger. He enjoys the game. We're going to move him around. With his athleticism we think he's going to have an All-American kind of year."

Athleticism has never been an issue for Firios. Not too many linebackers at 6-foot-2 and 225-pounds run the 40-yard dash in 4.53 seconds, but Firios does. Gierke believes he will be around 230 when he enters college and he expects him to crack Kentucky's depth chart by his second year in the program. He even expects him to see some playing time as a freshman.

"He'll strike you," Gierke added. "He's a violent kid. He doesn't have a whole lot of weaknesses because he'll take on the block, he can get separation and he's a great blitzer. He's starting to recognize plays and he blocking schemes. He's a very good football player. He's strong and fast.

"One thing we can work on is coverage. I've never asked him to cover very much even though he's so athletic because he's such a good blitzer. We play with five defensive backs so he's never been asked to cover a lot. We're going to do some things with him just because he's got that ability. He's got to get out there and do it.

"We've got to give him a chance to show he can do that. That's always everybody's biggest jump from high school to college football, at linebacker and in the secondary. Everything throws much more (in college) and you're going against better players and quarterbacks. That's always the biggest adjustment. You're not going against Division I quarterbacks every week. You might see that once a year but in college everyone's throwing half the time."

The mental aspect of the game is also something that gradually comes to everyone. Firios is still relatively raw but he's picking up on things quickly.

"Playing middle linebacker, he's going to be big enough. He understands it well enough. He recognizes plays and will take on a block and run people down. It will be the mental side of it ... breaking down film, that stuff everybody has to do in college. If you're going to be a middle linebacker making calls and checks you have to start watching more film and you have to be that coach on the field where you can make the checks a coach wants you to make without looking over.

"That's something he can grow into. He's a smart kid. Most of our checks are in the secondary and those are advanced things you don't have to do in high school," he said.

Kentucky assistant coach Chad Scott was responsible for recruiting Firios to Kentucky and he sealed the deal, for all practical purposes, when Firios visited for the Wildcats' Saturday Night Primetime Camp in June.

Gierke admits he didn't expect the choice to be Kentucky.

"They were always there," he said, "but I was surprised. I thought he was going to hold out and see if a bigger school (would offer). When he first told me his schools he was hearing from Notre Dame, Stanford and all these bigger schools, which I understood. He's got grades and every big-time player wants to see how big they can get.

"He really liked the guy recruiting him from Louisville and they were down here recruiting him on day one. He visited there right before he visited Kentucky. I thought if he was going to choose anywhere it would be (Louisville). He was talking about Auburn and Miami. I don't get involved with that and I'll let them decide, but I thought he was going to wait 'til the end of the summer to make sure nothing else came. He said he really liked Kentucky and that's where he wanted to be."

Firios is part of a four-man linebacker class that also includes Dorian Hendrix, Kobie Walker and junior college prospect Ryan Flannigan.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1522342