Coach Carl Reed Talks About His Prized Player – Irish Offer DE Ronnie Perkins
Coach Reed has a big time talent in Ronnie Perkins.
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Defensive end Ronnie Perkins was offered a scholarship to Notre Dame on February 27. The Irish are looking to add a few strong defensive ends to their ’18 class and they decided Perkins would be a great candidate.
I couldn’t agree more.
Ronnie Perkins shows outstanding athleticism at the defensive end position but what really stands out to me is his position versatility and overall athleticism.
Perkins lines up all along the defensive line as well as tight end. He also takes direct snaps out of shotgun as a wildcat quarterback where he runs the ball very effectively.
Lutheran North in St. Louis, Missouri has been producing a lot of talent in the last few years, and currently, so I decided to contact their head coach Carl Reed to get his take on Ronnie.
“I’ve coached Ronnie for the last year and a half. I coached both his older brothers at a previous school. When I got this job, he came over here with me,” said Reed.
Reed went on to explain how they use Ronnie Perkins on both sides of the ball in their successful program.
“He’s pretty multi-dimensional across the defensive line. He can play outside or inside. We don’t exclusively use him at end. We try to move him around a little bit so teams can’t necessarily key on him and focus on him that way.”
I asked Reed to tell me about Ronnie’s skills as a pass rusher. Here’s what he said.
“He definitely can rush the passer. Like all defensive lineman, he’s still working on his second and third moves. He is an explosive pass rusher.”
Reed went on to talk about Perkins strong weight room performance.
“He’s very strong in the weight room. We have a program where we don’t do a lot of bench max and stuff like that, We’re not necessarily big on bench and squat max as they’re not necessarily transitional to the game. We do a lot of real football movements.
"“He can match up in the weight room to anybody.”"
I mentioned that I noticed several clips of him being used in the wildcat formation in red zone or goal line situations. Here’s his response to that comment as well as a statement he made regarding his take on his play at tight end.
“Not necessarily. Sometimes we use him in the open field. It all depends on the looks defenses are giving us and how we feel we need to attack a particular defense. We have several guys with division one offers, so it’s all about finding the match ups so that we can exploit the defense.”
"It’s a little known fact that he can play tight end as well as any recruit in the country."
Reed then spoke to me about the high level of talent in the St. Louis area.
“St. Louis has some of the finest football players in the country. We’re blessed to have some of them here at Lutheran North.”
Click here for Maxpreps.com player profile and video on Ronnie Perkins
I asked Reed what kind of role Ronnie Perkins takes within the program as one of their premier players. Here’s what he told me.
“He’s definitely a leader. Guys like him have to be, in order to have any type of success.”
We then got into recruiting. Reed explained where Perkins is at in his process.
“He’s a ways away from cutting down a list. I think it’s way too early to start talking about individual schools in terms of favorites and that. He’s going to get a chance this spring and summer to get out and see some campuses and kind of take it in a little bit.”
Then, of course, I got into Notre Dame. He spoke to me about how his star player feels about the Irish offer.
“He’s definitely excited about it. It’s an offer that he wanted and he had a lot of interest in Notre Dame. We’ll be getting up there sometime soon in the spring.”
Reed finished by telling me about Ronnie Perkins academic efforts.
“You can’t get recruited by a place like Notre Dame without being totally legit academically. I’m not sure that he’s know yet what he wants to study but his academics is strong.”
I’m certain Notre Dame will be staying in close contact with Perkins and Coach Reed going forward. Perkins would be a fantastic addition to an outstanding defensive class.
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