Deep Dish Football GOTW OT Player Spotlight: Niles Notre Dame's DB Xavier Buckley Talks About ND
So in a way to better understand the use of Deep Dish Football for Illinois recruits and the whole entire IHSA Football scene. Decided to do player profiles of players who you might not know or you might know , but you should respect them for their roles on their respective teams.
Xavier Buckley Notre Dame Class of 2019 DB 5'9 160
Xavier Buckley how has the season been for you so far? This season has been going really good. I got moved from cornerback to a nickelback which is a linebacker/ safety hybrid which was a challenge I was willing to take. Moving to this position was different because slot receivers have more field to work with. But I think this helped me be more versatile and really improved my coverage skill. What do you credit to Notre Dame's success this season? Notre Dame has always had an amazing defense not only because of our leaders like our middle linebacker Pat Carden, Frank Giamarusti, and Myself, but also because of how much time and effort our defensive coordinator, Coach Defranza, puts into our game plan every week. Also our offense has stepped up this year players like QB Anthony Sayles coming to play with us as a sophomore, Ty Gavin being the playmaker he is, and Julian Schurr with his incredible speed. They have all been factors in winnings our games. What do you see in this St.Patrick team? I see that they had a strong receiving core and their quarterback can keep plays alive on scrambles but I know if we can keep them covered for long enough our D-lineman will be able to put enough pressure on him to throw forced passes which our secondary has to take advantage of. What do you like about playing on defense? I love playing defense because giving hits feels so much better than receiving them. It takes a different type of athlete to play defense. Since you don’t know what the offense is running it’s all reaction, and trusting your instinct. What would you like college coaches to know about you? I’ve loved football since the day one was put in my hands. I’m a hard worker on and off the field. I bring a lot of energy to practice as well as in games. And I always have my teammates back. What does Niles Notre Dame football mean to you? Notre Dame football is all about family and being mentally tough. Seven of our eight varsity coaches attended and played football for ND so it’s awesome that they love ND so much that they want to give back to the program and share their knowledge with us. All of our coaches know what it’s like to be in tough game situations and they help us push through adversity when it hits during games and that pushes us to play better and be mentally tough.
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