Bronx, N.Y. - We continue our position-by-position breakdown of the 2021 Fordham football Rams today as we look at the linebackers.
The Fordham linebacking group will be led by one of the top players, not just in the Patriot League, but in the NCAA FCS in senior
Ryan Greenhagen. The 2021 Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, Greenhagen is a 2021 Preseason All-American and is on the Buck Buchanan Watch List, an award presented to the NCAA FCS Defensive Player of the Year. He enters the 2021 season tops among active FCS players with 1.37 tackles for loss per game through 26 career games. Greenhagen's 35.5 career TFLs, is seventh-best in school history.
Other returners at linebacker include seniors
Jaden Vazquez and
Zac Spencer, juniors
Jackson Barletta,
Parker Spillers, and
Nick Villis, and sophomore
Mike Courtney, and
Tyler Cook.
Vazquez appeared in all three games last spring, both at linebacker and on special teams, where he recorded four tackles, two solo, and broke up a pass while Spencer was active in two games during the spring, making a pair of tackles.
Barletta, who has appeared in every game in his Fordham career, made five total tackles last spring and intercepted a pass, while Spillers, who started ten games as a freshman in 2019, finished with five tackles, including one for a loss, in the spring. Villis, a First Team All-League selection as a junior and senior in high school, did not see action in the spring.
Courtney had a successful shortened freshman season, playing in all three games, recording eight total tackles, including 3.5 for loss, and he picked off a pass, while Cook saw action in two games in his rookie campaign, recording safety against Colgate.
Newcomers at linebacker include freshman
James Conway,
Nick Holle, and
Matt Jaworski. Conway is a graduate of Millard West High School in Omaha, Nebraska, where he was a Super-State First Team selection as a senior, while Holle earned First Team All-North Jersey honors at Northern Highlands High School in Allendale, N.J.. Jaworski, a native of Buffalo, played his senior year at St. John Paul II in Huntsville, Alabama, where he was named Defensive Player of the Year (4A) as a senior.
