30 Players in 30 Days: #10 — Otaro Alaka

Notes from Billy's breakdown of Alaka

• Outside of Trevor Knight and Myles Garrett, Alaka might be the most important player on A&M's roster in 2016. Alaka is huge for A&M's depth because he's a guy that can stay on the field and play every snap whether that's at MIKE in the 4-2-5 or WILL otherwise.


• Has the potential to be really good and elevate the linebacking corps to another level. He's bigger now and is rangy because he can still really run.


• Alaka could be the biggest piece to solving the run defense issues from 2015. If he stays healthy for 12 games, he might lead the team in tackles at the end of the year and could carry that into being an All-SEC candidate in 2017.


• Alaka has high upside potential, as much as anyone on A&M's defense outside of Garrett and Daylon Mack.

Notes from Olin's thoughts on Alaka

• Alaka showed a lot of promise in the second half of the 2014 season. Before the start of the 2015 season where he was hampered by injuries, Sumlin called him one of the 10 best players on the team.


• Alaka is big, fast and aggressive and is really what you're looking for in a linebacker and could eventually become an All-SEC type of player.


• 2015 was kind of a lost year for Alaka, but if you're listing the reasons why A&M will be better against the run in 2016, he's at the top of the list.


• Hopefully Alaka can stay healthy and his extra size he's added should help that. Alaka is a good football player and A&M needs good football players, especially at linebacker. Alaka has John Chavis to develop him which only makes you feel that much better about him making progress in 2016.


• The A&M coaching staff knows Alaka can play. How many times over the last four seasons has a coach been able to say that about a linebacker?

Follow the entire 2016 30 Players in 30 Days here.

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