A year ago, Brendan Sano was lining up behind the center as a quarterback for Athens.
This year, he’s sacking quarterbacks.
At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Sano caught the attention of coach Ryan Adams. Adams saw he fit better as a defensive end rather than quarterback due to his physical ability.
“It was a situation where we had to have a few things play out in the preseason and had a good competition between three quarterbacks,” Adams said.
The quarterback battle was between Sano, a senior, Treyce Albin, a junior, and Clay Davis, a sophomore.
After the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Nathan White, evaluated the three, as Adams evaluated potential places to move his players, he gave Sano a choice.
“I went to Brendan and gave him the talk and said, ‘You can play quarterback, and if you play quarterback, we’re gonna have to watch you a bit,’” Adams said. “Or you can play rover (defensive end) and H (tight end/fullback) and never come off the field.”
And as a senior leader on the team, he saw he fit better at defensive end, as opposed to quarterback, so he swapped sides of the ball.
Sano played on the defensive line a little bit last season for the Bulldogs, so the switch isn’t too much of a surprise. He felt he was more fit for defense and once Albin began improving as quarterback, Sano felt it was time for change.
Sano has a bit of an advantage, switching to the defensive side.
Though he isn’t a quarterback, part of him still thinks like a quarterback.
“My mentality is defensive now, but I can still understand everything that is going throughout the quarterback’s head as the play digresses,” Sano said.
Having already played on the opposing side, he said it will certainly give him a more mental edge.
In terms of his transition, it’s been seamless.
Just based on Sano's natural athletic ability, the defensive line coach said the transition wasn’t a problem at all. The plan is to use him on the line and also as an outside linebacker.
Though he already has some experience on the defensive line, Sano is going to have to learn to make in an impact in other places on the field.
In Athens’ first game of the 2016 season Friday, Sano had three tackles and was involved in slowing down runners on several plays as well.
The learning curve won’t be too long for Sano. He’s already talented — it’s just a matter of utilizing the talent elsewhere on the field to help the team.
“Honestly, my personal expectations are just to play hard every game, and if I can help the defense then that’s a positive week for me,” Sano said. “That’s all I’m trying to do, is do my part, do my job as a defensive end. I may not make a lot of tackles, but I’m going to free some guys up so the linebackers can make some plays.”
