In the bitter cold of late January, nothing warms my heart more than watching a Defensive Lineman from Katy that has figured out that his hands can be used for more than shoveling massive amounts of brisket into his mouth. All jokes aside, it really is fun watching a High School aged DT who has figured out how to use his hands as weapons. Corey Bethley truly was a force to be reckoned with during his playing days at Katy High.
At 6’1” 270 lbs., Bethley may not be the absolute biggest DT on the market right now, but he definitely is one of the most dominant. Great hand placement combined with an unstoppable motor has helped Bethley separate himself from most other Defensive Lineman in his class. These two things alone would be enough to catch the eyes of many college coaches (and they have), but the real cherry on top of Bethley’s game is his unrelenting pursuit of the ball carrier. It’s commonplace in the High School game to see Defensive Lineman give up on tracking down the ball when it seems like the play is too far away from them. But this is not the case for Bethley. Due to his incredible open field speed (at 270lbs nonetheless) he is able to target, track down and punish the ball carrier no matter where he may be on the gridiron.
While Bethley is an amazing athlete, no player at any level is without faults. The main thing Bethley needs to work on when transitioning to the college game is maintaining a low pad level. Because of his impressive strength and speed he can get away with it now against high school competition, but college offensive lineman will exploit him on this the first chance they get. Pad height is a fairly common problem with High School Offensive Lineman and I’m confident that this habit will be coached out of him soon after he steps on campus, wherever he ends up.
In my opinion any school would be lucky to add Bethley to their Defensive depth chart. He’s the type of Defensive Lineman that Offensive Lineman dread going against, he plays to the whistle and never, ever gives up on a play. Corey Bethley has all the tools to excel at the next level, and this time next year will be haunting the dreams of Offensive Lineman across the NCAA.
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