Colin Schooler, Texas Tech Football News: Draft Scout Player News

09/11/20 - OLB Colin Schooler, rSr/2022, Texas Tech

As a Pac-12 linebacker for the past three years, Colin Schooler got used to making all sorts of split-second decisions: calls, checks, angles to take on opposing skill-position players. Perhaps no single one of those carried the gravity of the quick decision he had to make over the past month. When the Pac-12 postponed fall sports on Aug. 11 as a precaution for COVID-19, the former Arizona star decided not to sit tight. But then he had to choose a new home. He had his name in the NCAA transfer portal by Aug. 21 and announced on Aug. 30 he was joining Texas Tech as a graduate transfer. "The really tough part about it is Arizona did nothing wrong," Schooler said Tuesday. "It was a conference choice for them to not play, and I have no bad blood over there. I still wish everybody the best at Arizona. "But personally I couldn't sit back and watch the rest of the teams that decided to not opt out of the season play. I feel like when it's fall time, it's football time and that's what my family and I chose to do."

Few, if any, transfers into the Texas Tech program have been more heralded. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound senior achieved some level of all-Pac-12 recognition each of his first three years after posting single-season tackle totals of 95, 119 and 98 - and tackles for loss totals of 13 1/2, 21 1/2 and 11. He's impressed his new coaches and teammates by being a quick study. "At Arizona, we ran kind of the same scheme," Schooler said. "But in terms of football, defense is defense no matter where you are. It's just a matter of getting down the terminology and calls and certain checks like that. "I've had a pretty smooth transition, getting extra time with coach Cos (linebackers coach Kevin Cosgrove) and just being in the film room a lot." - Lubbock Avalanche Journal

rSr/2022