Seventh in an 11-part series. Tomorrow we’ll have linebackers.
It was a Sunday morning staff meeting after a lopsided road loss the previous day.
When Greg Gattuso gathered all his assistants and started analyzing the game, he made a declaration that no one wanted to hear.
The Albany Great Danes head coach predicted that the team’s best player would leave the team and the program.
“The transfer portal had just opened and no one knew what it was or what it was going to be,” Gattuso told the Post. “I said, ‘There’s no way he’s coming back.’ I knew we were going to lose him. He was the best guy on the field that day.”
Sure enough, that “best guy on the field” Jared Barth was on a fast track to pull away from Albany and arrive at Florida State University.
What happens on the night of April 25th will determine where Verse begins his NFL career.
Vaas would be one of the first defensive players selected in the first round, when an offensive player could be left out with the first 10-12 picks.
He is the prototype of the pass-rushing defensive end, proving that it doesn’t really matter where a player starts, it matters more where he finishes.
“I kind of knew it was coming,” Vaas said at the NFL Scouting Combine in late February. “But I had to stay focused.”
There is no doubt that the third game of the 2021 season required concentration.
Vaas and his Albany teammates suffered a disastrous 62-24 loss to Syracuse in one of the early season playup games. Even though FCS schools get paid to travel, they almost always lose to top-tier FBS schools.
With the result no longer in doubt, Vaas could do nothing to change the course of the match.
But he changed the trajectory of football.
Verse showed great speed and the hustle to chase down star running back Sean Tucker, now with the Buccaneers, on long runs.
While Verse didn’t stop Tucker from scoring one of his four touchdowns on this play, it was an eye-catching display of athleticism.
In the fourth quarter, Vaas showed another glimpse of his special side, bull-rushing Syracuse’s right tackle all the way and forcing a lineman into the quarterback (a guy named Tommy DeVito).
In the game against the Orange, he had four tackles and six quarterback pressures.
“He made a lot of outrageous plays,” Gattuso said. “Jared was a beast.”
That season, Vaas recorded 9.5 sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss and was named the Coastal Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year, but as expected, it was his final year in the Albany Purple and Gold.
While preparing for a game against Syracuse the following season, Florida State coach Mike Norvell watched the Albany game and noticed an “incredibly active defensive end.”
He was intrigued.
Vaas transferred to Florida State and continued his rise.
Verse, who had 18 sacks and 29.5 tackles for loss in two seasons with the Seminoles, was a two-time first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection and a two-time All-American.
And now he’s one of the highest-rated edge players in this draft.
“I respect everyone in this class,” Vaas said. “All these guys are hard workers. Some are fast, some are strong. The only thing I have better than these guys is I had to acquire the ability to work hard. I think that’s what it means.
There’s no question that Vers had to earn his way here.
He was a 6-foot-3, 205-pound tight end from Central Columbia High School in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
He never had any offers to play college football.
Albany’s tight ends coach at the time, Nate Byham (now at Stanford), visited the school, liked what he saw, and encouraged Gattuso to take a look.
“He came in looking cheerful and excited and said, ‘Coach, you think I’m crazy, but I want to know what you think of him.’ said Gattuso. “We value a certain style of defensive end and were looking for a tall, lean, long, developmentable player who could run. We wanted a hidden gem, a player no one wanted. I found people.
“I put in the film and he’s playing mostly tight end, but he meets the criteria. So I’m like, ‘Let’s take him and make him a defensive end.’
“He starts growing right away. You literally can’t block this guy. He redshirted and wasn’t the kind of star player that came in and played or played as a freshman. But I couldn’t stop him all summer camp.”
Eternally confident and willing to talk trash, Vaas considers his three years in Albany essential to his development.
“I wasn’t a huge power person,” he said. “If you looked at me in high school and you look at me now, you’d probably be like, ‘What…?'” Albany helped me grow by leaps and bounds.
“Albany helped me grow and helped me grow. Going to Florida State was something that changed my life for the better.”
From there to here, and then to the NFL.
