Why was he a DE?

In the beginning when the coaches were having their quick discussion on which walkons they were going to keep, you hear the DLine coach say that Rudy should be kept on the squad, but the DBs coach says "you can have him if you want him, justn ot in my defensive backfield" therefore Im sure the Line coach told Rudy, "your either playing DLine, or your going home" and since a DT is definetly out of the question, he played DE.

he probably wasn't fast enough/had coverage skills/lacked ability and experience for safety. perhaps there were already enough safeties on the prep team and just put him at DE since he played that position in HS and was aggressive being down in the trenches. as for DEs, some DEs can be decent and not be big such as Dwight Freeny. sometimes the smaller DEs can give OL fits by being able to speed rush and slip past bigger OTs and get under/around their blocks and OLs benefit from practicing against smaller DEs like Rudy when they face DEs that aren't as big but have a high motor and better built than rudy while having a lower center of gravity to move past big OLs

I was thinking he could be one of those short, power-type outside linebackers that always stay in a two point stance. There have been some nasty linebackers that have been short. Just recently, Buster Davis played linebacker in the NFL and was 5'8. Ray Rice also reportedly did some OLB while playing at Rutgers and he was recorded as 5'6 his freshman year, the same height as Rudy. A 5'6 DE sounds ridiculous even in high school.

Personally, I played linebacker in high school at 5'7 and lettered as a sophomore.

The only thing I remember about celestial Spider-Man is that he's...celestial. - Bruce Campbell

Rudy was too small for the defensive line. He was too slow to be a defensive back. He seemed like a better fit for linebacker. The late Sam Mills played linebacker in the NFL in the '80s and '90s at only 5'9". But he was a lot heavier than Rudy. Someone asked Mills about playing defensive back and he said he couldn't do it because he was much too slow.

My high school football team had an offensive lineman who was about five feet tall. No one even believed he was on the team. He was short, but he was strong and quick. Leverage is important in football. Coaches are always telling players to get low. That guy was already low.

What about special teams? A hungry overachiever like Rudy really could have excelled covering kickoffs and punts. He did cover a kickoff when he finally got to play in a game. Did they show him practicing with the special teams units?

It has been a while since I've seen it but at the beginning of the movie it showed him in high school right? And didn't he say he led the team in tackles? So he must have been somewhat decent of a defensive end.







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I did sixty in five minutes once...

he played it in high school, he didnt have enough speed to play in the secondary or as a linebacker.