Cookeville Cavaliers football player Evan Banks begins his fourth season playing middle linebacker on pace to set career highs.
Banks enters Friday’s game against Wilson Central among the leaders on the Cavaliers in tackles per game. His eight tackles per game also include an average of 1.5 tackles for loss, most for the Cavaliers. Banks said he found out a big part of learning how to read an offense the hard way.
“Freshman year, I was playing varsity at middle linebacker and I could not read a guard to save my life,” Banks said. “Now it’s my favorite thing to do.”
Middle linebackers are traditionally taught by their head coaches to read guard to guard. The most common read introduced to young linebackers is known as the triangle read.
“There’s this triangle you got to look at,” Banks said. “It’s between the guard to the quarterback. And when you see a guard pull, that’s usually where the running back’s got to go and you just got to go downhill and crack them.”
Banks said going downhill is his favorite part of playing middle linebacker. Banks said he views putting on the Cavalier colors as an honor and a privilege.
“This is a culture that we’ve been building for the last four years,” Banks said. “And I feel like it’s definitely [become] a big part of our lives.”
Banks has also seen success on offense this season. Banks enters his fourth season playing running back for the Cavaliers. He has scored two rushing touchdowns in four games.