Brandon Vocco has a true passion for the game. Since he first set foot on the field, his blood, sweat, and tears have been for the love of football. That passion has since turned into success at the college ranks.
The Senior at Clarion University credits his performance on being intelligently aggressive on the football field. This means being able to run to the edge, but not jump off of it. His biggest strength is that he is very coachable and wants to soak up as much knowledge as he can. Coachability and knowledge helps him feel like he plays and understands his role in the defense well. Also, he is a huge team player and loves his role on the team as a Defensive Tackle. This leads to his faith that if he does his job, then his teammates will do theirs. That is the mindset every player needs to have in order to play like a true winning team.
Last season, Vocco was dominant on the Defensive Line, recording 62 total tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, and 3 sacks, all of which helped him receive second team All-PSAC honors. Although being named to an All-Conference team is a high honor, Vocco believes there is room to improve in every aspect of his game to become an even better player. He can now take the experience of knowing what it takes to be a second team All-Conference player and work that much harder to get on to the first team and beyond. For Vocco, the more he plays the game, the slower it gets, so he feels like he will be in control of the tempo this season. Film is another aspect of the game that he has been working on, because the more he watches the more comfortable he feels going into a game. This season he will be so prepared, that he will know what the guy in front of him is doing before he does it, and that is the best feeling in the world for Vocco.
Although Vocco has been working hard to improve his game this season on his own, he cannot do everything without some help from the resources he has at Clarion. He credits his coaches for doing a top notch job of making sure he does not get complacent, because that can be a downfall of an athlete. He has been working out daily with the program his Strength and Conditioning coach gave the team for the summer, completing the workouts and conditioning sessions with his Golden Eagles teammate, Tom Randazzo. They have pushed, encouraged, and challenged each other in and out of the weight room this summer to be the best they can be as individuals and as teammates.
Vocco’s goals for the year are to grow as a team and to fit into his role in the Defense. His goal beyond college is to play professionally. He is off to a good start this offseason in accomplishing those goals, as he was already named a preseason All-American and was invited to the Podyium All-Star Game and Combine.
