Georgetown's Buzbee Tries to Land Spot
By Katie Carrera
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Alex Buzbee gets the questions often enough.
He went where? Georgetown?
That's a pretty small football program, isn't it?
But those questions don't bother Buzbee. He might be from a program that plays in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA), but a week and a half into his first NFL training camp with the Washington Redskins, he has proved to be a quick study. And if he can continue to extend his learning curve, Buzbee could become the first Hoya to play professional football since 1956.
It's no secret that making the transition from college football to the NFL can be hard enough, what with the increased speed and size of players, but Buzbee was accustomed to playing against Colgate and Fordham of the Patriot League -- far from the typical stomping grounds of most professional prospects.
And that difference in skill level made Buzbee's first few days opposite the Redskins' mountainous offensive linemen, such as Jon Jansen and Calvin Armstrong, that much more of a learning experience for the 21-year-old defensive end.
"The first two or three practices he was just trying to get his chinstrap back on right because he was getting slapped around pretty good," said Gregg Williams, assistant head coach-defense.
But what matters, Williams said, is: "How are you going to respond when all of a sudden things aren't going the way you want them to go? Are you going to give in to it or fight back? And to his credit, he fought. He has gotten steadily better."
Whether Buzbee, who is competing primarily with fellow rookies Justin Hickman and Chris Wilson, earns a spot on the Redskins' practice squad or finds a larger opportunity on the regular roster remains to be seen, but what he has done thus far is no small feat.
The last Georgetown alumnus to reach the professional football level was James "Big Jim" Ricca, who signed with the Redskins as a free agent in 1951.
Ricca, who died in February at the age of 79, spent four of his six NFL seasons with the Redskins, and, like Buzbee, was a defensive lineman. But unlike his historical counterpart who was dubbed "mammoth" for his era -- Ricca was 6 feet 4, 270 pounds -- Buzbee is considered undersize at 6-3, 265.
"I'm going against some big guys, so I really just have to try and out-technique them," Buzbee said. "You can't change how big you are at this point. I think they do like my quickness off the edge and if I can keep getting some good pressure off the edge, make the quarterback scramble around, I'll create something to open the eyes of the coaches."
Buzbee didn't begin seriously pursuing professional football until relatively late. He was an all-state defensive end at Seton Hall Prep in New Jersey, where he also played tight end and quarterback, but he was small and the larger football schools didn't want to commit to the Chester, N.J., native.
"I just took the opportunity to go to Georgetown because it's such a great school academically. I thought I'd play some football and get a great education along the way," said Buzbee, who graduated with a degree in government. "By my senior year I definitely wanted to get a degree and I was in pursuit of that, but I love football and I began to think I seriously had a shot."
So after he wrapped up his Georgetown football career, finishing second on the school's all-time sacks list with 27 1/2 and earning numerous all-Patriot League accolades, Buzbee went to work. He knew he would need to seriously improve his agility and speed to catch an NFL coach's eye, so he enlisted the help of Hoyas strength and conditioning trainer Augie Maurelli and gave up all the celebrating that customarily comes with a senior's final semester in favor of training six days a week.
Because he is smaller than most defensive linemen in the pros, Buzbee took steps to improve his footwork and overall quickness in case he was looked at as a linebacker rather than as a defensive end. But when he auditioned for the Redskins during rookie tryouts in May, they couldn't see him anywhere but at his natural position.
The rookie linemen had been told that the Redskins would keep a few of them, but on the final day of tryouts, defensive line coach Greg Blache said he would make an offer to only one. With that news, Buzbee nervously headed off the field.
"I was walking off the field after that third practice, he pulled me aside and said, 'I'd like to give you the job if you want it,' " Buzbee recalled. "I was like: 'Are you kidding me? I'd love it. Absolutely.' "
Buzbee acknowledged that the skills he developed in the months since finishing his college season have helped him improve as a playmaking pass rusher -- precisely the role the Redskins would like him to play.
"He's been doing a great job," said veteran defensive end Phillip Daniels, who has taken to mentoring his young teammate and said that Buzbee reminds him of what he used to be like as a rookie. "He's a great kid with a great personality and you don't mind helping a guy like that out.
"He's explosive. He comes off the ball with a lot of power. You wouldn't know he's from Georgetown by the way he plays on the field."
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