you can't be soft and end up being a Division 1 lineman
In this book
Coach Tepper (a renowned collegiate LB coach) tells a story about how 1 of his scholarship LBs who was going through some issues on the field came to him in his office 1 day. The kid had a confession to make. He told Coach while he loved the game and loved being a linebacker, there's one part of the game that terrified him:
TACKLING.
They may have made it there, but sometimes a player, especially frosh, is still just a kid in a large body who just decimated weaker high schoolers, but they get that work from a grown man in college with an even nastier edge and it hits them harshly that they just stepped into a whole new world, getting flashbacks to their own pops' heavy ass hands
. Some grow up and man up, some simply check out and become jell-o.
Not saying Lil McKenzie gonna be jell-o, but that mental response is the seperator