Buffs Film Room: Is Antonio Alfano worthy of the hype?

You’ve probably heard the news by now; the Colorado Buffaloes signed Alabama transfer Antonio Alfano, making him easily the most highly-touted recruit the program has inked in over a decade.

Like most recruits, unless you’re a true fanatic, you probably aren’t very familiar with the class of 2019’s No. 1-ranked player in the country, but given how high expectations are, we had to go back to the tape and see how real the hype is, what makes Alfano such a rare talent, and how he’ll fit best in Mel Tucker’s defense.

To believe or not to believe the hype

Alfano is a rare specimen because of two elite traits: his power and explosiveness. He honed both skills in the weight room where he’s a bonafide freak. His otherworldly lower body strength, combined with his violent, heavy hands, make the youngster quite a specimen.

His bull rush is already at another level and if he can play with more consistent leverage—a trait that’s already quite promising—he’ll be impossible to move off his spot when run blocking.

That bull rush allowed him to put some of the best offensive linemen in the country on skates in epic displays of superiority. 

In fact, Alfano was unblockable in his All-American Bowl appearance, looking like a man among boys, leading to a notable rise in his ranking. When it comes to others in his age group, he’s simply at another level.

The other thing that stands out about Alfano is just how polished, powerful, and refined his technique is compared to other high schoolers, and even other highly touted recruits, who are still growing into their bodies. CU’s new commit is a ready-made talent with prototypical size, a compact build and some grown man traits.

Another major strength of Alfano’s game is his hands. He can be a technician when he wants, with quick, powerful hands and the rip move he uses to finish off most blockers that is simply unfair.

The star high schooler is used to getting away with whatever he wants with a higher level of skill and size and will need to be more proficient with his counter moves when opponents can match his strength and first-step quickness.

Alfano is extremely disciplined playing his lanes; he won’t overrun anything and he won’t disregard his assignment by selfishly trying to create pressure.

He’s also very strong in pursuit, possessing scary athleticism to chase down quarterbacks and even running backs on the backside—reportedly one of his most impressive skills in Alabama’s spring game. His high motor and tone-setting attitude both on and off the field—he’s a gym rat and sets the standards in the weight room—will raise all boats.

Even scarier, when Alfano chases down runners on the backside he puts those heavy hands to use, as ball carriers just fall like a house of cards when he swats them down and he’s always looking to knock the ball away and make game-changing plays.

Absurdly, Alfano is a premier athlete on top of his power, legendary weight-room efforts and blossoming hand technique. In fact, he’s already fairly comparable to what  Nick Bosa is right now, based on how the rookie 49er phenom performed at the NFL Combine just seven months ago. For his size—he’s currently bigger than Bosa with as close to an NFL-ready frame as it gets in high school—that type of athleticism is pretty incredible.

Alfano’s athleticism doesn’t show only when running down backs in the open field or bursting into the backfield to sack the quarterback. His agility and balance are superb, helping him fight over cut blocks, as he shows quick feet and a creative ability to make plays.

For his size, his bend is promising too, though it’s one of the few areas he’ll need to work on if he’s to transform into an every-down defensive end (more on that in a second).

Beyond all the traits, Alfano’s generated elite production at just about every stop with 10 sacks, 28 tackles for a loss, six forced fumbles and a blocked kick in his senior year and two sacks in Alabama’s spring game as well.

Now, he might not be perfect but he’s not that far from perfection in the imperfect world that is recruiting high school talent.

For example, despite an impressive spring game showing, watching him against Alabama’s talented offensive line did help normalize things a bit and showcased some of the areas in which he still needs to work.

There were a couple of stunts where he looked a step too slow. Compared to Alabama’s massive offensive line, his size advantage wasn’t nearly as noticeable. The same could be said about his athleticism which didn’t seem otherworldly when utilized as an outside rusher. There are concerns that he might be a bit of a tweener at this point in his career.

Playing like a bull in a china shop, he’ll have to work on wrapping up and being a technically sound tackler who breaks down and wraps up at the next level.

Maybe the biggest concern with Alfano is whether he has much room to grow—probably an unfair assumption for a kid who compares favorably to Bosa. To take that next step in his development, he’ll have to unlock his pass-rushing ability at 275-280 pounds or he’ll be an undersized run-stopper who isn’t big enough to regularly handle double teams at the Power Five level.

What position does he play?

One factor that might ultimately define Antonio’s success is which position he’s best suited for, whether that be at defensive tackle, on the edge, or as a 3-4 defensive end.

As Alfano explained during his recruitment to Jersey Sports Zone, even his final three schools had differing opinions on the matter.

“Penn State and Georgia see me as more of an interior… They want to beef me up and kinda make me like a d-tackle,” explained the then 17-year-old. “At the same time, they did say that I am athletic enough and fast enough to play d-end, so they’ll move me around here and there but I’m mainly a D-tackle in their scheme. Alabama, they want to keep me on the edge. They think I’m exceptionally fast for my size and, yeah, they want to make me bigger—which is going to happen with the [weight] programs that these places offer—but they want to keep me more like that speedy kind of end, like that guy that maintains the outside and stuff. Almost like a DE/outside linebacker.”

It’s notable that Georgia, while Mel Tucker was its defensive coordinator, saw Alfano at his best inside.

From what I was able to evaluate, playing on the interior does seem to be his best position, allowing him to do the most damage with his combination of size, power and explosiveness while giving him the shortest path to the ball.

The big question with Alfano inside is how he’ll handle double teams, which will likely force him to bulk up. That shouldn’t be a problem as he reportedly added close to 15 pounds while at Alabama.

On the other hand, if he’s to stay outside—where as a stand-up edge in high school he wrecked game plans—his bend, speed, and counter moves will all need to be refined.

In the spring game, he played both positions and in the Buffs defense, the 3-4 defensive end spot is clearly where he should be seeing the majority of his snaps.

For Alfano to truly dominate, finding a positional fit and working on polishing the skills necessary for that position will be massively important in his development.

5-stars no matter what

My favorite part of all the highlight tape out there on Alfano is his play at left tackle, where he might’ve still been a game-changing type of signing for the Buffs.

His overall athleticism, length, and movement skills when getting downhill should be illegal on the offensive side, when he’s the aggressor.

As you’d imagine, he’s nasty blocking on the move, with violent hips. Big Ton, as he’s affectionately known to people back in Jersey, is just a quick-twitch kid who puts those heavy hands to use and can dominate on either side of the ball.

At the end of the day, Alfano is a tone-setter on the field and in the weight room regardless of where he lines up.

Letting him develop and get early playing time should be all he needs to succeed.

No matter how much healthy skepticism there is out there that AA could be another Darrell Scott, he’s just too ready-made to fail in the Pac-12.