Rick Gamboa came into this season as part of the new blood in the linebacking corps, a redshirt freshman who was going to cut his teeth under the wings of upperclassman Addison Gillam and Kenneth Olugbode.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Just like that those two guys have gone down with injuries, as well as junior fill-in Ryan Severson. All of the sudden Gamboa is the leader, having to take two guys even less experienced that he is under his wing, true freshman N.J. Falo and fellow redshirt-freshman Grant Watanabe.
“I’m the only one that has game experience right now,” Gamboa said. “I feel like my leadership role has escalated a lot throughout these last couple weeks…In practice both N.J. and Grant have been doing really well out there. I have trust in them knowing they’re going to be in the right place so I can just do my job.”
On top of being a leader to his fellow backers, Gamboa also has to lead the whole defense, as he now calls the plays.
“I’m pretty used to it, I had to do it all throughout high school,” he said nonchalantly. “It’s just me getting the signals and having to communicate with the defensive lineman and communicate with the secondary before the ball is snapped, it’s been going well for the most part.”
All of this is made easy for Gamboa because, as he coaches will tell you, he’s one of the smartest players on the field for the Buffaloes, anytime you bring up the name Rick Gamboa you’re sure to hear “Football IQ” shortly there after.
“I use it to my advantage by knowing what I’m seeing off of a formation, where the back is, where the tight ends are and know my responsibility,” he explained of his knowledge of the game. “Knowing whatever could hurt me on certain plays and knowing how to cheat towards it, if I see a guard pull I know where I have to be. It helps me get to plays a lot faster, I’m not the biggest or the fastest guy on the field but if I can use my knowledge to my advantage it’s going to help me a lot in getting to places.”
The California product enhances his knowledge with the intense film study of the opponent each week.
“I put a lot of work into film,” told Gamboa. “In the middle of my classes, before I go to sleep, whenever I have time, watching film just so when I get out here it’s more natural to me and once I see something I know what’s going to happen.”
Film study is great, but one of the biggest challenges the Buffs will face this week is Arizona quarterback Anu Solomon’s ability to do things that aren’t in the playbook or don’t necessarily show up on film.
“He keeps the play alive, so if you’re in coverage you have to stay on your guy, if you’re a linebacker you have to stay in the right gaps, defensive ends have to stay in the right gaps,” told head coach Mike MacIntyre. “He creates plays and we have to be able to run him down… Don’t give up on the play too soon because he really can keep it alive for a long time and make some big plays when he does that.”
“It’s tough, especially with their quarterback because he’ll scramble around and runs the ball really well,” added Gamboa. “Sometimes he’ll run it and it will make you want to come up but once you do that he’ll just throw it over you and your man is wide open. You have to trust in everybody, trust the lineman are going to come and get him, basically you have to trust everyone around you.”
A scrambling quarterback that forces you to be disciplined, and an offense that thrives on confusing linebackers, it all seems like a perfect storm going against the Buffaloes, but the redshirt-freshman who sounds like a senior makes it all seem pretty simple.
“Read your keys, don’t overthink things, just play free, know your job,” he said. “Don’t try to do too much just take care of your responsibility the big play will comes as long as you just keep reading your keys and just go out there and have fun.”
There’s a lot to be said for just going out there and having fun, the Buffs have come out stiff and nervous looking under similar circumstances this season, if they can find a way to simply go out there and have fun playing a game they all love it could go a long way, and who knows, there might be a lot more fun to be had after the game on Saturday night.
