Spotlight on Safety Corey Lynch

One of the best small school prospect in college football is Appalachian State All American Corey Lynch. He is bar none the best free safety in the D-1 Championship series (1AA), and ranks among the best in all of college football. Lynch has been among the best at every level he has played. In high school, he was named best defensive player in SW Florida (31 career interceptions). He has been a college stand out from the day he turned down a walk-on invitation from University of Florida, for a full ride scholarship to Appalachian State. Lynch is no slouch in the class room either with a double major in Physics and 3.0 GPA.

Major Accolades:

* Started free safety (10 games) as Freshman (2003)
* Only Freshman named to the all Southern Conference team
* Six interceptions as a Freshman (2003)
* Thirteen interceptions by the end his Sophomore year
* One National Championship in 2005
* 2005 all American team
* Eighteen interceptions (18) totaled by Junior year
* 2006 all American team
* Helped Appalachian to their second National championship in
2006
* 2006 broken elbow needing surgery with pins. Played in a cast,
only missed 27 days (tough as nails)
* Begins Senior season among all time ASU leaders in interceptions
#3, fumble recoveries #2, and kick blocks #2
* 2007 pre season all American
* First Appalachian player since Dexter Coakley named Three time
all American?
* Avg. 85 tackles per year, on a team full of all American (how is
that possible)
* Appalachian has not lost a home game with him on the field

No greater complement can be made then when another coach talks about game planning to keep from passing towards Lynch’s side of the field. If you look at the 2003 stats, after his fifth game(4 int’s) as safety, teams quit testing him. In 2005 after his fourth game (5 int’s), teams quit testing him. 2006 Lynch had only one interception in the first nine games against teams that knew better then throwing his way. In contrast, he had four interceptions in the final four games (including playoffs) against teams that didn’t know his history. This summer a coach from the Citadel, said it best, “hours are spent trying to know where Lynch is at on the field”.

After the discussion of Lynch being an excellent cover safety, you need to talk about his ability to make tackles (247) as safety on a team that has more all Americans then any team in America. Two National Championships in a row and the longest current home winning streak (27) in the NCAA, means that the team is full of talent. You have to be a work horse to get those kinds of numbers on a team as good as Appalachian. As a pre-season first team all American, Lynch Knows that people are watching. And if he has a break out season the draft grugrus will have to notice. But, Lynch is not concerned with where they think he will be in the draft, he says “Wherever I go, I pray, great thing happen”.