A couple weeks after inside linebackers Eric Sanders began working with his players for the first time the country shut down to combat the spread of COVID-19.

In a recent interview with Cardinal Sports Report Sanders understated the problem\

by describing it as an “interesting situation”. The coach and players adapted as best they could to learn the defense and about each other via Zoom meetings.

“The guys were wonderful with the way that they bought in,” he said. “Eyes open, ears open — they made it so much easier a transition than it otherwise could have been.”

Then things got more interesting.

Before the season started, Jacob Mangum-Farrar and Tristan Sinclair were lost for the season because of injuries. Ricky Miezan suffered a season-ending injury in the opener at Oregon and just like that the newest Cardinal coach was down to two experienced players who began the year playing the position: Curtis Robinson and Levani Damuni.

Outside linebacker Gabe Reid and former walk-on safety Spencer Jorgensen were moved to the position group to try to prop up the collapsing wall that runs through the middle of the defense.

“My general approach to preparing the group is I want as many guys as possible above the line,” he said. “Meaning we can put them in a game and feel confident that they know what to do. Then the best guy will play the most.”

All things considered, the results could have been a lot worse but everyone involved hopes the Cardinal linebackers missing from action last year will have a chance to impact games this season — against arguably the toughest schedule in the country.

Damuni took advantage of the number of reps he was forced to take last season to rapidly improve in his second season since coming back from an LDS mission. He earned the top PFF College grade among the outside and inside linebackers by a significant margin (his 72.5 overall grade was 10 points better than Reid in second place).

“Where Levani is right now is even better than where he was at the end of the year,” Sanders said. “At the beginning of the offseason we start at zero and lay all the roots so we can learn the defenses. We are about six meetings in (at the time of the interview) and we haven’t talked about one defense.

“We talk about techniques, categories of defense and fundamentals. Levani has told me it has been great for him to start again at the beginning so he can find the little nuances that he didn’t have in his game last year. That’s encouraging to hear and why we do that. He was productive last season and a year later we’re coming back to the basics and he sees he could have done this much better or lined up more consistently here.”

Damuni’s PFF College grade was the best since Bobby Okereke and Sean Barton were Ironman endurance champions in the 2018 season. Not since the great Blake Martinez in 2015 has an inside linebacker scored above an 80 overall for a season.

With the exception of the questionable hockey-esque substitution pattern in 2017, Stanford has typically relied on two or three standout inside linebackers going back to 2014 — arguably the best Stanford defense ever.

Sanders’ preference is to have more than two guys dominate the reps.

“I firmly believe that the kids should be playing so hard that we have to rotate,” he said. “So we need depth to play with the type of effort that we should be playing with. We didn’t have that depth at times last year due to injury.

“But what happened is we drafted reinforcements (Reid and Jorgensen) … and I don’t have any hesitation about putting those guys in. Anyone who wants to play hard can play inside linebacker for me. Those guys were great to coach.”

Of course, there is a lot more to playing linebacker than playing hard. Stanford has seen good athletes, who in some cases were very successful playing other positions, fail to play well inside after moving from a different position. The speed of the game at that position is a major challenge.

The common phrase for the area of focus for the linebackers is “the triangle”: the two linemen directly in front of the linebacker and the running back behind them. In recent seasons it has been the Bermuda Triangle, where Cardinal linebackers go and disappear as playmaking at the position dropped close to zero in 2018 and 2019 and was only a little better last season.

Part of “reading the triangle” quickly is innate ability, but it’s just as important to put in the work to make it a habit. Sanders encourages the linebackers who aren’t participating in a practice rep to stand behind the defense, drop down into their stance and get visual reps.

“It’s not enough to just watch where the running back went and it’s not enough to just watch where the linemen went. I have to put those two pieces together and I have to do it fast. That’s where it’s a matter of building the habit, the reaction. It’s like blocking punches in boxing. If you have to think about it, it’s too late.

“Our inside linebacker GA (Jonathan McDonald) would make cut-ups for the guys that were just the (opposing) offense’s run plays and just the reps where the camera was behind the defense. The guys could practice the visual reps of reading the keys.”

What happens after the snap is the “Sic em” phase, Sanders said.

“Go get the guy with the ball,” he deadpanned. “Just get the guy with the ball. That’s when football becomes like you’re a second grader. That’s the navigating through traffic aspect (of the play). I really believe there is an innate instinct, athleticism, quality to not let the guy trying to block you block you.

“If he does block you, don’t stay blocked. Being able to avoid him on the run, that’s really why I try to recruit athletes at the position because if we’re going to tackle the running back then we should be an athlete like the running back.”

To find that quality among high school players Sanders looks at guys making plays at outside linebacker, defensive back, running back and/or wide receiver.

And he adds: “I really don’t care if you weigh 198 in high school”, because director of football sports performance Cullen Carroll and director of football nutrition Sebastian Zorn will get their bodies ready to play the position in college.

He also loves recruiting wrestlers. He wrestled in high school to get better at tackling and then fell in love with the sport. Wrestlers train to accomplish the same simple goal that linebackers have: “Get the guy on the ground, everything else is details”.

Stanford fans who follow recruiting can spot several reasons why Sanders is a big fan of incoming freshman Ese Dubre. Dubre was incredibly productive against good competition at McEachern High (Powder Springs, Georgia) and he was a very successful wrestler.

“First play of his highlight film he shows snap out of his stance,” Sanders recalled. “That catches your eyes. There is abrupt movement. Ese is a unique guy in that he’s walking around as a high school kid at 220 (pounds) already. He is going to show up game ready.

“I know that this kid is tough and wrestlers make the best tacklers. Ese has a great clip on Twitter where he takes down a guy with a few seconds left in a state finals match to win. It gives me goosebumps just talking about it. That’s what we want: a guy who under pressure will do his job, get the guy on the ground.”

Sanders undoubtedly hopes that better health for his players and a stable offseason will lead to the Cardinal linebackers becoming a playmaking force.