2012 NFL Draft: North Carolina State Linebacker Audie Cole Is Quietly Confident

Audie Cole, Linebacker, North Carolina State University

Audie Cole is a big, versatile linebacker out of North Carolina State University.  At the combine in February, he measured in at 6’4” and 246 pounds. Cole is an all-around athlete having played multiple linebacker positions during his time in college. I saw him at the Senior Bowl, and he really stood out.

I had the opportunity to talk to him about college and his thoughts going forward into the NFL. We talked a little history. He played quarterback and safety in high school, and he also lettered in basketball and baseball. It is clear that he is a very athletic guy who can do it all.

I asked him if he thought being so athletically versatile helps him.  He said “I think it is good to be able do everything and being an athlete, being able to do a lot of different things really ends up helping you in everything.”

Cole was a Gold Glove champion in boxing in high school. He is just one of those guys that is really good at everything he does. He told me that he had less than 10 fights, but he won the Tri-State Gold Gloves tournament which consisted of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

We talked about his development as a player and particularly as a linebacker. He said he was “clueless up until a few years ago when my position coach Jon Tenuta really taught me how to prepare and how to play the game.”

He played outside linebacker through his junior season and had to move to the middle for his senior season. I asked what it was like. He said that he enjoyed it, but the only reason he went was because of personnel reasons—the team needed him to.  They had lost their middle linebacker the year earlier and “They needed somebody inside to be the coach on the field and get everyone lined up, and they wanted me to do it.”

He is laid back and very unassuming because when we talked about his success on the field he seemed uncomfortable and wanted to talk about the team and not himself.  He said, “It wasn't like everybody was like 'we want Audie to be our middle linebacker because he would be a great middle linebacker,' it was kind of like he's our leader and we want him on the field making the calls.”

We talked about the versatility of being able to show teams that he can play more than one position. I asked him if he thought that versatility would help him come draft day.  He told me that he thought so and a lot of people talked about that.  He mentioned that a lot of people liked that he was able to play so many positions and “it just makes you able to do more things.”

He was a very productive tackler in college, leading the team in tackles in 2009, 2010 and 2011. I asked him if that gave him a sense of pride, being that productive as a player. He said that yes it was nice to know, but it bothered him to think about how many tackles he could have had. He brought up a game against Cincinnati where he had 16 tackles and how on paper it looked like he had a great game, but the team really got beat and that the numbers didn't matter because “it's just whatever you have to do to win.”

His favorite moment playing college football is not losing to their in-state rival North Carolina during his entire time at North Carolina State.  He said, “It was important not only to the players, but it's more of a big deal to the fans around North Carolina,”  and “that's what they hold their hat on, that the football team hasn't lost in five years,” and that it was a big deal for the players and the community.

Looking to the future and the NFL, we talked about things that he could offer as a player to an NFL team. He mentioned that he was a “smart, talented player and a leader, and I feel like I can do whatever they ask me to do.” He talked about how he thought his intelligence has helped him his entire career.

When I asked him if he had a message for the fans of the team that drafts him. He said he would want them to know that “on the field he is a productive player that is smart and does everything.  I'm in the right spot usually, and I will get a good pass rush and I'm just a good person.”  He also mentioned that he was the kind of guy that you didn't have to worry about.

Audie Cole is going to be a productive football player at the NFL level as he seems to be able to do everything well.  There was something about him that stood out to me when I watched him at the Senior Bowl—he was all around the ball and seemed to have a very good handle on what he was doing.  At some point during the 2012 NFL draft Audie Cole will get drafted and I will smile, knowing that some team has just gotten a really good player.

Scott Bischoff is a Contributor for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials.