Seventh of an 11-part series. Coming tomorrow: linebackers.
It was a Sunday morning staff meeting after a one-sided loss on the road a day earlier.
Greg Gattuso gathered all his assistants, and as they began breaking down the game, he offered a declaration none of them wanted to hear.
The head coach of the Albany Great Danes predicted that the best player on the team had played his way off the team and out of the program.
”The transfer portal was just starting, no one knew what it was or how it was gonna go,’’ Gattuso told The Post. “I said, ‘There’s no way he’s coming back.’ I knew we were losing him. He was the best guy on the field that day.’’
Sure enough, that “best guy on the field,’’ Jared Verse, was on a fast track that would take him away from Albany, landing him at Florida State.
What happens on the night of April 25 will determine where Verse begins his NFL career.
In a first round that might see offensive players off the board in the first 10-12 picks, Verse will be one of the first defensive players selected.
He is a prototype pass-rushing defensive end and is proof that it is less important where a player starts and more important where he is determined to finish.
“Kind of knew it was coming,’’ Verse said at the NFL Scouting Combine in late February, “but I just had to stay focused.’’
There is no doubt focus was needed in the third game of the 2021 season.
Verse and his Albany teammates were getting clobbered in what would be a 62-24 loss at Syracuse in one of those early season play-up games when an FCS school gets paid to travel and almost always lose to a higher-level FBS school.
With the outcome no longer in doubt, Verse could do nothing to change the course of the game.
He did, though, change the course of his football trajectory.
Verse showed great speed and hustle chasing down star running back Sean Tucker — currently with the Buccaneers — on a long run.
Verse on the play was not able to prevent Tucker from scoring one of his four touchdowns, but the display of athleticism was eye-catching.
In the fourth quarter, Verse revealed another glimpse of specialness, driving the Syracuse right tackle so far back with a bull rush that the lineman was driven into his quarterback — a guy named Tommy DeVito.
Verse against the Orange had four tackles and six quarterback pressures.
“He made a bunch of ridiculous plays,’’ Gattuso said. “Jared was a beast.’’
Verse had 9.5 sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss that season — he was named the Coastal Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year — and, sure enough, it was his last year in Albany purple and gold.
As he was preparing for a game against Syracuse for the following season, Florida State coach Mike Norvell took a look at the Albany game and noticed “a defensive end that was unbelievably active.’’
He was intrigued.
Verse transferred to Florida State and continued to ascend.
With 18 sacks and 29.5 tackles for loss in two seasons with the Seminoles, Verse was a two-time all-Atlantic Coast Conference first-team defensive player and a two-time all-American.
And now he is one of the highest-rated edge players in this draft.
“I have respect for everyone in this class,’’ Verse said. “All these guys are hard-working guys. There’s dudes that are fast, there’s dudes that are strong. I think the only thing that I have over all these guys is that I had to earn my hard-working ability.’’
There is no doubt Verse had to earn his way here.
He was a 6-foot-3, 205-pound tight end coming out of Central Columbia High in Bloomsburg, Pa.
He had no — as in zero — offers to play college football.
Nate Byham, then Albany’s tight ends coach (he is now at Stanford), visited the school, liked what he saw and suggested that Gattuso take a look.
“He came in all bubbly and excited and said, ‘Coach, you’re gonna think I’m crazy, but I want to see what you think of him,’ ’’ Gattuso said. “We value a certain style of defensive end, we were looking for developmental guys — tall, lean, long and could run. We’ve found some hidden gems, people no one else wanted.
“I put the film in, he’s playing mostly tight end, but he fits the criteria. So I’m like, ‘Let’s take him, and let’s make him a defensive end.’
“He starts to develop immediately. We literally cannot block this guy. He redshirted, he wasn’t like a star player who came in and started as a freshman or played. But we couldn’t block him all summer camp. It was ridiculous.’’
Verse, forever confident and willing to talk some trash, considers his three years at Albany as vital to his development.
“I wasn’t some monstrous force,’’ he said. “You looked at me in high school, you look at me today, you would probably be like, ‘What the … ?’ Albany helped me grow exponentially.
“Albany helped me flourish, they helped me grow. Going to Florida State was something that changed my life for the better.’’
All the way from there to here, and next, to the NFL.
