Q&A: David Bruton, S, Notre Dame

Today we are joined by David Bruton, former free safety from Notre Dame. We would like to discuss his Combine performance—he turned a lot of heads it seems from his athletic ability and speed. Bruton was one of the first recruits that Coach Weis brought into South Bend—how did his college career progress from there? From a statistical perspective, David’s performance was quite strong in his junior and senior years—in his final season, he had 91 tackles, four interceptions and two forced fumbles, so he seems to have a nose for the ball and some speed to play center field.

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Your home town is Miamisurg, Ohio. Are you just sitting tight now that your Pro Day is over?

Bruton: I am sitting tight until end of April. I have a couple of team visits ahead of me soon and I'm meeting with a couple of financial advisers. But I am basically just waiting and hanging out with the family until draft day.

Any specific teams you can mention?

Bruton: I fly out to Denver and then to New York, this weekend actually.

Giants or Jets?

Bruton: Jets.

You turned a lot of heads with your 40-time. What was your official Combine time?

Bruton: 4.46

You did nicely on your jumps as well.

Bruton: Yeah, 41.5” on the vertical and I actually hit 11’5” on the broad. I was holding my position but they couldn’t get the ruler down fast enough, so I had to settle for 11’.

Are they giving you a running start for an 11’5”? [laughs]

Bruton: Man, I got robbed. Me and Darius Butler were competing a lot during the jumping, talking back and forth to each other.

Did you see that it took Beanie Wells five or six jumps to finally land his?

Bruton: Yeah, I saw that and said, “Please don’t let me have to jump that many times. Let me just stick it.”

Your vertical was tops for the cornerbacks I believe.

Bruton: I think it was tied for third (among defensive backs). Two corners actually beat me. Darius Butler and (Donald) Washington from Ohio State.

What type of athlete are you? I see you have track experience and are very rangy...

Bruton: I consider myself a security blanket for corners, being able to get over top and deflect the ball, pick the ball, or make the tackle so the corners get a chance to sit on routes, especially if it’s like third-and-medium or something like that. I’m a rangy player, a smart player who studies film.

So teams have you projected mostly as a center-fielder, any other type of free safety position?

Bruton: Some have approached me because they focus on cover-2, where you have to protect against the rail route, the deep-8 or the nine route against the squatting corner. So I’ve come across cover-2 teams, teams that run a lot of fire zones. I came from a school that ran a lot of fire-zone-3’s, so I was playing deep middle often.

So you led the secondary in tackles with 91 and I was reading an analysis of you—one of the weaknesses they pointed out was your tackling ability. Explain.

Bruton: My tackling philosophy is—since I am playing middle third of the field and serve as the last line of defense—get them down by any means. It’s not going to be the most ferocious hit because it’s 52 yards of open field, so I just have to get the ball carrier down by any means necessary. I can understand some things being said about my tackling like I don’t use my hips well, so I’ve been doing a lot of things to help with that. I have been doing some exercises to make it second nature to explode through, run through ball carriers.

So to improve your hip movement, are you taking ballroom dancing? Next on the list for “Dancing with the Stars”?

Bruton: [laughs] No no no, none of that. Maybe after the career is over.

You can do better than Lawrence Taylor.

Bruton: [laughs] Maybe.

Hip fluidity is more important in press/man coverage though, right?

Bruton: Especially in press-jam. While I was out in California training, playing man-to-man against the receivers, I played some off, but I played a lot of press. It was isolating my hips off the line, training my eyes, doing a lot of things. I got used to opening up—I became real comfortable playing up close in press. We did that somewhat at Notre Dame. Me and another corner would switch responsibilities.

Which receiver impressed you the most while training out at Velocity?

Bruton: Patrick Turner impressed me the most—a guy that big who can run his routes so fluidly, can catch the ball real well one-handed, two-handed, behind the back, whatever…he catches the ball real well. We played against him. I really didn’t have the chance to play him man-to-man, because he always was the X or Z receiver and I was free safety. But when I got to defend him at Velocity, I got to understand why he is being recognized for how good he is.

You had good showings at the Combine and your Pro Day. Where are you being projected by NFL teams?

Bruton: I haven’t really heard things from teams per se. But I feel maybe the third round. Being drafted in general would be a blessing, but I have heard third round as well as mid-to-late rounds.

You were in Charlie Weis’s first recruiting class right?

Bruton: Yes, I was in the Willingham-Weis recruiting class. [laughs]

What was it like being coached by Coach Weis?

Bruton: With the coaching staff he surrounded us with, he brought the pro mentality with him, so we’ve been constantly exposed to pro-type, prolific offenses—spreading you out and running the ball, spreading you out and passing the ball and having to match routes and things like that. I have progressively gotten better at understanding route combinations, what to expect on certain downs and distances, become more game-smart, how to study film, just the time-effort energy to put in, teaching us how to grow, how to mature, and how to study the game, which put me pretty much where I am today.

I knew you were smart, but you’re talking route combinations, cover-3, cover-8–you’re going to lose my audience!

Bruton: [laughs]

So what do you like outside of football?

Bruton: I have a son, so I’m generally around him, playing, fighting, doing the whole father role. That and movies would probably be the two things I do.

Teaching your son how to move his hips? [laughs]

Bruton: I’m hoping he goes baseball. He’s a lefty. [laughs]

Photo Credit: College Press Box (Notre Dame)