Yesterday we looked at a dominant collegiate pass rusher and for day 56 today, we’ll be highlighting not one, but two offensive linemen. One that played for my favorite college football team and one that I played with my freshman season.
The first guy we’ll be looking at is former Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson. The Holmdel Township, New Jersey native and Red Bank Catholic High School alum was a dominant high school offensive lineman, an elite basketball forward, and even implemented taekwando into his training.
Nelson redshirted his first year at Notre Dame in 2014 and in 2015, played in twelve games but only started in one game. While Notre Dame produced dominant lineman in Nelsons time like Ronnie Stanley, Alex Bars, Mike McGlinchey, and Liam Eichenberg, Nelson has been the most dominant since he got to the NFL.
In 2017, Nelson was named an unanimous All American and decided to forgo his senior season to goto the 2018 NFL Draft. He was selected sixth overall by the Indianapolis Colts in a pretty elite draft class. He has since been named to three Pro Bowls and three time first team All Pro in just three seasons.
The other player that I wanted to highlight for day 56 is a friend of mine that I played college football with at Massachusetts Maritime. Victor Ramirez is a New Britain High School alumni and was an undersized center at five foot eight and two hundred and twenty pounds.
What Victor lacked in size, he made up for in football IQ and agility. Through his career with the Buccaneers, Ramirez played in twenty eight games, two as a freshman, seven as a sophomore, nine as a junior, and ten as a senior.
He graduated in 2020 from Massachusetts Maritime as an emergency management major. Honestly, Vic is just a great guy. In my one season playing with him, he always looked out for underclassmen. When the freshmen were going through orientation and couldn’t leave campus, he would grab us snacks and leave them in our lockers which was awesome to see.
In addition to being a great guy, Vic also had a ton of drip for a center. For games he would rock gold cleats that were spatted with tape, heavy tapped Adidas gloves, and a shoulder brace.
Tomorrow for day 55, we get to take a look at a very dominant NFL center that played his college ball for the Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio.