DT No Longer Has Leader

Conrad Bolston found himself in the backfield of opposing teams often last season, and he doesn’t expect any of that to change this year. He has plenty of college teams paying attention as well.

“I think this year I’m going to continue to show people that I’m one of the toughest defensive tackles in the country. A lot of people love my strength and size, and I’ve worked on my speed a whole lot since last year and it’s going to help me out. My team is looking for some guys who are tough against the run, and a lot of people have talked to me about stepping up in that area. I should be up to the task.”

Bolston racked up 55 tackles and 13 sacks as a junior at Washington (D.C.) St. John’s College Prep and was named second team all-metro. If pre-season hype plays into anything, Bolston may be a shoe-in for first team this year. He has offers from Maryland, Boston College, North Carolina, NC State, Penn State, Virginia, and Purdue.

“Right now I’m wide open. I know in the past I might have indicated that Maryland was my leader, but I can’t say that right now. I’m still looking around at everyone.”

Bolston, at 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds, runs the 40-yard dash in about 4.9 seconds, and it may be even better than that on the field. His most impressive feature is his overpowering strength. Bolston bench-presses around 360 pounds, and squats 560. His vertical leap is impressive, at about 28 inches right now. The scary part is, Bolston doesn’t think he’s begun to reach his potential.

“I have a lot of potential that I haven’t reached yet. My coaches are doing a great job of making me the player I can be, and with a few more years playing football, I might reach it. Since I have a lot of schools pretty even right now, I’m not sure I want to think about when I’ll decide.”