Sabby Piscitelli
SS, 6-2 7/8, 224, Oregon State; 13 career interceptions –
fifth most active in NCAA during his senior year.. Native of Boca Raton, Fla.
(How did you get so many interceptions?)
Starting making plays in practice was the biggest thing. In our defensive scheme our safeties have got to be able to make plays on the ball. I felt our coach did a great job of giving the safeties the opportunities to make a lot of plays and I capitalized on most of them – so it was good for our team.
(Did you start football late?)
Junior year (in high school). I played baseball. I always loved football, but I wasn’t that big and I got bigger in college. I didn’t start playing until my junior year and I fell in love with it and I wanted to play. I was always fast in athletics and I wanted to play tackle football. My teammates just joked around with me, “just come out.” So I came out for spring ball
junior year, and everything worked out from there.
(Did you get any feelers in baseball?)
I was getting recruited for the minors to play baseball, but I wanted to play football. That’s where my mindset was at. I probably could have played baseball in college. I loved football too much.
(Did you play wide receiver in high school as well as safety?)
Yeah, I played receiver too, it helped me with my ball skills. So that was a good advantage for me when I played safety. They always say DBs have bad hands, but when you have a lot of ‘picks’ you can back it up.
As time went on I started getting more physical, got bigger and started hitting harder. As I got more comfortable with the game, it started coming to me. I was always a physical guy in a sense. I even played soccer as a little kid. I just drew more on the physicality as I started getting bigger and playing more college ball
(How big were you going coming out of high school?)
I went into college at 194, and I was only about 6-1½. It was gradual. It was about 5, 6, 7 or 8 pounds a year. My sophomore year I was like 218. I’ve been about 222-224 the last two years.
(Did you play more strong or free safety?)
In our scheme you have to be able to do both – play the pass and the run equally. The Pac-10 spreads the ball out a lot. You’ve got Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett – sometimes they line up in the slot. A safety like myself, I have to take care of them one-on-one which helped me tremendously with my cover skills. Hopefully that translates to the NFL and they know that. Of course, you also have to play run support at safety. It was the best of both worlds to become an overall good safety. Our safeties were interchangeable – we had to play in the box and cover – to play safety needed to do both sides.
(Are you friends with Buffalo Bills linebacker Keith Ellison
(drafted last year in sixth round, actually played safety and was moved to linebacker by the Bills).
He’s one of my best friends. We’ve talked a couple of times, he actually called me last night and I missed his call. He told me what to expect and how to relax while I’m here – how to just soak it all up and enjoy it.
(Keith’s playing linebacker in the Cover 2 scheme, has anybody talked to you about it?)
Not here. I’ve heard through the grapevine that a few people say that. I’ve just been playing safety, but I’ll play wherever coach wants me to play. I’ll play wherever to help the team. I think I can play both because of my size and speed. Wherever he wants to play, I’m ready.
Playing in the Pac-10 helped me in that part of the game a lot. I probably was a cover guy one-one 15-20 times a game – and covered a guy like Steve Smith, Dwayne Jarrett, (DeSean) Jackson, Jason Hill – those are some legit receivers in this draft. Covering them one-on-one as a safety is challenging, and then the run – I went against some great running backs. It’s something I kind of got both aspects of the game. Sometimes, you play in a scheme you don’t get both aspects. I’ve been fortunate.
(Are you going to workout?)
Yes, I’m going to do a full workout. I’m going to run in the low 4.4s. Last summer I ran a 4.38, a 4.39 and a 4.41, so I’ve been in the 4.3s before. Ken harris is his agent.
(Could you move to linebacker like Ellison did?)
Keith didn’t play safety here, though. When he came here from junior college, it was my first year starting and actually we did have a safety spot open up, but we put him at linebacker right away. He did it very well. That kid is one of the smartest players I’ve ever met. He’s a great player to learn from.
(Who have you met with?)
I had a lot of informal meetings … we start our formal meetings tomorrow. Tonight I’m meeting with the Bengals, but tomorrow I have about 10-12 meetings. At the Shrine game, I met with Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, New England … tha’ts about it formally. But I met a lot of other scouts, though. I’ve been training in South Florida at a place called UAI.
I’m just becoming a better football player. Right now, I’m just trying to get myself into the best physical shape and run faster than I ever have. My straight line speed, I want to get it down as much as I can … to get down into the 4.3s … I know I can. I’m just I’m just trying to show that I can do it.
