Sean Jeppesen looks like a linebacker: He’s not tall, but spreads 225 pounds on his 6-foot frame.
Jeppesen has the mentality of a linebacker. He likes to hit and feeds off the emotion of impact.
So, it seems fitting that Jeppesen not only made the move full-time from fullback to linebacker, but that he’s already running with the first-team despite having played the position part-time for only a few games last season.
“I love how physical you can be,” Jeppesen said. “(You can) run around and be crazy.”
Jeppesen, a team captain for Georgia State last year, finished last season splitting time between offense (all season), and defense (final three games) after injuries decimated the linebacking group. He rushed 10 times for 31 yards and made 15 tackles, which includes his work on special teams.
It seemed he would return as a fullback after the Panthers signed only one in the 2014 recruiting class, but Jeppesen’s work on special teams caught defensive coordinator Jesse Minter’s eye.
Jeppesen wasn’t afraid of contact, maintained his discipline and rarely missed tackles.
“He’s a guy who probably was our best player on the punt team from a coverage standpoint,” Minter said. “He ran like a linebacker, tackled like a linebacker. At least he showed a lot of those tools that you look for at the position.
“On top of that, you want your (middle) linebacker to be a leader. That never needs to be a guy that people are unsure of. Nobody on the team can question his want to, his love of the game and how hard he works.”
During the offseason Minter convinced Jeppesen to take the plunge and focus exclusively on linebacker. Jeppesen was wary. He hadn’t played linebacker full-time since he was on the freshman team at Harris County High.
But he did what coach Trent Miles and Minter love to see: He dedicated himself to the position. He improved his max in the bench press by 30 pounds, the squat by 30 and the power clean by 30 to better handle the physical demands of the position.
To improve the mental aspect, he attached himself to the hip of fellow middle linebacker Joe Peterson, watching hours of film and helping organize seven-on-seven drills so that he could work on techniques and reading pass plays.
“He wants to do well and is willing to do what it takes,” Miles said. “He’s what we want to recruit: smart, tough, great character and loves the games.”
There aren’t a lot of skills that Jeppesen can take from fullback and apply to linebacker. He said at fullback the job was fairly straightforward: He knew who to block and where to go. As a linebacker, Jeppesen said he can’t do much until the ball is snapped and the play begins to develop.
But the results are mostly good through two weeks of spring practices.
Minter likes how Jeppesen plays against the run, particularly how he understands when he is supposed to make the tackle, when he’s supposed to force the runner to cut back or continue to go outside.
Defending the pass is a work in progress. Jeppesen estimates he has three interceptions, and Minter said he has caused several more by tipping passes or pressuring the quarterback into poor throws.
His best play came this spring when he ran stride for stride with tight end Keith Rucker, turning his head at the right time to intercept a deep pass.
Jeppesen is still figuring out the nuances of defensing play-action passes. Jeppesen is supposed to read the run first, so he said he is still learning how to recognize when that run is a fake designed to cause him to hesitate.
But Jeppesen has time to learn and has shown that he is taking his new job seriously.
“Linebacker is a different world, and I love it,” he said.
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