Over the past two seasons, Aakil Washington has quickly grown into one of Liberty’s top defensive players. Now, the Flames will be looking to let him play multiple positions, including linebacker, to ensure that Washington is on the field as much as possible.
As a true freshman in 2020, the 6’2″, 240 pound Washington played in nine of Liberty’s 11 games. He finished that year with seven tackles and was third on the team with four quarterback hurries. Last year, the Marietta, Georgia native saw an increase in his production. He played in all 13 games while making six starts. Washington would finish third on the team in sacks with 4.5 to go along with 27 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble, and a blocked kick.
Josh Aldridge, who has been Washington’s position coach on the defensive line his first two years in the program, has been promoted to Co-Defensive Coordinator and is moving to coach the linebackers for the 2022 season. As Aldridge was surveying his defense, he came to one clear conclusion – he needed to find a way for Washington to get on the field for more snaps.
“My philosophy as a coach has always been – how can you get the best 11 guys on the field,” said Aldridge. “(Washington’s) one of our best players. If we can find a way to get him Durrell (Johnson) and TreShaun (Clark) on the field, we are cooking with grease.”
As Aldridge met with Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze and the rest of the coaching staff, they decided it would be best to try Washington at linebacker during the spring to see if he could help the team there for the 2022 season.
“We met as soon as the season was over and talked about possible scenarios as we looked at recruiting and where we were deep at,” Freeze said of moving Washington to linebacker. “Aakil is a football player. You still have the ability to put him on the edge to rush. We are excited about watching Aakil there.”
Johnson and Clark are each penciled in as returning starters at the two defensive end spots, and Washington’s snaps have been limited the past couple of years behind those two dynamic players. This spring, Washington is getting most of his work in at linebacker where he is taking reps at the Will.
This move helps Liberty’s defense in a number of ways. First, it allows Washington the ability to play at linebacker and still line up at defensive end on obvious passing downs, allowing the Flames to keep one of their better defensive players on the field for more snaps. It also helps develop Washington as a player since he gets to learn another position.
“I’ve got to work on my man to man coverage,” Washington said of adjusting to linebacker. “There’s a lot of small techniques I’ve got to work on, but the transition has been smooth. It allows me to help the defense more than I did at bandit, use all my abilities, more. It is going to be good. I’ve been having a lot of progress throughout these last practices, it’s been good so far.”
Washington and Liberty have been through the first week of spring practice before taking a pause this week for spring break. He says a lot of the adjustment from defensive end to linebacker is mental as he has a lot more reads to go through with the offense’s alignment.
“It’s a lot more reads,” he said. “I have to focus on making sure my eyes aren’t bad. At bandit, my eyes could have been bad, but I could help myself by just having good technique. At will, if I have bad eyes, I will mess the whole play up. I’ve got to ready way more run-pass off the quarterback and running back.”
Helping Washington make the position switch this spring is that he gets to make the move with his position coach. He can focus on learning the new position without the added adjustment to a new coach. This has helped the move be more comfortable for Washington.
“We both knew that it would raise the ceiling for me and allow me to make more plays and help the defense out way more than I was before,” Washington said of his meeting with Aldridge following the conclusion of the 2021 season to discuss the possibility of moving to linebacker. “I was excited to move.”
