Josh Paschal was a four star recruit out of Good Counsel High School. He was recruited heavily by Kentucky and Notre Dame, but eventually declared to the Wildcats. Paschal is no stranger to adversity. Through his time in college he was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. In 2019 he finished his final treatment and was back to the football field in 2020 where he had an immediate impact on the field. In 2021 he is already showing improvements from the previous year, which he showed during this season’s spring game. Let’s take a deeper look at what we can look for in Paschal for the 2021 college football season.
Strengths:
Paschal is the type of player who is not going to blow you away with quickness and explosiveness off of the edge. He simply doesn’t have the first step or the bend to consistently beat someone off of the edge. What he is consistent at is penetrating through gaps in the interior part of the offensive line. He does a great job of making plays in the backfield and being a disruptive force. The work he does in the gaps forces running backs to adjust their run and he also gets a lot of hurried throws out of opposing quarterbacks by the pressure he is able to force. He can definitely be a handful for offensive lineman to take care of. He is a tenacious defensive end who can definitely cause some headaches for offenses and make plays for his defense.
Weakness:
Paschal is not the most explosive pass rusher I have seen. He can have a quick first step but it doesn’t seem to be as consistent as opposed to more explosive pass rushers. He doesn’t seem to be the most athletic but he does have straight line speed. He needs a wider variety of moves to attack with. Bull rush and rip seem to be the moves that he goes to the most. While these are effective most of the time, a better variety would likely be more beneficial at the pro level.
Overall:
Overall Paschal is going to be a pass rusher to watch. He has come a long way to get back to a competitive level and has fought through so much adversity to get where he is at. It is hard not to root for him after he has come so far. In 2020 he put up some impressive numbers and some impressive tape. Judging by how he’s starting off the spring, he should be a force to be reckon with in the SEC.
Draft Rite 