One of the biggest conundrums that an underclassmen faces in college football is determining whether they should declare for the impending NFL draft. There is a plethora of issues they must figure out as they weigh the positives and negatives of each.

Louisville’s redshirt sophomore safety Gerod Holliman will have to face this difficult decision after the culmination of the college football season. Holliman is listed as a 6-foot-2, 213 pound safety who has generated a great deal of buzz and momentum over the last few weeks. Through 10 weeks, he has 13 interceptions, which leads the nation and is two short of breaking the FBS record. Holliman has more takeaways by himself than 34 FBS teams have total, which is almost superhuman.

Before we get into whether Holliman should declare or not, we must first take a look at his skill set and how it translates to the NFL.

The first trait that Holliman showcases on film is his geometric instincts, or his ability to diagnose a play quickly, take no false steps and pursue the pass or the ball carrier with the correct angle. A safety’s instincts may be the most valuable trait that he can have in his repertoire. A player’s instincts can make up for a lack of athleticism because they have are able pursue the ball before everybody else. Nevertheless, when you have a player with extraordinary instincts and remarkable speed, quickness and hip fluidity, you have a player with almost limitless potential.

This play showcases Holliman’s geometric instincts:

Holliman is lined up eight yards off the line of scrimmage in the middle of the field. Right as the ball is snapped, Holliman is reading the quarterback’s eyes. He sees that the quarterback’s eyes go right to wide receiver running the flat route. Then, Holliman shows incredible quickness to burst downhill at a 45-degree angle to undercut the pass. Once Holliman gets to the ball, he reaches up with his right hand and tips the ball to himself for the interception, which he returns for a touchdown.

You’ll also notice that Holliman doesn’t take any wasted steps throughout the entire play. Each step has a purpose and that is exceedingly important in a sport where a tenth of a second is the difference between an interception for the defender and a touchdown for the receiver.

In the play above, Holliman showcased incredible instincts to diagnose the play, read the quarterback’s eyes, take the proper angle and break on the ball, along with exceptional ball skills. It is rare that you see a defensive player be able to come downhill at full speed, have the awareness to get a hand up and have soft enough hands to tip it to himself and catch the ball, which leads to the next quality that stands out when you study Holliman.

His ball skills.

It may be obvious that a player who has 13 interceptions has incredible ball skills, but Holliman is truly on another level. He makes difficult catches look relatively easy, routinely throughout this season. He catches the ball naturally and showcases soft hands, he doesn’t let ball get into his chest and he rarely wastes an interception opportunity. This is evidenced by the fact that he has only three pass breakups to his 13 interceptions, which means that when the ball touches Holliman’s hands, he is probably coming down with it.

Here is a great example of Holliman’s ball skills:

Before the snap, Holliman stands on the left hash mark at the 36-yard line. He is lined up against the slot receiver in off-man coverage with a seven-yard cushion between him and his man. At the snap, Holliman opens his hips to his left and starts his back pedal. He diagnoses the receiver’s out route as the quarterback gets back in his drop. Holliman then drives on the ball as he takes another fantastic angle, undercuts the route, leaps, makes the incredibly difficult catch and holds on to the ball through contact and to the ground.

The play above is one that you would expect to see from an elite cornerback, not a safety with his size. You can’t see it in the clip, but this play takes a great deal of hip fluidity to get from his back pedal and accelerate into the ball’s paths. Also, Holliman takes a precise angle to the ball once again. A lot of players would take a flatter angle to the body of the receiver and just try to get the pass deflection; however, Holliman’s great geometric instincts come into play as he takes a sharper angle to get in front of the receiver and intp position to make the spectacular interception.

Another distinguishing quality is Holliman’s closing speed. The ability for a safety to get to his target extremely quickly is a very desirable trait for him to have. It allows for the safety to make plays others can’t because they can cover long distances in a short amount of time. They can close on a ball carrier before he gains too many yards or they can close on a receiver and knock the ball away before it gets to his hands.

Holliman’s closing speed is effectively illustrated on this play:

Here, Holliman lines up eight yards off the line of scrimmage on the right hash mark. After the ball is snapped, Holliman displays what scouts like to call, click-and-close, which means that he shows the ability to quickly get out of his backpedal into a forward movement. He is three steps into his backpedal when he plants on his right foot, accelerates and lays a hit on the back of the receiver to jar the ball loose for an incompletion.

On this play, Holliman traveled seven yards from the time the ball left the quarterback’s hands to when it got to the receiver’s chest, which demonstrates the type of closing speed that Holliman has.

While he is an elite safety in coverage, he struggles mightily in run support. In coverage, Holliman compares favorably to a player like Earl Thomas; however, in run support he is timid and showcases bad tackling technique.

Holliman’s biggest bad habit is that he tackles with just his shoulder. Rarely does he get square, drop his hips, explode through the ball carrier and drive him to the ground. Instead, he lunges his shoulder at the ball carrier in hopes that it will somehow bring him to the ground. Holliman still displays the instincts and closing speed to get to a ball carrier quickly and in position to make the play, but he doesn’t finish well.

Here is a great example of his timidness and bad technique in run support:

Above, Holliman is lined up about nine yards off the line of scrimmage and next to the left hash mark. After the snap, Holliman diagnoses the run and makes his way down into the running lane of the ball carrier. Holliman has an opportunity to stop this run for about a two-yard gain; however, he turns his head to his left, which takes his eyes off the running back as he tries to throw his shoulder into the running back’s legs. This results in Holliman sliding off the ball carrier and leads to the running back getting enough yardage for a first down.

This is the type of play that will drive coaches crazy. He has the opportunity to make a stop for minimal yardage, but his sloppy technique led to a positive play for the offense. A safety has to be a sure-tackler because oftentimes, they are the last line of defense. How can you trust someone to be your last line of defense if you can’t trust them to make simply tackles like the one above? You can’t, plain and simple.

One interesting tendency is that Holliman almost always uses his right shoulder when he tackles. Even when Holliman is presented with an opportunity to make an easy tackle with his left shoulder, he will awkwardly turn his body to use his right shoulder. Nevertheless, there may be one explanation for this puzzling tendency. When he was a true freshman in 2012, Holliman tore his labrum in his left shoulder. So his tendency to tackle with his right shoulder may be him protecting his left or being worried about exposing his repaired shoulder to that type of impact.

Now the question remains, should Holliman declare for the 2015 NFL draft?

On one hand, Holliman is having an incredible year statistically that he likely won’t be able to duplicate if he comes back. He has a great chance to break the FBS interception record, which will give him plenty of notoriety and momentum going into the draft process. Furthermore, he plays at a premium position with a premium skill set.

However, on the other hand, he has significant weaknesses that he needs to get cleaned up before he will be able to make an impact at the pro level. It is doubtful that any NFL defensive coordinator would trust and allow Holliman to play any significant snaps with the way he tackles right now. He would be too big of a liability in the run support.

Overall, the best decision for Holliman would be to go back to college, get stronger and clean up his form tackling. If Holliman can develop as a tackler, then there is no limit to the type of player he could become. He is already the best coverage safety in college by far as he seamlessly combines ball skills, geometric instincts and closing speed to be the full package as a deep safety. He understands route concepts and he knows how to read a quarterback’s eyes, which allows him to get a jump on the ball and utilize his exceptional athleticism.

The type of talent that Holliman brings to the table is something that doesn’t come around often. If he cleans up his tackling and becomes less timid when he fills against the run than he has the potential to rival Earl Thomas from a coverage standpoint. There is a high demand of safeties that can thrive in either a two-deep zone coverage in a cover-2/two-man under type coverage or in a deep middle zone,in a Cover 1/Cover 3 coverage, but not enough supply to fill those needs, which has turned it into a premium position in the NFL However, if he declares this year, it is going to be hard to draft someone early who has such an elementary understanding of something as crucial as tackling, which would significantly hurt his stock and limit the amount of immediate impact he can have in the NFL.

Projection (If he declares this year): Top 50