Kyle Soelle is a big Conor McGregor fan. He likes the way the Irish MMA lightweight fights. He’s attracted to McGregor’s charisma, how the 31-year old seems to bring numbers and energy to any fight, and really anything, he speaks about.
Because when McGregor speaks, it’s a show. More than anyone in the sport at the moment, McGregor is a brand -- his red beard and signature Dublin accent carrying him on to international stardom.
And like McGregor, Soelle is no stranger to building a brand -- or at least giving one its namesake.
When the Arizona State linebacker arrived at Scottsdale’s Saguaro High School before his senior year, he was a highly-rated tight end coming into a team that already had one in Jared Poplawski, who’s now at Colorado.
As arguably the best tight-end tandem in Arizona, Soelle and Poplawski rapidly began attracting Division I offers. The pair, enamored with the strength and notoriety of the tight end room, began calling Saguaro, TE U.
All the sudden, the offers started flowing like wine on a vineyard all around Saguaro’s roster. TE U didn’t fully encapsulate the talent on Saguaro, or the collegiate interest they were captivating. Plus, Soelle was garnering more Division I interest as a linebacker, so TE U didn’t fully apply to him anymore.
Soelle knew Saguaro needed a re-brand.
“So (in the spring of 2016) Kyle Soelle said, ‘Ah, it’s not TE U anymore, it’s Sag U,’” Saguaro coach Jason Mohns said. “And it just stuck.
“Fast forward like four years later, the robotics team, they (write) #SagU when they go to competitions. The cross-country team and everybody does it.”
The slogan, a Soelle brainchild, caught fire. The phase is everywhere around the school -- posters, T-shirts, social media. It’s almost turned into Kleenex, that rare brand where people call something by the brand’s name rather than the item.
“He should probably get royalties from it,” Mohns joked.
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When ASU defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales ‘compliments’ Soelle, his comments often have a similar, perhaps critical, ring.
“Kyle Soelle — and I say this without being disrespectful to him — is the most unathletic, yet productive guy,” Gonzales said during fall camp.
“He makes unathletic plays that are unbelievable,” he said of Soelle on another date this fall.
Gonzales likes to tease his second-string outside linebacker -- maybe a little too much. For every endorsement of Soelle’s technical prowess and ability to play mistake-free in a 3-3-5 defensive scheme that frequently trips up linebackers, there’s a caveat about Soelle’s athleticism.
Take last week for example. Just before declaring Soelle as one of Arizona State’s five elite linebackers, Gonzales, ASU’s second-year defensive coordinator took a shot at the sophomore’s sub-par leaping ability.
“I probably pick on Kyle more than I should,” Gonzales said, before adding: “He can’t jump. Now he knows that and you witnessed that last night.”
“I don’t know, man. He just gives me a hard time about the athleticism stuff,” Soelle said. “I don’t really know where he’s getting that, but it is what it is. I give him a hard time back. I don’t really think he has a vertical jump either but it’s OK.”
But Gonzales’ backhanded compliments of Soelle are his way of praising the sophomore linebacker’s ability to master the intricacies of the 3-3-5 defense, to always put himself in the right place at the right time, to continuously make plays despite his perceived athletic limitations.
It, maybe, just doesn’t come out that way.
“He’s really smart,” linebacker Khaylan Kearse-Thomas said of Soelle. “He doesn’t waste any type of time, space. His footwork, everything is great. He’s really technical. If you do everything right, it shows -- and that’s one guy, he does everything right.”
Now, Soelle is 6-foot-3 and a lean 225 pounds. He shifts around offensive linemen with hardly any false steps. He’s strong, too, able to bully most running backs coming at him or wide receivers catching a quick slant.
But he’s maybe not the prototypical linebacker for Gonzales’ 3-3-5 defense, a scheme where he doesn’t always get to flash his most athletic qualities.
You see, Soelle was recruited by former ASU defensive coordinator Phil Bennett during the back-end of Todd Graham’s tenure in Tempe. One day during Soelle’s freshman season at ASU, then-linebackers coach Keith Patterson attended a Saguaro practice. He pulled Mohns aside to provide him an update on Soelle, who Patterson compared to a linebacker he formerly coached who went on to have great success in the NFL.
“He said, ‘We love Kyle.’” Mohns recalled of his conversation with Patterson. “He just said, ‘I think this kid if he sticks with it, he has a chance to play (in the NFL).’ They were really high on him.”
In Graham’s flex 4-3 defense, Soelle was the perfect linebacker. The coaches loved him. He felt good about the way he fit into the scheme. Things were looking up. Then, in December 2017, Graham was fired. The staff that trusted and had high hopes for Soelle vanished.
“He had to kind of start from scratch,” Mohns said. “Kyle had to kind of start back from the bottom and prove himself to guys that didn’t recruit him. They didn’t necessarily know what his skill set was and how hit fit into that scheme.”
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Mohns offers most of his seniors at Saguaro -- sorry, Sag U -- the same message about their new collegiate venture. Control the things you can control and get to the point where you force the coaches to play you.
“Maybe they didn’t recruit you. Maybe they have other guys above you,” Mohns said. “I don’t care where you are if you consistently show up and make plays coaches are going to take notice and you will get an opportunity.”
After playing nine games his redshirt freshman season last year -- recording nine tackles and four quarterback hurries, according to Pro Football Focus -- Soelle is ASU’s No. 4 linebacker heading into Thursday’s game against Kent State. In essence, he forced ASU’s coaches to play him.
Over the course of the last two years, Soelle didn’t dwell on his puzzle-piece fit under ASU’s old staff. He took coaching and advice from linebackers coach Antonio Pierce. He adjusted his game to better fit his new scheme. And he dove into film and sought out to master everything he could control.
“You can only get so many reps, but mental reps, if you know the play before it even happens, you’re going to be there a lot faster,” Soelle said. “It allows you to play quicker and faster and do the right technique.”
Soelle still references and speaks about his 2016 state title with Saguaro. He looks at it as evidence of him knowing what a championship team looks like, what it requires to be a championship team.
ASU is still trying to build that championship culture in Herm Edwards second year. Soelle is part of that quest. He wants to get back to the point where trophies are expected. In the meantime, though, he’ll hone in on the details and make all the small, technical aspects of his game grand.
“Everyone is doing what they can to get wins,” Soelle said. “I’ve always been trying to do what I can to help the team and just try to make plays. Now it’s just time to take it to the next level.”
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