By Ernie Gonzalez (@superego1012)
When you are your high school’s first ever thousand-yard rusher, the football bible will probably suggest to stick to running when you reach college. San Jose State’s junior linebacker Frank Ginda however, has never heard of a football bible.
Not only was Ginda the first thousand-yard rusher at Los Banos’ Pacheco High School, but he broke and still holds weight room records as a hobby.
“He owns all our weight records in the weight room,” said David Snapp, Ginda’s high school head coach. “He was the first guy ever to get into the thousand pounds club.”
Snapp knows it’s Ginda’s work ethic and his ability to simply ‘be better than everyone else, a trait that separates him between any other player he’s coached.
“It’s amazing. But it doesn’t surprise me,” Snapp said. “He was a 3.97 [GPA] ]student, graduated a semester early and would wake up at five in the morning to get his workout in.”
To Ginda, his former coach deserves a whole lot of credit.
“Characteristics that I learned growing up as a kid, in high school, it really translates to here,” Ginda said. “I was already used to it. I didn’t have to get ready, I was already ready.”
Through six games, Ginda has brought a defender to the turf 87 times. That amount not only surpasses his 2015 freshman total tackle mark of 80, but also sits him tied with his 2016 solo tackle sum of 50.
On pace for 188.5 total tackles this season, Ginda had been determined from the beginning to put his name atop the country’s tackle leaderboard.
“My goal coming in was to actually be the number one guy,” Ginda said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it without my guys around me.”
Take shoulder mate Ethan Aguayo for instance, who up until two weeks ago was second to only Ginda on the nation’s’ tackle list. Or William Ossai, whose explosive first-foot instinct for beating the ball to the line of scrimmage has resulted in leading the team in both sacks (2) and tackles for loss (7.5).
Ginda can give whatever credit he wants to his comrades, but receives it right back from his head coach.
“Ginda has been fabulous all year,” said Brent Brennan. “He’s such a sure tackler. We are really fortunate that he is here and part of our program.”
Brennan is right. There aren’t many Gindas for rental use in college football.
In fact, the case can be made that Ginda is the best linebacker in college football, a position he didn’t put emphasis in until he was in the 11th grade.
“Just to see him continue to play at that level is inspiring,” said Brennan. “I hope more of our guys on our football team will see that and want to get to Frank’s level.”
The scary thing isn’t the talent Ginda has. That’s unquestionable. It’s the way he thinks. It’s the answer to the question he received when asked what’s it going to take to stop him.
Ginda earned his first tackle in week one of the 2015 season against New Hampshire. He scored his first touchdown in week six of the 2016 season versus Hawaii.
Those were just a couple of his firsts. But soon, it won’t be his firsts. They will become SJSU’s firsts. Or maybe, the first in the country in tackles, because at this rate, that might come true.
“There is nothing in my path that is stopping me,” Ginda said. “The one person that is going to stop me is the person in the mirror.”