Navy linebacker Colin Ramos is accustomed to the rigorous academic requirements that come with attending prestigious schools. However, academic struggles in middle school almost prevented him from playing the sport he loves at the high school that would propel him to the next level.
Ramos attended Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., which prepared him for the academics at the U.S. Naval Academy. But prior to high school, Ramos didn’t take his education seriously.
“I think it was definitely a lack of effort by me in middle school. I wasn’t a big school guy, and I didn’t take it too seriously,” said Ramos, now a history major at Navy. “But then when I started to pick up and take football more seriously going into eighth grade, that’s when I realized I couldn’t take football anywhere if I didn’t have good academics behind it. So luckily, I got into Don Bosco and then everything changed from there because I knew how important academics would play in my football career.”
Fast forward to his junior year at the Naval Academy and Ramos’ dedication to the classroom and love for the gridiron is driving him toward another big season in Annapolis. The 5-foot-11, 205-pound linebacker broke out in 2022, as he finished second on the team with 79 total tackles. He also had 8.5 tackles for loss, four sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and an interception.
Ramos said the experiences at Don Bosco and the Naval Academy Prep School helped prepare him for what was to come. As a high school senior in 2019, Ramos was named the North Jersey Defensive Player of the Year and led Don Bosco to the Non-Public IV State Championship Game.
“Academics at the Naval Academy is definitely a step up from any place you could prepare for, really,” Ramos said. “But I went to NAPS, so that was definitely a good year of preparation as well. But football-wise, I think Don Bosco has served me very well to understand schemes and other things that a lot of high schools don’t teach.”
Despite a dominant senior year and a value system instilled in him that would translate to the next level, Ramos wasn’t a highly-touted prospect coming out of high school. Among the major recruiting services, only Rivals ranked him — as a mere two-star recruit.
Kevin Brennan, his teammate at Don Bosco who played at Navy from 2018-2021, helped facilitate contact between Ramos and Navy’s coaches.
“Colin was a guy, maybe people looked at [him like] he was a little too small, a little too short, all those types of things,” Navy defensive coordinator and linebackers coach P.J. Volker said. “That didn’t matter to us at all. We wanted to meet him. We wanted to talk to him. We wanted to see what were his intangibles, what type of character he had. Obviously, coming from the school that he came from, came highly regarded.”
Ramos saw his first action five games into his freshman year in 2021 against SMU, and he notched his first two starts to close out the season. One of those starts was against Army in East Rutherford, N.J., where Ramos recorded just one tackle in a grueling 17-13 win, but it resulted in a loss of 4 yards. Senior captain and defensive end Jacob Busic vividly remembers the play.
“I just remember he played my sophomore year, his freshman year, [in the] Army-Navy game,” Busic said. “There was this one play where he absolutely destroyed either a guard or tackle coming right at him, and he popped the running back. I remember watching the film over and over. I didn’t know Colin as well back then, and I just knew that he was going to be a heck of a player.”
Ramos broke out in 2022. He led all AAC defenders in run defense total points per play last season, a metric developed by Sports Info Solutions, and earned third-team All-AAC honors from Phil Steele. He was named first-team Preseason All-AAC by Athlon Sports and earned second-team honors from Pro Football Focus.
“He’s a dog. He epitomizes our defense. He’s a little undersized, right? But he plays 100 miles an hour all the time. He prepares like nobody else does,” Navy head coach Brian Newberry said. “… To play linebacker in our conference at [his] weight, to be nominated first-team All-AAC preseason, phenomenal. He’s just a great leader, great example to everybody else. His work ethic is unmatched. His preparation’s unmatched.”
Despite already breaking out in 2022, Volker believes Ramos can make an even bigger leap this year.
“I just think he raises the level of play every day that he goes out there and he eliminates false steps, he runs great angles, he burns his eyes on his key and then he finishes violently,” Volker said. “I just think the more and more football he gets to play the better and better he’s going to get across the board.”
Busic shared a similar sentiment.
“This upcoming season he is going to be one of the first, if not the first to the ball on almost every play,” Busic said. “He flies around. He has that elite intensity. He’s a very exciting player to watch.”
Balancing football with academics will remain at the top of Ramos’ mind during the 2023-24 school year. He placed a lot of emphasis on football and struggled to keep up in the classroom as a quantitative economics major early on in his time at Navy. Since then, he has changed his major to history and devoted more time to his academics, and his grades have improved.
Ramos believes there’s always room to grow but is confident he’s now heading in the right direction. His days at Don Bosco Prep serve as a reminder to value his education as a backbone for football.
“There’s a ton of room to grow both in the classroom and on the football field,” Ramos said. “I want to continue to improve my GPA. … I take care of my business in the classroom so I can do well out on the field.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox