Sam Schwartzstein (born July 7, 1989) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

who played for Stanford University, who also plays guard. He is 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall, and weighs 292 pounds (132 kg). Schwartzstein played college football at Stanford for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

. He was a candidate for the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall i ...

in late April 2013.

Early life and high school

Schwartzstein is Jewish, and his hometown is

Southlake, Texas Southlake is a city located predominantly in Tarrant County with minor areas extending into Denton County in the U.S. state of Texas. Southlake is a suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth. As of th2019 census estimateit had a population of 32,376. His ...

. His father formerly owned a tire dealership. He attended Carroll High School. As a junior playing

left tackle Tackle is a playing position in gridiron football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a tackle played on both offense and defense. In the modern system of specialized units, ...

, he helped the Carroll Dragons to 16–0 record and the Texas Class 5A state title, and as a senior he helped the team to an 11–2 record. He was

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second team All-State and first team All-District as a senior in 2007. He was ranked the # 52

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict in ...

nationally by Scout.com. He was named All-Midwest Region for the Class of 2008 by

PrepStar ''PrepStar College Recruiting'', known also as ''PrepStar'', is an online magazine at www.prepstar.com, which was established in 1982. It provides information on the top football and basketball prospects in the United States. The online magazin ...

. Schwartzstein had at least eight scholarship offers upon graduating high school, including Stanford, Purdue, and Colorado State. Scout.com's Texas analyst wrote that he:

uses position and leverage to make the plays on the field.... he is quick on the attack, and gets his hands inside the defender; he has enough pop in his hands and arms to not only control the defender but at times to knock him down... he gets the initial contact and the ability to control the situation. Second, he is aggressive in nature and will follow the defender downfield and look for a second block up field... He has good footwork... He is a highly developed tackle prospect... Overall, he is a very good offensive line prospect who plays smart, intelligent football.

He worked out at the 2007 Dallas NIKE Combine in March 2007, executing the

20-yard shuttle The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foot ...

in 4.69, performing 24 reps in the

bench press The bench press, or chest press, is a weight training exercise in which the trainee presses a weight upwards while lying on a weight training bench. Although the bench press is a full-body exercise, the muscles primarily used are the pectoralis ...

, and doing a

vertical leap A vertical jump or vertical leap is the act of jumping upwards into the air. It can be an exercise for building both endurance and strength, and is also a standard test for measuring athletic performance. It may also be referred to as a ''Sargent ...

of 24.9". He also competed in discus. At the Class 5A Region I Track and Field Championship in 2008, he came in 10th with a discus throw of 148–03.

College career; Stanford

He chose to attend Stanford, arriving as a guard. In 2010, he played in his junior year at Stanford in six games as a reserve on the offensive line. In 2011, his senior year, he started all 13 games at center. After his first start, his head coach, David Shaw, said "I think Sammy Schwartzstein was outstanding, was off the charts. We expected him to play well, he surpassed our expectations". He helped

Andrew Luck Andrew Austen Luck (born September 12, 1989) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. One of the most highly touted amateur prospects during his ...

lead the

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

passing efficiency Passer rating (also known as passing efficiency in college football) is a measure of the performance of passers, primarily quarterbacks, in gridiron football. There are two formulas currently in use: one used by both the National Football Leagu ...

and

completion percentage The following terms are used in American football, both conventional and indoor. Some of these terms are also in use in Canadian football; for a list of terms unique to that code, see ''Glossary of Canadian football''. 0–9 ...

while breaking school records for career (82) and single-season (37)

touchdown pass In gridiron football, a touchdown pass is a pass thrown from the passer (usually the quarterback) to a receiver that results in a touchdown being scored. The pass can either be caught in the end zone itself, resulting in an immediate touchdown, or ...

es. Stanford also was tied for seventh nationally in fewest sacks allowed per game (0.85; 11 total). He helped running back

Stepfan Taylor Stepfan Christopher Lee Taylor (born June 9, 1991) is a former American football running back. He played college football for Stanford University, and became Stanford's all-time career leader in rushing yards and touchdowns. He was drafted by ...

run for 1,330 yards, the second-highest single-season mark in school history. He helped Stanford compile a single-game school record 446 yards rushing in a 65–21 rout of No. 22 Washington. In 2012, as a fifth-year senior considered a team motivator, he was elected a team captain by his teammates, and nicknamed "Coach Sammy" by them. Coach Shaw said "His ability to decipher things at the

line of scrimmage In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an imaginary transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end o ...

and make sure everybody's on the same page is phenomenal. He sees (defenses) as well as any center I've been around." He was also a preseason candidate for the

Rimington Trophy The Dave Rimington Trophy is awarded to the player considered to be the best American football center in college football. Dave Rimington was a center who played at the University of Nebraska from 1979 to 1982. A member of the National Coll ...

as the nation's top center. Before the 2012 season,

Walter Football The Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF) is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The organization also presents various awards. It is named in honor of f ...

called him a "sleeper center prospect who deserves more attention." He was quoted in the ''New York Times'' as saying "I come from a high school where we ran the

spread offense :''"Spread offense" may also refer to the four corners offense in basketball.'' The spread offense is an offensive scheme in gridiron football that typically places the quarterback in the shotgun formation, and "spreads" the defense horizonta ...

and it was just deep ball, deep ball, deep ball — that’s boring to me.... This is real football, grindstone. That’s how it’s supposed to be played.” In 2012, the Cardinal played 14 games and allowed only 20 sacks. He was second-team All-Pac-12, and received Stanford's athletics plus leadership award, the Al Masters Award.

NFL draft

Some mock drafts had him being selected in the sixth or seventh round of the 2013 NFL draft. His time in the 40-yard dash was 5.12 (with a low of 4.96), 7th-best among draft-eligible centers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartzstein, Sam 1989 births Living people American football centers American football offensive tackles American football offensive guards American male discus throwers Stanford Cardinal football players People from Southlake, Texas Players of American football from Texas Jewish American sportspeople 21st-century American Jews