Rutgers football’s Steve Longa evokes shades of Khaseem Greene

• Steve Longa is moving from middle linebacker to the weakside after registering 123 tackles in 2013
• Khaseem Greene was a two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year as a weakside linebacker
• As teammates, Longa and Greene used to watch film together of former NFL great Ray Lewis
• Longa was snubbed from the Watch List for the Butkus Award, which included 51 other linebackers

PISCATAWAY – Even as he sat out the entire 2012 season redshirting behind Khaseem Greene, Steve Longa never deviated from his routine in the hotel on the eve of game day: Watch video of future Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis, a tackling machine and one of the NFL’s all-time great motivators.

“I just watched how he leads the team and talks to his guys,” Longa said. “Come to find out, Khaseem is watching Ray Lewis, too. There was a documentary that came out two years ago about Ray Lewis. Khaseem had it and we sat down in the living room and put it on the computer and watched it together.”

Longa still watches Lewis before bed and again in the morning if there is time, but different footage helped him most this summer as he prepared to move from middle linebacker – where he was the top freshman tackler in the nation last season – to fill Greene’s shoes one year removed on the weakside.

“I learned my game from Khaseem,” Longa said. “When I got moved I went back and watched film on how he played the game. He just had a good nose for the ball. He was very good at stripping the ball. That’s what I try to do. I don’t care if the ball is going away from me. I just always want to be around it.”

Greene is the gold standard for ‘Will’ linebackers at Rutgers. He won back-to-back Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards after transitioning from free safety – totaling 277 tackles, 9.5 sacks, eight forced fumbles and two interceptions – and became a fourth-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears.

“(Steve) started out behind me and just showed a little resemblance of myself,” said Greene by phone earlier this week, specifically referencing Longa’s athleticism and versatility. “It was like, ‘This is the guy who is going to be the next guy for our defense.’ He proved it last year at the ‘Mike’ and back at the ‘Will’ now I think he is going to be two times better than what everybody got to see last year.”

One of Joe Rossi’s first acts as defensive coordinator was to switch the positions of Longa and Kevin Snyder to better capitalize on the former’s playmaking ability in space and the latter’s football IQ.

“I want to be my own person but it doesn’t hurt to take a little bit of Khaseem, a little bit of Snyder, a little bit of (Antonio) Lowery,” said Longa, referencing Rutgers’ last three weakside linebackers. “I try to model my own game but try to take the best out of everybody.”

Greene doesn’t want Longa to get too wrapped up in following a lineage.

“What we like to say is the ‘Will’ position is the linebacker that’s the most athletic, the one who can make plays,” Greene said. “Steve obviously can do all those things. You’ve got to have patience and you’ve got to be able to run. A lot of stuff gets filtered back to you and Steve can definitely run. I’m pretty sure he’ll have a lot of success at the position. He is just a natural with it.”

Longa, a Cameroon native who grew up playing soccer, only is seven years into his football career and is one month shy of his 20th birthday, but he is coming off a 123-tackle, three-sack, two-forced fumbles season.

“He doesn’t seem young, but you’re right he is. He is only a redshirt sophomore,” said coach Kyle Flood when asked about Longa’s savvy. “He certainly doesn’t carry himself like it and he doesn’t play like it. To me, he is a veteran and one of the leaders on this team. It’s just nice that he’s got a few more years left.”

For Longa, it’s nice to know that Greene is only an informal text or serious phone call away even as he focuses on putting together his own strong training camp to secure a spot on the Bears’ roster.

“In the summertime something happened football-related and I was extremely mad,” said Longa, declining to go into further detail. “I called him up and I was like this is what happened. This is how I reacted. What do you think? He told me what he thought about it and then he told me, ‘Next time that happens you should react this way instead of this way. That’s probably better for you.’ ”

It’s the very definition of a mentor-protégé relationship, though Longa says he did not need counseling after his seemingly egregious omission from the Watch List for the Butkus Award given to the nation’s best linebacker. Six Big Ten linebackers were included among the 51 candidates.

“A lot of people could take it different ways,” said Longa in downplaying the snub. “I play the game to be the best. That’s always been my motto ever since I started playing the game. I want to be the best. I like the game. It’s fun to me. I love playing it. But at the same time I want to be the best and do it at high level.”

He has a good example to follow.

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleav@gannett.com