FRISCO, Texas — When you’re a 6063, 221-pound off-ball linebacker at the collegiate level, one who finds himself in the 99th percentile in both height, arm length (35 2/8-inches) and wingspan (85 5/8-inches), you don’t exactly have anyone to model your game after at the next level.

Or anywhere for that matter.

But for Philadelphia native and University of Southern California standout Eric Gentry, who is opening eyes at the 101st East-West Shrine Bowl in Frisco, he’s finding linebackers to learn and grow from in unconventional places.

Like Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen.

Queen measured in at 6002, 229 pounds at the Combine coming out of LSU, so Gentry has more than six inches on him, though Queen was nine pounds heavier. They are different players entirely, but that hasn’t stopped Gentry from trying to take from Queen’s game in the NFL. Specifically, Gentry watches a lot of Queen tape to learn from the Steelers linebacker’s physicality.

Speaking with Steelers Depot at the East-West Shrine Bowl, Gentry raved about the much-maligned Steelers linebacker.

“He knows how to play the game of football. He gets crazy at times and might do some things wrong, but he’s violent,” Gentry said of Queen. “But you’ll live with that because you know he’s going to go hard every time. During this past year, that’s what we would do is watch Patrick Queen highlights of him hitting.

“But for Pittsburgh, he’s a great football player and he’s an athlete.”

There is no denying Queen is a good athlete, and he played with a good deal of physicality this season, making it a point of emphasis to improve that aspect of his game. That said, he missed 28 tackles this season, as charted by Steelers Depot. He had some violent, highlight-reel hits this season, so that’s what Gentry sees.

And it’s a level of physicality he wants to match in the NFL.

It’s an unlikely place to find inspiration, but Gentry is anything but likely. After all, he’s a 6-foot-6 off-ball linebacker. He has thrived at the collegiate level across five seasons — one with Arizona State and four seasons with USC.

Coming out of Philadelphia and Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School, Gentry was a unicorn. He could have added 20 pounds and been an elite EDGE defender. Or, he could have transitioned to safety or wide receiver and dominated there. He could have even turned to the hardwood too and chosen basketball as his path.

But he was drawn by the violence of football. That tough Philly blood runs deep, after all.

So, when recruited out of high school, he only wanted to play for one man and one man only: former Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce, then the associate head coach and defensive coordinator of the Sun Devils. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled Gentry’s senior season of high school, so instead of accepting the setback for what it was, which was out of his control, he did something very few 17-year-olds would do in that situation.

He packed up and moved to Tempe, Arizona to get his collegiate career kick-started under Pierce, not to mention former NFL head coaches Herm Edwards and Marvin Lewis.

“AP [Antonio Pierce] was — he was the reason that I chose ASU. He instilled so much into me before I even got there,” Gentry said of his decision coming out of high school. “It was no sugarcoating, and he kept it straight up. I love that vibe so much because that’s how I feel like Philly is; very straight up, no sugarcoat. They gonna tell you if you’re doing good, if you’re doing bad, what you need to work on, what you doing great at whatever it is they gonna let you know. And I got that vibe from him, and it was a perfect match for me.

“ASU with Coach Herm [Edwards] and Coach Marvin Lewis, I felt so great being around defensive minds like that going into my first year of college. That was amazing.”

That first year at Arizona State led to some success for Gentry as he played in every game for the Sun Devils, finished with 45 tackles, six tackles for loss and one sack, and earned Freshman All-American honors. The arrow was very clearly pointing up.

But then he left ASU as recruiting violations against the program changed things drastically, leading him to Los Angeles and the historic Trojans’ program.

Despite having to leave Arizona State, that year shaped Gentry into the player he is entering the NFL, both physicality and mentally, because he had that early NFL-like training under Edwards, Lewis and Pierce.

“It was an NFL team. They always took care of our bodies, always made sure we were good, wanted to hear any feedback from stuff. It just, I couldn’t imagine if we could have stayed one more year. Everybody wanted to go to ASU,” Gentry said. “It was, yeah, NFL-style for sure. Coach Herm always made sure. And that’s why we all loved him. He always took care of us and he knew that, taking care of y’all off the field and making sure y’all body right and everything. But on the field we are going to go our every practice full on. We are going hard.

“No BS, we would start practice over if it was BS. But it was a good thing, though. It was great. So yeah, much respect to all of them, and I still talk to them today.”

That NFL-style coaching as a young player entering college was impactful and now has him on the cusp of the NFL coming off a terrific career at USC. In four years with the Trojans, Gentry finished with 224 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks, two interceptions, 12 pass breakups and eight forced fumbles.

Gentry was an honorable mention All-Big Ten in his final season at USC, putting some good play on tape. Now, he’s taking advantage of the opportunity at the East-West Shrine Bowl and is turning heads before the 2026 NFL Draft.