What a difference a year makes.

When SMU announced its 2010 recruiting class, the list of players included Forrest Hagar, a lanky defensive end from San Antonio’s Alamo Heights High School. Hagar was among the freshmen who showed up on the Hilltop last summer, working out with his teammates while knocking out six hours of classes. But at the end of the summer, after just one practice during the Mustangs’ preseason workouts, Hagar and the school mutually decided he should greyshirt his first semester.

Forrest Hagar had 73 tackles and nine sacks as a high school senior, but now that he is moving to linebacker, he also has to learn to drop into pass coverage (photo by Hagar family).

So Hagar packed up and headed back to San Antonio, where he enrolled at San Antonio College for a semester. He also began working out with a personal trainer. Fourteen months later, the decision appears to have paid off for Hagar and his new team.

When he signed with SMU, Hagar’s coach at Alamo Heights, Don Byrd, predicted a big future for his star.

“I think Forrest is going to get bigger,” Byrd said. “His dad is still taller than he is, and I bet Forrest has room to grow. Whether he gets any taller or not, he’s going to gain a lot of weight.”

Byrd knew what he was talking about. When he signed, Hagar was listed at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds. After his work during the fall semester, Hagar returned to Dallas in January with about 240 pounds strapped over his frame, making him the heaviest linebacker on the Ponies’ roster. Part of his newfound bulk was a result of his arduous workouts, Hagar said; part was a result of him simply maturing and growing into his frame.

“I was working out pretty hard,” Hagar said, “but I also ate a lot, and ate right. Call it being a late bloomer, I guess.”

Now he’s working out with his teammates, preparing to begin spring workouts Monday. Hagar admitted that going through a fall semester without football was trying. He watched SMU games on TV when they were shown in San Antonio, and kept tabs on his team from afar.

“It was weird to not be playing,” Hagar said. “My team was playing at SMU, and none of my friends from high school were around. But I was in school, I was working out and I got a (construction) job, so I stayed busy. I was up pretty early, so I’ll be ready for (SMU’s 7 a.m.) practice.”

Hagar said he is glad to be back at SMU, back reestablishing friendships with teammates he met last summer and working out with his team in preparation for spring workouts, which start Monday.

As a senior at Alamo Heights, Hagar had nine quarterback sacks to go along with 73 tackles and a pair of forced fumbles. He said he is ready to make the switch from defensive end to linebacker, which will require some adjustment.

“Pass coverage,” he said when asked what he expects will be his biggest adjustment. “I’m not used to that. I’m used to rushing the quarterback, and I’m used to taking care of the run. So I’ve got some work to do in coverage.”

It was his ability to rush the passer that originally caught the attention of the SMU coaches last year, but he joins a crowded crew of linebackers — even after losing seniors Youri Yenga and Pete Fleps to graduation, the Mustangs welcome back more than a dozen linebackers, and that’s before the arrival of the 2011 freshman class, which includes four more linebackers: Davon Moreland, Stephon Sanders, Robert Seals and Yenga’s brother, Jonathan. So if the position gets too crowded, and if he is able to put on more weight, there’s a chance he could end up moving back to defensive end.

“… He'll probably be an off-the-edge rush guy (outside linebacker),” SMU head coach June Jones said when Hagar signed in February 2010. “He might end up being a down defensive end, depending on how much he grows, but … we're going to start him out as an edge rush guy.”

Hagar isn’t worried right now about how much he can still grow, and he said the coaches have not given him any specific instructions about how big they want him to get.

“I’m just trying to learn the defense right now,” he said. “They have me starting out at strongside linebacker for now, and I’m just trying to learn what I can. I’m going to meetings and talking with my coaches and teammates, but I have a lot to learn. We played a 4-3 defense when I was in high school, so I have to get used to the 3-4, too.”

Hagar’s learning curve is significant. He has to get used to the speed of the college game, a new position (that requires him to drop into coverage for the first time) and an entirely new defensive scheme. Nonetheless, he said he is eager to start practice next week.

“I’ve got to learn a new defense, and get used to playing with my teammates,” Hagar said. “I’m not worried about getting a starting position. I just want to get my feet wet and start learning, and I’ll do whatever they ask me to do. If they want me to play linebacker, go back to defensive end, play special teams … it doesn’t matter to me.

“It was tough to sit out a season. I worked hard to get ready. Now I’m ready to get started.”