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Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Mark Potash

Bears’ third-round pick Zacch Pickens has big plans: ‘I can be one of the greats’

Zacch Pickens Bears South Carolina Travon Walker Tyrique Stevenson SC
South Carolina defensive tackle Zacch Pickens (6) was a second-team all-SEC selection last season, when he had 42 tackles and 2.5 sacks. (Butch Dill/AP)

Zacch Pickens was the No. 1 defensive tackle prospect in the country as a high school senior in Anderson, South Carolina — rated ahead of future No. 1 pick Travon Walker. After getting passed by Walker and others in a productive but unspectacular college career at South Carolina, spanning coach Will Muschamp, interim coach Mike Bobo and coach Shane Beamer, he knows he has a lot more to give. 

“I’m going to be 10 times better than I was in college,” said Pickens, the Bears’ third-round draft pick (No. 64) Friday night. “I never had a consistent coach in high school, either. So I’ve been bounced around, taking stuff in bits and pieces with each coach I learned from, and I was grateful that I had coach Beamer for two years. 

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