This is the time of year when college coaches wax poetic about their former players, breathing hope into the hearts and minds of fans across the NFL landscape that their team got a good one in the NFL draft.

So hearing Brent Venables extol the virtues of B.J. Goodson hardly is akin to traveling the road less taken. Goodson was Clemson’s starting middle linebacker this past season and a solid four-year contributor, worthy of praise from an appreciative Venables, Clemson’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

But this was different. This went beyond the usual niceties. This was not simply a positive breakdown of strengths and weaknesses, nor was it merely an encouraging — and typical — projection of success at the next level. This was a flat-out assurance B.J. Goodson is the answer to the Giants’ prayers, that he will become the player who has eluded general manager Jerry Reese in a decade-long search for what might as well be classified as an extinct species around his franchise: a drafted linebacker who can make an impact and hold down a starting job.

The wait is over.

“I promise you,’’ Venables proclaimed to The Post.

A promise?

“Here’s why, having coached linebackers my whole life,’’ Venables continued. “The ones that win for you and you can build a defense around have a nose for the ball. They’re physically and mentally really tough, and B.J.’s got work ethic. He’s got toughness. He’s got intelligence. He knows how to get off a block. He’s got powerful, explosive hands, very violent with his hands. He doesn’t stay blocked. And he knows where the ball’s going, and that’s what the good ones do.’’

The Giants took Goodson in the fourth round, with the 109th-overall pick. Reese never has drafted a linebacker in the first round and has found it impossible to find a mid-rounder at that position to make a difference.

Zak DeOssie became a long-snapper. Bryan Kehl was not good. Jonathan Goff got hurt, as did Clint Sintim (a second-rounder). Phillip Dillard, Adrian Tracy and Greg Jones did not pan out. Jacquian Williams had only a few moments.

The middle turned into a quagmire, forcing Reese to gamble on the health of Jon Beason and use stopgaps such as Chase Blackburn, Jameel McClain, Uani’ Unga and Jasper Brinkley.

Perhaps Goodson will end the cycle. He played various spots at Clemson, but the Giants view him as a middle linebacker, where there is a crowd. This offseason, the Giants signed Keenan Robinson, a 26-year old who started 21 games the past two seasons for the Redskins. They re-signed Brinkley, 30, a seven-year veteran who started nine games in 2015. They also signed Kelvin Sheppard, 28, a five-year vet who started 13 games last season for the Dolphins.

Can Goodson find his way onto the field with so much experience lined up ahead of him? Not right away, but it is not as if Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary or Brian Urlacher are in his path.

Goodson says his mentality is that of a middle linebacker. He sees his role as never, ever being out of a play.

“I just don’t get stuff on one side,’’ Goodson said. “I can get to the ball if it comes on either side. There’s no excuse for not getting to the ball.’’

Reese called Goodson “a tackling machine,’’ and he was exactly that as a senior, with 146 tackles and 160 total stops — including 14 tackles in the College Football Playoff championship game against Alabama. It is from that game, a 45-40 loss, that Venables draws his greatest Goodson inspiration.

“Alabama returned a kickoff for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but we’re still in it. They get the ball back down on the 2-yard line, and he just goes nuts on the sideline during a timeout,’’ Venables said. “Sweat’s flying, he’s got the eye black everywhere, and he is the loudest he’s ever been in his career about sucking it up and let’s get a stop and we ain’t letting them score. Just playing his guts out.

“You know what? Too many young men play for themselves, for their draft status and their stock. B.J.’s playing for the love of the game, the love of his teammates and the love of the paw he played for and represented. He stands for what’s good with the game of football. He’s a finisher. He just epitomizes what you want as a football coach in a player.’’

6-foot-1 and 242 pounds, Goodson was part of a sensational, late-blooming group of defensive players who carried the Tigers to a 14-0 record before falling to Alabama. Goodson as a junior played behind Stephone Anthony (a 2015 first-round pick of the Saints) and was a full-time starter for only one year, just as defensive ends Kevin Dodd and Shaq Lawson blossomed last season as starters and became high NFL draft picks (Lawson 19th overall to the Bills and Dodd early in the second round to the Titans).

“[Goodson] has the mindset and the temperament to come in here and compete,’’ said Marc Ross, the Giants’ vice president of player evaluation. “The guy wants it. Is he going to start? I don’t know, but he is going to push people, and he is going to work his butt off to get on to the field.’’

This is a country kid coming to the big city. Goodson is from Lamar, S.C., population of less than 1,000 — a small town that spawned his hero, longtime NFL linebacker Levon Kirkland. Goodson is old-school in the way he plays, what he listens to (Isley Brothers R&B), in his pet companion (a 3-pound white Maltese named Rose) and his aversion to social media.

“I try to keep life simple and not make things bigger or smaller than what they are,’’ Goodson said.

“Just loves to ball. He don’t mess around with all the riff-raff. He’s not out in the clubs and the bars and raising heck,’’ said Venables, 45, who has 23 years of college coaching experience. “He’s a momma’s boy. He’s a country kid. He loves the Lord, he’s a good Christian young man, but when it’s time to go, my man is a very aggressive, violent player.’’

Venables likens Goodson to one of his former players, Curtis Lofton, when the two were together at Oklahoma. Lofton, a 2008 second-round pick of the Falcons, has been a volume tackler in his eight-year NFL career.

“I think B.J. is a little bit better athlete, longer arms and a lot more prepared coming into the league than Curtis was,’’ Venables said. “Curtis is only a two-down player. I do believe B.J. can play three downs, and he just plays extremely functionally fast. If you were drafting a basketball team of all of our players, he’s probably the second-best basketball player on our team. That tells you the type of athlete he is.’’

As for the kind of person Goodson is, well, ask Venables then brace for the gushing.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s in a big city or a little town, he’s gonna handle his business,’’ Venables said. “He is so focused on doing what’s right and so focused on being great, he doesn’t allow himself any time for distractions. He’s gonna be early, he’s gonna stay late, he’s gonna be the first guy in there taking the notes, the first guy raising his hand asking questions. He’s gonna be a great, great leader.

“He is just a full-grown man, and I mean that in every sense of the word. He’s very mature, very wise. He’s a listener. He cares. He’s very prideful about his performance. You can coach him very hard. He’s not a guy you got to worry about, now he’s drafted, now you’re paying him, how is he gonna act? You don’t have to worry about that guy. He is a machine.’’

But is he a sure-thing, a can’t-miss kid?

“He’ll be a mainstay, and I don’t mince words, I don’t take what you’re asking me lightly,’’ Venables said. “I’m not arrogant or anything, I just know I’m right. The Giants were right by taking him. They’re gonna get themselves a dose of B.J. They’re gonna love him.

“He’s not gonna be real loud, but as soon as adversity hits you’re gonna know what kind of leader, what kind of toughness you got in that guy. I just feel very confident. I think he’s gonna be a perfect fit for New York. He’s there to stay. Trust me.’’