Depth Charting // The Secondary

by Seth C on Aug 27, 2009 2:00 PM CDT in Football Comment 7 comments

Secondary

Left Cornerback	Strong Safety	Free Safety	Right Cornerback
Jamar Wall (3) SR; 5-10/203	Franklin Mitchem (26) JR; 6-2/198	Cody Davis (16) RS FR; 6-2/200	LaRon Moore (28) JR; 5-9/200
Nathan Stone (40) JR; 5-8/181	Brett Dewhurst (30) JR; 6-0/193	Jared Flannel (22) RS SO; 5-11/167	Taylor Charbonnet (29) RS SO; 5-10/175
DeShon Sanders (21) SR/ 6-1/206	Will Ford (7) FR; 6-1/186	Julius Howard (13) JR; 6-1/208	Brent Nickerson (33) SR; 6-0/188

Cornerback:Jamar Wall is another better than average player. Not perfect by any means, but pretty good. I know that the right cornerback spot is still up for grabs and I find is somewhat problematic that no one has stepped up enough to force the coaches to make a decision, but I'm going to go with LaRon Moore for the time being. In party, I think that the coaches may like Taylor Charbonnet's ability to come off the bench and Charbonnet's slight stature may be somewhat of a detriment. During the spring game, I thought that quite a few of the cornerbacks made plays, but I don't think that I could tell you who they were. In any event, there is depth at this positin, enough depth for last year's part-time starter, Brent Nickerson, to potentially be relegated to the third team. Nathan Stone is another guy that I'm not sure that I could tell anything outstanding about Stone, other than he's a former walk-on who impressed immediately. At the end of the day, next year, this year's freshman class of D.J. Johnson and Yashua Williams should press the current crop of cornerbacks starting this year. I'd really like to see almost all of the freshmen play only as a last resort.

Safety: This is where we're crossing our fingers and rubbing on our collective rabbit's foot. After seeing Cody Davis and Franklin Mitchem perform in the spring game, I'm very comfortable with what these two bring to the table. Obviously, each lacks experience, but both appear to be heady players who have more than an understanding of how to play the position. Both have enough athleticism to be productive players in the Big 12. The backups behind Davis and Mitchem is a bit sketchy at this point, but I think it's safe to say that guys like Will Ford, Daniel Cobb and Terrance Bullitt are pushing the incumbents like Brett Dewhurst, Jared Flannel and Julius Howard. Competition inherently forces players to step up their games and I think that for the time being, it's going to be Dewhurst and a combination of Flannel and Howard, but those three had better not rest, otherwise you could see any combination of Ford, Cobb or Bullitt.

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Cautiously optimistic

Lots of hyperventilating about the youngster Safeties we will play this year. Not overly concerned because they are no doubt getting a lot of quality reps against a very good passing squad. (Go Potts)  They have a proven Coach in Carlos Mainord. He has always been able to consistently produce smart, athletic and ball hawking Safeties. D. Slay, among others. Recall that McBath started as a sophomore. Against the likes of McCoy and Bradford they are going to have some growing pains. The Baylor site is rattling about M. Griffin being a remade player – sort of secret weapon monster throwing dude. Okay. I need to see that. Sophomore slump what slump? Over the course of game(s) you have to expect a couple of dynamite passes executed from guys with this level of talent. Targets like Gresham the OU T.E. who is a real beast will get open. The run game worries me little more with this group. No one wants the Safety to be the leading tackler. Gag. But they need to punish when they get the shot. For the Tech Cornerbacks like the linebackers I feel optimistic. The Raiders display a lot of speed. Let’s hope the pass break ups come along with these demonstrateably quick feet. Anybody else wanting to see a jam consistently executed on the wide outs? I sure do. Schematically that’s not what Coach B. Mitchell Simmons seems to do very much? Any guess why? Sure would be sweet if both starters could pull down half a dozen interceptions in 09. My take anyhow.

"do routine things routinely"

by centexraider on Aug 27, 2009 2:43 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Recall that McBath started as a sophomore. Against the likes of McCoy and Bradford they are going to have some growing pains.

regarding our safeties…the sure interception dropped by Blake Gideon last year keeps playing in my head

Wreck 'em, Tech!

by Tortilla Pirate on Aug 27, 2009 3:06 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

correction

Coach B. Mitchell is the Cornerbacks guy. Oops.

"do routine things routinely"

by centexraider on Aug 27, 2009 3:40 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Jam

We don’t jam at the line, often, because our current round of corners are a bit on the smaller and have been on the slower side. As a rule, you jam if your corner can cover man, but not if he’s better in zone. The only really good man corner we’ve had that I can think of (not counting Wall, who I consider a balanced corner) was Kalid Nazirudden. Then again, I could be totally off base here.

by kayakyakr on Aug 27, 2009 4:13 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think it has more to do with speed, knowing when to quit jamming the receiver to turn and run in coverage, and then being able to diagnose the route. I also think it puts more pressure on the safety to commit to that outside receiver to help out in case the CB gets beat. When teams are rolling with 4 receivers nearly every play, and we are relying on our OLBs to cover inside, it becomes a question of where do you want the support of the safeties?

I don’t know that we necessarily need to jam the receivers alot, but I would like to see us play less soft at corner and mix up the coverage a little more

by NM99 on Aug 28, 2009 7:12 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

We do need to jam at the line more in certain situations. I agree with NM99 in a general sense but how many times have we watched teams march up and down the field on 8 yard out routes. I know you don’t want them to turn up and get beat by whats the difference if we never stop them anyways. My frustration with Ruff’s philosphy is not that I don’t agree with his general premise, its that when something isn’t working he never gets more aggressive. Never makes adjustments on the aggressive side. I guess I just see it as if you are getting beat anyways might as well take a few chances. If those chances pay off then awesome, if not then its the same. But of course I’m not a D coordinator for a big time football program.

And of course as his personnel gets better I assume he will feel more comfortable doing more. These new D backs we are getting are very good compared to what we have had in the past overall.

by logan5555 on Aug 28, 2009 4:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs