Beyond the obvious (Derwin James at Florida State) there are some others like Damon Webb at Ohio State or Armani Watts at Texas A&M that could have a big impact on the coming season.
In the Big 12 there are a few key guys returning that I mention in the article.
How Oklahoma makes the most of Steven Parker’s senior year could have a huge impact on this season for the Sooners. I noted in the spring game that Will Sunderland, while exceptionally athletic, doesn’t really seem to know what he’s doing yet. If the Sooners want to insist on playing Caleb Kelly as a Sam linebacker out in space then they may be best served by playing Will Johnson behind him at the new cover safety while simultaneously upgrading the range and coverage at the free safety spot by sliding Parker over there.
Oklahoma becomes much less exciting to attack in the passing game if they do that.
TCU has Nick Orr back who allows them to execute their cover-1/cover-4 hybrid scheme that is so useful for getting their strong safety involved against the run:
The free safety (F here, “weak safety” in TCU parlance) drops deep down the hash with his hips open to the field in order to help the field safety handle the challenge of playing deep on the slot receiver without much help underneath. He doesn’t cross the hash though but remains in close enough proximity to flip his hips and try to recover to help on a deep throw to the “X” boundary receiver here.
This takes a corner’s hips to pull off and that’s exactly what Orr has as a converted cornerback. The only issue for TCU here is that last year’s strong safety (or “N” in this diagram) Denzel Johnson has graduated and his replacement Ridwan Issahaku may not be as strong in run support. Meaning that TCU gets less mileage out of this set up.
Oklahoma State has Tre Flowers back, he was a cover safety with questionable ability (in my estimation) that has grown into a really skilled player over his two full years as a starter in their system. West Virginia gets Dravon Askew-Henry back who’s a similar player to Flowers, I’ll talk more about each later this season.
Kansas State seems to be rolling with Sean Newlan in this role, which is perhaps my biggest concern for the Wildcats in their attempt to contend for the league crown. This squad reminds me a bit of their 2014 unit that was killing teams with the Jake Waters/Tyler Lockett/Curry Sexton trio in the passing game but got beat up some on D because they had a few weak spots there. I thought perhaps they’d slide Newlan over to free safety and Kendall Adams to strong safety but apparently not. Newlan is a veteran that knows how their system works, but he’s just not a guy you want to have to flip his hips a lot in coverage.
Baylor has been rolling a ton of guys through at safety in spring. They’ve been a strictly quarters coverage team for a while now but Rhule is bringing much more man coverage which is a different animal. Star recruit Davion Hall (now a senior) and returning starter Chance Waz are back but it’ll be interesting to see how they adjust to this, Waz was never a coverage specialist. Travon Blanchard could be huge for them in one of those roles (probably field safety) if he is cleared of wrongdoing and welcomed back to the team.
Kansas really likes Mike Lee, a violent converted cornerback of the sort that every Big 12 team should be stocking up on. I don’t know much about him or how they’ve been using him but perhaps I’ll look into it this offseason.
Iowa State is hoping to get Kamari Cotton-Moya on the field as a weak safety that is an intimidator in the middle of the field and violent in run support. They’re converting cornerbacks to fill out their cover safety role. If they get KCM back and Joel Lanning takes quickly to Mike LB they could be very interesting this coming year.
Texas Tech has a lot of ground to cover here. They have a nasty, converted corner in Jah’Shawn Johnson who’s main job over the last two years has been running around trying to limit the damage of his teammates’ incompetence. I’m not even sure what he’s capable of when playing the position within a team concept and we may never know unless they make huge strides next season.
Finally there’s Texas, who has returning two-year starter Jason Hall back (big guy, 6-1, 220) as well as junior DeShon Elliott that everyone has been waiting to see breakout and then sophomore and former bluechip recruit Brandon Jones who’s a tremendous athlete that hasn’t put it all together yet. One of Elliott or Jones (money is on Elliott) needs to be nails this coming season for Texas to have a big first year under Herman. Their task should be made a bit easier by their use of P.J. Locke (very likely to break out this year) in the nickel and reduce the coverage requirements from either safety spot.
Fwiw, Baylor released the post-spring depth chart today and it had Taion Sells over Waz at FS. Hall at SS.
Sells missed last year with an injury. He’s smaller but he’s a tough, quick twitch, instinctive type player.
I like Sells, I forgot he was still around.
I wonder if they flipped their FS and SS designations though. At Temple the FS was in the boundary and SS played more man coverage.
I was wondering the same thing. Could just be the communication guy’s error or whatever, too. Wouldn’t put too much stock in it, several guys who were hurt the entire spring are listed as starters.
Hey Ian.
This year’s safety crop for the Frogs seems interesting.
Weak Safety is a nickorrback.
Free Safety is small.
Strong Safety is a haiku.
Dunno if any those guys can play, but their names grade out fairly well.
I see what you did there.
Against a mobile QB who can throw, it definitely feels like you need one of three things to hold up in coverage:
A) A good cover strong safety, and a nickel / Sam backer solid versus the run; or
B) A good cover nickel / Sam backer and a good downhill safety thumper; or
C) A straight up great free safety.
Best option is the same one that has always worked and that is consistent pressure from your front along with being able to limit the run game with that same front.
You do that and you are free to play all the games you want with the other defenders.
You can’t get consistent pressure with the front and you can’t limit the run game and none of it matters.
Might not make for the best off season conversation, but in the end the game is still decided at the top level by the play in the two lines.
Texas has been able to get pressure from the front for a few years now and still sucked.
Yeah, but mainly because their offense left their defense out until the bars closed.
Watching the Texas offense these past three years was like watching baby seals getting clubbed. It’s a little surprising that PETA didn’t lodge protests.
I’d say mainly because the defensive backfield had no idea what they were doing.
Go watch the Texas LBs try to fit the run against OSU or K-State…it’s remarkable. They have no idea what they’re supposed to be doing.
Let’s posit this a different way: Which unit was worse the last two seasons in Austin?
The defensive backfield, without question.
Restatement:
Which unit was worse in Austin the past two years: the offense, or the defense?
They were both worse in 2015. In 2016 the offense was much better, though still fatally flawed.
Which dual threat quarterback has torched Texas the past few seasons in the run game?
Off the top of my head that was Hill in 2014, but I don’t seem to really recall the problems you are talking about in the article. Even in that game he didn’t mass huge numbers.
Texas has had big defensive problems no doubt and it has been a combination of scheme, talent, and lack of putting talent in the proper position at times.
I wouldn’t put them in the same class as the best defenses in the past few years.
Teams haven’t needed a dual threat QB to run over Texas for much of this decade, tho it doesn’t hurt. The linebackers have frequently not understood their assignments in the run fits. Last year was a total cluster.