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The contrast between corner and safety is stark

Written by Duane Long | 20 June 2009

One of the most fascinating dynamics I am seeing right now is the contrast between cornerback and safety on the current roster. We have a good mix of veterans and promising youngsters at corner. Ideally we would have 2 returning veterans with alot of game reps. We have the next best thing with Chekwa having been a starter and both Torrence and Amos with some game reps and plenty of practice reps. We are not going to have to worry about mental mistakes with that many practice reps under their belts. We have great reports coming out about redshirt freshman Travis Howard and true freshman C.J. Barnett. It is the perfect time for them to come along as they have veterans to learn from but don't have to get in there right away. This is close to an ideal situation.

I don't see anywhere near the same situation at safety. Veteran starters but unlike at corner there is nobody behind them. None of the veteran backups earned game reps and did not push last years veteran backups for playing time. Veteran backups that were not good enough to earn game reps themselves, I might add. Anderson Russell has never been the same player since his second knee injury. That nobody pushed him for playing time is a big flashing red alert signal about our depth and overall talent at safety. I don't know what is wrong with our recruiting at safety. We see a staff at its best in finding talent when it comes to corner. It has not been a high school All-American following high school All-American situation. Jenkins did not have an NFL first round offer list. Donald Washington looked like a reach. Chekwa was not heavily recruited by the Florida schools. The only good safeties we have had in recent years, Donte Whitner and Kurt Coleman, came here as corners. I don't know what the problem is. In recent classes the staff has gone off the board but even when we taking the consensus national guys like Jamario O'Neal and Nick Patterson, we have not gotten the results we had hoped. I wanted to see a return to recruiting the elite guys. I think we saw that happen last year jumping on Jamie Wood so early, and this year we have gone national trying to nail safeties and been very aggressive in our pursuit of those safeties. No sooner than one goes off the board we have offered another. In the meantime I think we could do some internal recruiting to give us a better pool of talent to work with. I don't know if Corey Brown has the feet and the speed to play corner but he sure has the ball skills and instincts to be a great safety. One of the great wastes is Grant Schwartz at receiver. He is buried. When he was being recruited I did not see a high skill guy. He was fast and smart. That is a kid who fits in great as a safety. He never should have moved. He would be in the mix, likely in the 2-deep, as a safety. With the incoming freshmen he is likely to be pushed down the depth chart at receiver. It is not too late to get back in the mix base on the very underwhelming talent at safety.
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