| 08 September 2009
I was asked this question by MAB:
*******written by mab, September 07, 2009
Can Torrence move to FS? He has obvious athletic ability and can cover. He seems to have enough football intelligence to be able to handle the move. I understand this opens a hole at the 3rd CB spot, but safety is a hole that needs to be corrected prior to USC if we have any chance. He could go back to CB after USC when the competition level drops (after USC) and we can develop another FS in time for the PSU and Mich games (hopefully). ******
I thought about Torrence when I made the post yesterday which prompted your question. I dismissed the idea because I did not pay enough attention to cornerback play in the game to see if Torrence might be expendable. Then I looked at the depth chart and it struck me. Something needs to be done at free safety. It is the last line of defense and it is failing us too often. I had high hopes for the Anderson Russell we saw before the back to back knee injuries. I have lost faith that he can be a player we can count on to make a play. It comes down to looking at the depth charts. Without Torrence we still have a couple of veterans at corner. Chekwa has been a starter and is the best pure cover player on the roster. Amos has
played some and would have played a lot if not for injury. Maybe even become a starter. Howard is a player who is highly likely to have played as a freshman if not for last years depth. We have none of that at safety. A freshman that coulda/shoulda played, Ohrian Johnson, is the only chatter that has come out about the safeties. He is hurt. We have attractive options at corner without Torrence. We have nothing that looks like a good option at safety currently. Torrence has repped at safety here. He is not unfamiliar with what the free safety assignments are in our scheme. A refresher course might be in order but he should get up to speed in a relatively short time.
As far as the future is concerned, moving Torrence back would be something to think long and hard about anyway. We need to increase the talent in the mix at safety. Another thing to think about is Corey Brown. I was not a big fan as a corner or wide receiver. I did not see the speed for those positions. I think he has tremendous instincts and ball skills, perfect for a safety, does not need as much speed to be a safety, and is decent sized for a safety. He is not going to help in the USC game but I think he could earn some reps in the not too distant future. Both increase the athleticism at safety. That is something very much needed.Look at our roster at safety. Free safety should be the best all-around athlete on the field. Think about when you have seen them on the field. Do our safeties look like superior athletes out there to you? You can't count Coleman. He was a high school corner. Played his freshman year here as a corner.
Suspect decision making with recruiting is only part of it. The staff has gone off the board more than I would have liked but it is not all suspect decision making at safety. Someone, JT, Andy Geiger, Brutus Buckeye, I don't know who, has angered the great football god, the almighty Gridiron. Maybe he is as tired of Hang on Sloopy as I am. I don't know. What I do know is Buckeye commitment lists are chock full of All-American high school safeties that did not come close to making college All-American teams. Did you know Nate Salley was a national top ten safety for Rivals? Yes. Nate "Always Late" Salley. Ira Guilford was good enough to force his way onto the field as a freshman. How much would he have helped? One bad decision was in 2005. I thought David Bruton was a player worthy of a Buckeye offer. He camped at Ohio State and impressed greatly. We waited on Adam Myers-White. Here is something that will leave you pause. Eugene Clifford and Major Wright. Who would be the starting safeties right now if they were here? We actually had Clifford here, didn't we. We could not get Wright in. If his academics were in order I think we were odds-on to land him. We went after late bloomer Danny McCarthy hard in '08. He chose Notre Dame. Some suspect decisions? Absolutely, but just as many that were great decisions that just went sideways for one reason or another, and all went sour and there was nothing the staff could have done about any of them. Snakebit at safety. That is the punishment Gridirons meted out to us.
I wrote most of this up yesterday. There is some buzz about moving Hines to strong safety, Coleman to free safety and Russell to the Star. I need to see that happen before I believe it especially looking at USC coming into the 'Shoe this weekend.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
