When the Cats opened preseason camp almost three weeks ago, defensive backs coach and co-defensive coordinator Steve Brown had eight defensive backs — four safeties, four cornerbacks — to work with that had prior game experience.
Steve Brown works with junior cornerback Cartier Rice, one of many expected to step up since Jerrell Priester's transfer was announced.
Now that camp has ended, that number is down to six.
Senior safety Josh Gibbs, who was working with the second team, was announced to be giving up football on Aug. 10. Sophomore cornerback Jerrell Priester announced he was transferring last Thursday.
Both players were perceived to be important to the Cats’ secondary, especially in depth. And both Gibbs and Priester made sizable contributions on special teams last year; Priester was considered among the competition to return punts in the upcoming season.
To replace those voids, Brown is looking at underclassmen and even a handful of newcomers. Redshirt freshman Dale Trimble has been getting more reps at corner since Priester’s departure, Brown said. True freshmen Glenn Faulkner and Ashley Lowery have been thrown into the mix at safety; so have Eric Dixon and Daylen Hall at cornerback.
“They’re doing good. A lot of those guys, they’re seeing things for the first time from an experience standpoint,” Brown said. “Every play they practice is a learning experience. It’s just so many little things that you try to constantly work on. Assignments, movements — things that when they get in the game, it’s second nature. When things start flying at them, they can be comfortable and they can know how to react.”
Both safety and cornerback have reliable seniors to the youngsters along. Cornerback Randall Burden is in his fifth year in the program and his third year as a starter.
At safety, Taiedo Smith is also a fifth-year senior.
“They’re all soaking it in,” Smith said “Those of us that are veterans are kind of learning a lot of it as we go along, too, because of Rick Minter’s new defense. If I learn something a little more quickly, I’ll try to break it down a little bit and help them out.”
Redshirt freshman Dale Trimble is expected to contribute at cornerback.
Even if the depth isn’t what Brown thought it would be last month, he said that’s OK. The unit was strong last year, finishing 14th in the country in pass defense with 177.1 yards allowed per game. Enough of those players are returning, even though Winston Guy has scooted up to linebacker and Martavius Neloms has switched from starting cornerback to starting safety.
Enough of that core is there to carry the team while the depth develops, Brown said.
“We’ve got some guys that are going to have to step up. You hate to lose kids like that but it’s no different than someone getting injured. That gives other guys opportunities to get more and more repetitions in practice, so we’ll see.”
