FB : Still no answers with secondary picture muddled
Greg Robinson came into spring practice not knowing who would wind up starting in the secondary next season. Four weeks and nine practices later, the Syracuse head coach knows just about as much now as he did then.
‘That’s a good way to put it: It’s up for grabs,’ Robinson said. ‘No, no, no. No headway.’
Last season, the Orange ranked 102nd in the nation in pass defense, allowing 261 passing yards per game. Now it is relying on a group of inexperienced cornerbacks and safeties to begin showing signs of improvement.
Looking at the preseason depth chart doesn’t provide much help, either. Rising sophomore cornerback Mike Holmes is the only returning starter from last year, but he made his mark last year returning kicks in between splitting time at corner and safety. He has settled into his role of corner this year and is no longer practicing as a safety.
Rising senior Bruce Williams, who will probably start at free safety, played all 12 games in 2007, but also found his best success in the return game.
The other two starting jobs are even more questionable. For strong safety, the depth chart lists either rising senior A.J. Brown or Kevyn Smith, who has yet to play a game of college football after redshirting his freshman year. The other cornerback spot is currently a battle between Nico Scott and Da’Mon Merkerson, a converted wide receiver who caught eight passes, including a touchdown, as a freshman last season.
‘It would be nice to say I have Tanard Jackson coming back and Steve Gregory and Anthony Smith,’ secondary coach Jim Salgado said. ‘That would be nice. It’s a challenge.’
As the two most experienced players in the bunch, Brown and Williams have established themselves as the unit’s vocal leaders, but Salgado said not even their spots are locked at this point.
Merkerson may prove to be the wild card of the group with his pure speed and athleticism moving from the offensive side of the ball. But considering he’s only played defense for a month, he is very much still a work in progress.
‘I still have the tendency to do receiver things like come out of the break a little differently, not like a corner, more like a receiver’ Merkerson said. ‘That’s something I got to break out of my head. When I’m breaking on balls, I’m not trying to catch them. They’re not being thrown to me.’
Now Salgado, Robinson and safeties and nickel backs coach Scott Spencer have the difficult challenge of deciding who deserves to play from a group of players who have not yet distinguished themselves. And with the spring game looming on April 19, every position is still a legitimate competition, and everybody knows it.
‘They’ve been told from winter workouts to practice No. 1 to today,’ Salgado said. ‘They know the clock’s ticking. They have to produce. We’re going to do everything we can to help them, and then they have to go out and play and perform.’
Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson confirmed Wednesday that freshman Averin Collier, one of SU’s prized four-star recruits competing for time in the backfield next season, will miss the rest of spring practice with a stress fracture in his left foot. It’s a tough blow for Collier, who enrolled at school in January to participate in the spring workouts with the rest of the team.
Robinson said Collier hurt himself in a scrimmage on March 29 but continued to play. Later that week, the foot flared up, keeping Collier out of practice since. Last week, Robinson said he expected Collier back on the field by last Saturday, but when the pain did not subside, he went in for an MRI. The coaching staff heard the results Monday.
Collier was at practice Wednesday riding a stationary bike. He will be in a walking boot for four weeks and will not need a hard cast.
With Collier out, and fellow running backs Delone Carter and Curtis Brinkley still recovering from their own injuries, Syracuse has been primarily using Doug Hogue and Daniel Bailey in practice since and will go through the rest of the spring shorthanded.
‘You have some limitations in that regard,’ Robinson said. ‘They’re taking a lot of reps, but I give them credit, they’ve kept it going.’
Donovan McNabb still wears his Syracuse garb in NFL locker rooms. So naturally the former Orange and current Eagles star quarterback, who was in town for Tuesday’s charity sports auction, found time to meet with the current group. McNabb addressed the team Wednesday morning and gave a speech cornerbacks Da’Mon Merkerson and Mike Holmes called ‘inspirational.’
‘It was about the tradition here in Syracuse and how we need to uphold it,’ Merkerson said. ‘…Basically his love for the school and for the tradition and how much he watches us. It was good to know there are people out there who still stick with us even though we’re not doing so well.’
Published on April 9, 2008 at 12:00 pm
