They got Jammie Robinson who transferred from South Carolina at Rover/SS & the well know Akeem Dent at FS.
Jammie is a solid tackler & their most active Safety on the backend, they move him around a lot & he’s actually played pretty well this season. He’s got pretty solid ball skills & is someone you have to lookout for in terms of when you throw the deep ball.
Akeem Dent is terrible, probably one of the most overrated DB’s coming out of South FL in a long time & that’s saying something because there have been some real big time busts from the tri-county, but Dent is ranked up there with them lol. He got moved to Safety because he was slow to play Corner & since being at Safety it’s been discovered he’s too slow for that too lol. He’s by far their worst in coverage, he’s makes Gurvan Hall look like JaQuan Johnson, that’s how bad he is. Terrible feet & has no idea where the ball is on any given play, he plays like he’s not quite sure if he’s even in the right game lol.
They also have Freshman Safety Sidney Williams, he’s basically like the 3rd man in their Safety rotation, he’s a Rover as well, but they use him similar to how we use Tae Williams.
At CB, they got Jarvis Brownlee formally of Hallandale/Carol City, he’s solid in coverage, he has a pick 6 on the season, but he has lapses in his technique where he gets handsy & has the tendency to grab the upper body of the WR when he’s in trouble. In Press man, he’s a classic Miami CB, scrappy & physical, but struggles against precise route technicians. If he’s lined up vs Rambro, the edge goes to us, Rambro will eat his lunch due to his ability to separate at the top of his routes.
The other Corner they use is Jarrian Jones, he’s their big bodied Boundary corner, not very good & has stone feet as well, is susceptible to getting beat off the Deep ball, they rotate their Safeties over a lot to his side of the field to help in coverage. He’s basically a Safety that has to play CB, but he’s got stiff hips & plays a step behind in the passing game. He really is only playing now because they had a rash of injuries to their CB group over the last few weeks, so he’s had to play a lot more than he was expected this season.
At Nickel Corner, they play another well known former Cane recruit in TF Kevin Knowles, he’s only recently started playing the last month, but he’s a natural cover corner, he’s got some Bandy to his game, very good footwork & stays in the WR’s hip pocket in bump & run. He’s got good active hands too, he’s somebody they can leave in Press man one on one & he’ll hold his own. If he lines up with Harley/Restrepo it’ll be an interesting match to see how it goes, he’s got dawg in’em.
But sneakily, one of their most talented Corners who has only played in their last 5 games is another former Cane recruit in Omarion Cooper. He had a really nice INT vs Clemson & is their most physically gifted Corner, he can stick really well in Press man & is a very physical aggressive corner with terrific hip fluidity & speed turn ability, and he’s not slow. I think he’s really only seen some late Dime package duty, but he’s a kid that down the line will be a very good corner for them.
Overall their Secondary really isn’t that good, you can throw on them routinely, they’re very young & disjointed group on the backend with a few individually talented players, but they’re not a cohesive unit at all.
If Lashlee watches the Notre Dame, Wake Forest, LVille & NC State film, he’ll see there’s some big time opportunities to exploit their pass defense, they play a sh*t ton of Zone coverages & have wide open holes all in their Secondary. They have to call a lot of overcompensating coverages to protect the lack of speed they have which leaves them susceptible to being picked apart down the field.
They’re not anywhere near the FSU secondaries of old.
