Lack of depth at safety a concern for Rutgers Football
PISCATAWAY - Safety is one position group on the Rutgers football team where there isn’t much depth.
Outside of its current starters in senior Saquan Hampton and junior K.J. Gray, who’ve combined to appear in 42 total games and make 19 career starts, there isn’t much.
The Scarlet Knights lost productive starter/rotational player Kiy Hester to transfer and don’t expect Jawuan Harris (baseball) to be back for the fall.
“I don’t think you’re ever happy with depth at any position. You can always use more. Safety, especially, we’re thin,” head coach Chris Ash said last week. “We do have some reinforcements coming that are not on campus yet. The good thing is we have some guys at corner with good size who can move over and play safety. Right now, we’re trying to develop our front line guys in K.J. and Saquan and bring the other guys along. But depth is a concern just because we’re young back there.”
Rutgers has a slew of corners that can and will play once the season begins in Blessuan Austin, Isaiah Wharton, up-and-comer Tre Avery, and Damon Hayes. New co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach, Noah Joseph, who played for Ash at Drake (who is also an alum), revealed that redshirt junior Kobe Marfo has switched to safety to provide an extra body.
“We moved Kobe Marfo over to get him some reps to help us out. We got a pretty good stable of corners so a couple of them could mentally handle (a change) no problem. We don’t make a move until we feel like we need to,” Joseph said. “If you look at some of defensive backs who signed that are going to be coming in, there’s depth in the cornerbacks room, and there’s some size with those incoming guys that could possibly cross train (at safety and corner). In this league, guys play as true freshman all the time. It’s difficult to do, but they do it all the time. We did that at Indiana. I kind of take pride in it. My second or third year there we had a freshman All-American at safety.”
Ash and Co. have a few more defensive backs arriving this summer including two 3-stars Christian Izien and Deion Jennings. Izien and Jennings could be those extra reinforcements to join Gray, Hampton, Marfo, and redshirt freshman Naijee Jones.
“I think they’re physical kids. I don’t know them well, I’m just getting to know them. I think Deion has some length. When you look at Christian and talk to him, he’s not real tall in stature but he’s put together. He’ll strike you. What he kind of is, is like that alpha male kind of guy,” Joseph said.
“So what we’re looking for out of the DBs in today’s college football world is you’ve got to be able to tackle in space. That means I’ve got to be able to move lateral. They’ve got to play man-to-man coverage and play the deep ball. If you look at some of these teams, there’s a lot of 50-50 balls out there. They’ve got to have great ball skills to go up and play those. More importantly to is to meet the kid. What is that kid like? They better have competitive excellence ...and we’re looking for kids that have a great passion for the game. If you have passion and conviction for what you do, it makes up for a lack of talent.”
Joseph said getting everyone up to speed is a challenge in terms of the younger guys having not played and not having experience of doing the little things either before, during, or after, practice.
“There’s not a lot of depth and there’s been a lot of turnover in that room so that makes it challenging,” Joseph said. “ It makes it challenging in a sense that KJ Gray and Saquan Hampton have played a lot of football and understand the game and how you play and how you prepare. That’s the big thing -- how you prepare to be successful and how you prepare for a practice, a game, or a scrimmage. Those young guys haven't’ had to do that. So for them it’s just showing up, sit in a meeting, and go practice. Well, if that’s all you’re doing, it’s very challenging to get ahead. ...We’re going through those processes right now.”
Gray was fourth on the team in 2018 with 58 total tackles including 3.0 for loss and 1.5 sacks. He also had a pair of interceptions and added five pass breakups and mentioned he’s been practicing at both the free and strong safety spots. Gray also said he’s worked the most on his strength, speed, balance, and coordinator this offseason.
“Wherever they see me fit. I feel like I’m a ballhawk and I’m confident in my tackling. So, it’s just wherever coach feels comfortable. I can make plays anywhere,” the St. Peter’s Prep product said.
Throughout the last year, Gray has seen the young guys work and likes what he’s seen.
“I feel like we’re capable… I’m confident in our defense. We have a bunch of experience and especially with the young guys coming up they’re surprising all of us. For depth, we’re not that deep, but ...we all have confidence in each other so depth isn’t really an issue. We’re just surprised that the young guys are catching on so quickly and producing.”
Gray gave a little insight on what Joseph is like as a coach as well. Joseph came over after spending four years at fellow Big Ten Conference foe, Indiana, where he coached the safeties.
“Coach Joseph, he’s very energetic, especially when you make a big play it’s nice to see him running around and yelling,” Gray said. “Coach Joseph really tries to push you to be a better player and better person as well.”
While at Indiana, Joseph had a unique opportunity to scheme against the Scarlet Knights and look at tape. He also followed the program because of Ash.
“There’s no doubt I did. On Sundays, (the Big Ten Conference) uploads all the videos of who played that Saturday in the system. I would make sure that I watched Rutgers and a couple teams to try and get some defensive ideas. I’ve always wanted to follow coach Ash. I knew what his vision was. I knew what his plan was and I wanted to see how it was coming to fruition.”
