Today we hit up #6 - Safety
Depth Chart - Hot off the press of Charlie's press conference on Monday, here is the updated depth chart. The Irish are experienced at Safety but are in serious need of bodies in the current recruiting class.
Talent - The Irish are plenty talented at Safety - enough to be extremely competitive. Neither of the starters Smith or McCarthy (pictured right) is a sure fire day 1 NFL prospect, but both most certainly will be NFL players. Harrison Smith is only entering his 2nd year of playing, and he has the size, speed, and playmaking ability to become a first day NFL draft pick. McCarthy led the team in tackles in 2008, compiling 110 of them from the strong safety spot. Sure tackling and heady play are his calling cards. Harrison Smith, Zeke Motta, and Dan McCarthy (younger brother of starter Kyle McCarthy) were all 4 star recruits, while Sergio Brown, Ray Herring, and Kyle McCarthy were 3 star. Ray Herring and Sergio Brown bring experience and depth to the position; Brown will be used as starting Nickelback likely, while Ray Herring would be the first safety to replace either Harrison or McCarthy should they go down with injury.
Changes - The biggest change is the move of Harrison Smith (pictured right) from Nickel outside linebacker to starting free safety. Harrison Smith was too athletic to keep off the field as a sophomore last year, but has always been a safety in ability. The departure of the extremely athletic David Bruton (Denver Broncos 4th rd draft pick) will definitely be felt, but Harrison brings some skills to the table that are better than Bruton. Harrison will likely be a better pass rusher and run defender than Bruton, who's best skill was covering massive amounts of real estate as a roaming free safety. Harrison has much more of the intangible "playmaker" ability about him as well - he has a nose for the football, as they say. Many feel good about the move and think there will be little if any drop off from Bruton to Smith. On the coaching side, Corwin Brown is now spending more time with the defensive backs as DB Coach and Associate Head Coach, instead of defensive coordinator (now Jon Tenuta).
Depth - Solid, for this year. With experienced seniors behind the starters, as well as some promising youngsters in early enrollee Zeke Motta and sophomore Dan McCarthy, this unit is in good shape this season. I would say the talent at safety lacks just 1 player - an elite, 5 star, Major Wright / Eric Berry type guy. Those type of safeties only appear about once or twice per recruiting class nationally though. The talent assembled at Safety is plenty good to accomplish Notre Dame's goals of a BCS game and 10-2. The problem is next year - with the departure of half the depth chart due to graduation, the Irish need some big time safeties in this recruiting class after 2 big signing day misses to USC last year.
Goals - Two major goals for this position: fewer tackles and more interceptions. Fewer tackles from the safety spot means that more tackles are being made by linebackers and lineman - which typically means less yards given up. If McCarthy and Harrison Smith combine for 207 again this year (like Bruton and McCarthy last year, the top 2 tacklers on the Irish defense) - 207 tackles representing 25% of total defensive tackles last season - then the Irish are much more likely to have a record worse than 9-3 than on it. Would be nice to get those safety tackles % down to 20% or maybe 15%. Secondly, these 2 need to improve upon 6 interceptions from safeties last year - 10 would be fantastic but 8 would be a very good job for the position.
Final Analysis - This position is solid, deep (for this year), but just not terribly sexy. People fail to realize that "not sexy" could be a huge asset, as our guys are team first, sure fire tacklers that make intelligent plays within their defensive roles. The "playmaker" label of Harrison Smith will have a chance to stick - and that potential is what makes this position slightly intriguing. Can these smart, sure fire tacklers make a few more plays? And more importantly, will the Irish front 7 step up so they don't have to? I predict the Safeties will impress and reach reach both goals noted above - only 20% of total team tackles, and at least 8 interceptions. Largely because of the instincts and playmaking ability of Tennessee's own, Harrison Smith.
No comments:
Post a Comment