UNIT PREVIEW: Defensive Backs

Dancing Football — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:00:14 -0000

Xavier Hicks looks to strike fear into the hearts of opposing receivers in 2009. (WSU Football Blog)

Part six in a seven-part series previewing the Cougs' offensive and defensive units.

Overview

Early on in the offseason, the defensive backfield was looking to be the most experienced unit on the field in 2009. As Coug fans are well aware of, due to what Paul Wulff described as "some things that have occurred..." there are are a few more question marks headed into the season opener against Stanford.

Cornerbacks:

Youth is the theme here. ~~Would-be starters Devin Giles and Romeo Pellum were dismissed from the team.~~ Would-be starter Devin Giles was dismissed from the team and Romeo Pellum transferred after being suspended. That's tough to swallow in terms of depth, but the good news is those two weren't exactly superstars anyway. What's left is a lot of youth and inexperience. Not really sure what to expect from Brandon Jones, the Cal transfer, who is a fourth year Junior and has only played one full season, recording nine tackles in 2007. Aire Justin is small, but talented. Wulff claims he has "added strength and maturity" over the offseason. Nolan Washington is the big recruit, but most would agree that it would be much better to get five years out of him. Overall, there is potential for a good showing from this group. There is some talent and some of the inevitable mistakes could easily be covered up by the guys over the top.

Safeties:

The starters are very solid. Senior Xavier Hicks may be the best overall player on the Cougar defense and Chima Nwachukwu is smart (4.0 GPA last year!) and talented (Honorable Mention All-Pac 10 freshman cornerback). Big things can be expected from those two, but they absolutely need to stay on the field. Tyree Toomer is the only other player on the depth chart with any sort of experience. If Chima and Xavier stay healthy, the defensive backfield could do very well in 2009.

Projected Depth Chart

Pos.	1st String	2nd String	3rd String
LCB	Brandon Jones (5'9", 178, #Jr.)	Terrance Hayward (#Fr.)	Anthony Houston (#Jr.)
RCB	Aire Justin (5'11", 156, #So.)	Daniel Simmons (#Fr)	Shane Thomas (#So)
FS	Xavier Hicks, Jr. (6'0", 211, #Sr)	Tyree Toomer (So)	Jay Matthews (#Fr)
SS	Chima Nwachukwu (5'11", 201, Jr.)	Erick Block (#Fr)	LeAndre Daniels (#Fr)

Key Player

Xavier Hicks, Jr. This guy is talented. He has size and speed. He hits hard. He has the potential to have an All-Pac 10 season this year, but he needs to stay focused. If Xavier plays well, he could really hide some of the shortcomings in the rest of the secondary. The Cougars have a recent history of producing some very good defensive backs, and this guy could be the next.

Biggest Question Mark

Insert joke here about staying out of the back of police cars. Seriously though, will the lack of experience at corner prove costly and negate the potentially stellar safety play? As was written above, we are really not sure what to expect from Brandon Jones. Aire Justin should be improved, but this is the Pac 10 and the nickel corner will need to be used. That spot will most likely be occupied by Daniel Simmons and Terrance Hayward. Niether of those guys has every played a down in college football. Hopefully we are presently surprised.

Best Case Scenario

Xavier and Chima have All-Pac 10 caliber seasons. The youthful corners hold their ground and Wazzu pass defense is much improved. Showing confidence in the defensive backfield play, the Cougar linebackers are able to cheat towards the line of scrimmage and the run defense benefits as well.

Worst Case Scenario

Xavier dissapoints. Chima is just okay. The cornerbacks are exposed. Teams are able to throw at will. This trickles down to the run defense, as weary linebackers are forced to focus more on the pass and opposing running backs are left to roam free past the line of scrimmage.

Likely Scenario

Xavier and Chima will be very solid. Teams will probably try to exploit the inexperience at cornerback with isolations and quick throws. The corners should improve throughout the year and there should be some really solid backfield play in the last half of the season Overall, the unit will be a massive upgrade over 2008 and the defense as a whole will improve as a result.

Poll

What do you expect out of the cornerbacks for 2009?

They will be great!

11 votes

They will be average!

35 votes

They'll do enough to avoid embarassing themselves.

39 votes

They could be a very big hole in the WSU defense.

18 votes

103 votes | Poll has closed

The incredible disappearing defensive backfield

Grady. — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:24:39 -0000

Another day, and sadly, another piece of bad news regarding player conduct (by the way, screw you Seattle Times, for putting the Cougs under the "More" tab on the sports page while the Huskies are featured prominently in the banner):

When Washington State released its 2009 football roster Saturday, some familiar names were missing, including defensive back Devin Giles and wide receiver Michael Willis.

"They were dismissed for a violation of team rules," coach Paul Wulff said.

The seniors join defensive back Romeo Pellum, who was dismissed last spring, as expected contributors who won't be back.

It's been a strange summer for Cougar sports. Like Ken Bone has been attracting recruits, the WSU defensive backfield has been attracting bad behavior. And dismissals.

Let's bypass discussing Michael Willis in detail. While sad, Willis was a senior who might have been a contributor only because the wide receiver position is the thinnest its been in years. However, if you had forgotten, it shouldn't come as a shock to you that Willis originally came to WSU as a promising defensive back.

Giles' loss is a bigger hit to the team. He joins Romeo Pellum in the former Cougar corner category, and the position is already dangerously thin. GIles had appeared to put the academic issues from '08 behind him and was looking at a promising Senior campaign. Fortunately for both Willis and GIles' future, they appear to be on track to graduate.

Of course, this is just another disciplinary hit to the backfield. Pellum and Aire (Tyrone) Justin are facing felony burglary charges. Lesser-known backs Tyree Toomer and LeAndre Daniels are facing discipline over an alleged bike theft (seriously, a bike?) this spring, but are still with the team.

Sean over at WSU Football blog pegs Cal transfer Brandon Jones as the likely replacement for Giles, and that seems like a good fit. But the WSU defense, at least the pass-defense portion of it, is becoming a patchwork.

And let's not forget it wasn't even very good to begin with. If you look at yards per game, the pass defense was a relative strength for the Cougars, ranking 44th nationally with 195.8 yards surrendered. That's not bad when you consider how lopsided many of the games were last season.

But that's not the whole story. WSU's rush defense was so horrific last year (5.78 yards allowed per attempt - worst in the nation), that teams simply didn't even have to put the ball in the air to pick us apart. When they did, they had success: WSU allowed 7.8 yards per pass attempt, making it a sobering 101st in the nation (still better than the Huskies, who were 111th - hey, maybe that's why we beat 'em).

While it's mostly doom and gloom, the reason for hope is the same as it has always been since Wulff arrived. Essentially, the majority of problems are involoving players that were recruited under Bill Doba's regime, and those players are being dealt with. Consequences are being handed down, players are dealing with discipline on an internal basis, and the new players coming in should be working at a higher level of discipline. Although that's no guarantee they will be.

For now, WSU has to remain firm with its disciplinary process. Even if it means having to cringe every time the opposition puts the ball up in the air.

SB Nation - Devin Giles