From Jack Tatum to Michael Doss, OSU has a well-deserved reputation for
producing athletic and hard-hitting safeties. While we have more recent NFL-ers
as cornerbacks, the safeties back up to no one, or to no one position.
This past season, the Buckeyes had as good a pair of safeties as OSU has seen
in years, with Donnie Nickey and the aforementioned Doss. Experienced? Nickey
started the past four years and Doss the past three. Both were team captains.
You don't replace that kind of experience and moxie too easily.
But we have to try. Nickey and Doss were both superb against the run and
slightly-less-than-superb against the pass. Some say that's the way the
defensive design worked but, regardless, that's the way it was. When I look for
replacements, I look just one position over at Dustin Fox. He will be an
outstanding safety: hard-hitting and athletic (see above…) but a great cover
guy, as well, with speed and experience. On the other side, we have Will Allen,
who has been the nickel/dime back these past two seasons. Will is a surprisingly
tough banger with good-if-not-great cover skills.
A "sleeper" in this mix could be Nate Salley, who has the players
and coaches raving. A big, confident and aggressive kid, Nate will have an
impact (so to speak) but he's not a starter yet. Also, look for sophomore-to-be
Tyler Everett, who surprised a number of local analysts by playing a lot and
playing fairly well. Other candidates for the 2003 safety positions include
LeAndre Boone (will be a red shirt sophomore, from Virginia), Brandon Mitchell
(to be a red shirt freshman, from Georgia) and Thomas Matthews (junior-to-be
from Dillard HS in Florida).
Further complicating matters is the necessity of dividing the safeties into
"strong" or "free" positions. Doss was the strong safety
this year, coming up in run support and occasionally taking on a tight end.
Nickey was the centerfielder (free safety) as the truly last line of defense.
Of the group coming up, I would suspect that strong safeties include Salley,
Boone and Matthews. I figure Mitchell and Everett more for the free safety
position. The two projected starters? I don't know. You almost wish that Fox
could play both - he's that good! But you would have to position Fox as the free
safety and Allen as the strong safety.
That means we will have a junior and senior starting next year with the
likely back-ups being a junior (Matthews) and a freshman (Salley). Plus, we need
nickel and dime guys, which would bring into play another freshman (Everett) and
an unknown (Mitchell).
While we have kicked some serious recruiting booty (including Ashton Youboty…)
at cornerback, we really haven't cleaned up for safeties. The two most obvious
All-World kids are Prescott Burgess and Michael Bush. But since I already
projected Burgess as either an OLB or a Wolverine, and since Bush projected
himself as a quarterback, that leaves us with only one safety recruit: Curt
Lukens. Lukens will remind you of a bigger faster Nickey (not so bad, eh?) but I
still think he will be re-positioned as a bigger stronger outside linebacker in
a couple years.
So who is left to look at? There is Travis Tolbert, a safety from
Syracuse and then, the possibility that Dareus Hiley or an Ira Guilford moves
over from cornerback. In fact, the guys-in-the-know say that's why we're going
so hard after Guilford now - he will be a free safety at OSU.
In Ohio, the following year, the best DB is also a cornerback - heavy Buckeye
lean Ted Ginn, Jr. So…
Dr. Recruitnik sez: It would be great to get Tolbert. And I think we have a
60%+ shot at Guilford. Otherwise, we will be scouring the nation next year, or
re-positioning other players. We need a good one in this year's group, though.
I'm guessing Ira Guilford, who fits the coaches' desires for more speed.