Rutgers' defense reloads with youth in secondary

Two years after the Rutgers football team’s defensive backfield was gashed for 312 yards per game, the unit appears to have gained some serious depth.

Even with junior cornerbacks Anthony Cioffi and Nadir Barnwell seeing limited action due to injury, spring camp continues and the look of the Scarlet Knights’ secondary offers a preview for an area that has gone through a pivotal turnaround.

When the defensive backs were torn to shreds last season as opposing quarterbacks completed an average of 63.5 percent of their passes, Rutgers presented a portion filled with inexperience and rid with injuries.

With seven underclassmen listed on the depth chart, inexperience still remains.

But with the likes of Cioffi, Barnwell and junior safety Delon Stephenson all returning for their third season with starting experience, the Knights have been able to turn their largest vulnerability into an assumed area of strength heading into 2015.

How Quentin Gause feels about the defensive unit speaks for itself.

“I have lots of trust in my secondary,” he said.

The senior linebacker, who has helped Rutgers against the pass in his past two years, seeing time at the outside linebacker slot, said the secondary still has work to do.

But from the effort and response he has seen throughout the first three weeks of spring practice, the actions have left the fifth-year senior impressed.

“They’re doing their jobs,” Gause said. “… There’s plays where they’ve messed up on and we need to easily correct that, but I have a lot of trust in the whole defense as a whole. Everybody, like I said, if you do your job, we’re gonna make the stops. But if you don’t, then we won’t … they’ve been very consistent.”

In the handful of underclassmen himself, redshirt-freshman Kiy Hester feels he has progressed with the unit throughout the spring.

“Well, right now we’re a very young secondary so we’re just working hard everyday, just getting better,” he said. “Our ceiling’s very high, so we’re just pushing each other, coming in for extra work and extra film with the coaches because you want to be a great secondary and you just see it from the past.”

As the defensive backfield shifts from all over, one of the latest tweaks has been at safety slots.

After two years solely at cornerback, Cioffi’s time at safety has increased by each practice this spring. It’s one move that head coach Kyle Flood hinted at after Tuesday’s practice earlier in the week.

“I do think he’s a guy who gives us some flexibility,” Flood said. “We believe (Cioffi) can play some safety for us if we need him to and ultimately, it’ll be about getting the best guys onto the field — not just in the base packages, but in the sub packages.”

Times before, Flood has referred to redshirt-freshman Darian Daly, early enrollee Blessuan Austin and redshirt-freshman Saquan Hampton as young defensive backs who have stood out to throughout the spring.

While he’s already alluded to Cioffi’s potential move, Flood mentioned that the possibility of a pair of cornerbacks in Hampton and junior Delon Stephenson seeing time at safety opens up more room for the Knights to maneuver in their defensive schemes.

“Part of what we’re doing in the spring is trying to see where the flexibility in the players is,” he said. “There’s an expression in coaching that we tell the players that the more you can do, the more valuable you are and the spring is where we test all of those things out and then we’ll make some decisions as we get closer to the fall in terms of where everyone’s gonna land.”

As far as the shakeups go, Hester tries not to get caught up in it.

But when it comes to practicing in the drills and scrimmages, the DePaul Catholic (N.J.) product described the position battles as a fuel for the fiery intensity that has increased with each day.

“Right now, we’ve got a competition at every corner spot and every safety spot, so that just pushes everyone to go harder in the drills,” Hester said. “You mess up, you know, you get mad at yourself, but you’re like, ‘All right, I gotta go harder the next play.’ And you see the people above you or below you — everyone’s just pushing each other, so the competition is just every day. We try to make it hard on the coaches to play the best players.”

Listed as the backup at the strong safety spot behind junior Davon Jacobs, Hester’s mentality makes it inevitable for him to earn a starting job on defense.

But knowing that he still has a long way to go, the six-foot, 205-pounder takes the same approach as everyone else around him.

 “I definitely see myself as a starter, but I haven’t done nothing yet so I’m just out there everyday trying to prove myself, prove to the coaches they can trust me with the scheme,” he said. “I got the mental and physical aspect that, you know, you put me on the field, I’m gonna make plays, but also do my assignment as well.” 

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