last seasons true freshman

[Groundswell]

Re: Freshmen safeties. Oregon's 1 safety commit, Nick Pickett, is the lowest rated recruit of all the defensive back recruits. So I just don't see it. I could most certainly be wrong.

Yeah, unless they're really high on Gibson (and he comes here). Lenoir could also play there since he's pretty physical, but that would be a waste.

You guys are depressing me. Really, we need to turn most of the defensive roster over to be legit on that side of the ball. It's a big project.

[StevensTechU]

Yeah, unless they're really high on Gibson (and he comes here). Lenoir could also play there since he's pretty physical, but that would be a waste.

Yea, I was thinking Lenoir or Graham might have the size/physicality, but it would be learning a new position for either one.

[Phenom]

Yeah, unless they're really high on Gibson (and he comes here). Lenoir could also play there since he's pretty physical, but that would be a waste.

Yea, I was thinking Lenoir or Graham might have the size/physicality, but it would be learning a new position for either one.

Lenoir did say that the staff told him that they want to use him like Jabrill Peppers so who knows.

[Handsome Dan]

How difficult is it for a safety to transition to CB and vice versa, especially in modern defenses?

[StevensTechU]

How difficult is it for a safety to transition to CB and vice versa, especially in modern defenses?

Different enough that they have two different position coaches (Heyward- safeties, Clark- cornerbacks). Also, different enough that Charles Nelson refused the position switch to cornerback, which he'd never played, but was eventually receptive to playing safety for a stint.

It compounds things that they'd be learning a new position while also making a huge leap from high school to college ball.

[Handsome Dan]

How difficult is it for a safety to transition to CB and vice versa, especially in modern defenses?

Different enough that they have two different position coaches (Heyward- safeties, Clark- cornerbacks). Also, different enough that Charles Nelson refused the position switch to cornerback, which he'd never played, but was eventually receptive to playing safety for a stint.

It compounds things that they'd be learning a new position while also making a huge leap from high school to college ball.

They had the same coach under the previous regimes though, didn't they? Also wouldn't Nelson have refused CB because he knew how to play safety and didn't want to spend any serious effort learning a new position for a temporary fix on defense? I'm not saying that they're the same, but it just seems like there isn't a huge impediment for a primarily defensive player to switch between them.

[StevensTechU]

They had the same coach under the previous regimes though, didn't they? Also wouldn't Nelson have refused CB because he knew how to play safety and didn't want to spend any serious effort learning a new position for a temporary fix on defense? I'm not saying that they're the same, but it just seems like there isn't a huge impediment for a primarily defensive player to switch between them.

I think your second sentence kind of makes my point, that it takes time and effort.

It's not that it's impossible, or even scarce, that a player makes the switch. The beginning of the discussion was simply that a high school player who's never played safety is unlikely to enter college, switch positions, and get so good that he's going to beat out upperclassmen who aren't completely devoid of talent. If we were talking about 2 years into the program, I'd wager that Graham/Lenoir could both beat out the competition, but I just don't see it happening right off the bat because of the previous points. Again, I could totally be wrong, we'll see.

[Handsome Dan]

They had the same coach under the previous regimes though, didn't they? Also wouldn't Nelson have refused CB because he knew how to play safety and didn't want to spend any serious effort learning a new position for a temporary fix on defense? I'm not saying that they're the same, but it just seems like there isn't a huge impediment for a primarily defensive player to switch between them.

I think your second sentence kind of makes my point, that it takes time and effort.

It's not that it's impossible, or even scarce, that a player makes the switch. The beginning of the discussion was simply that a high school player who's never played safety is unlikely to enter college, switch positions, and get so good that he's going to beat out upperclassmen who aren't completely devoid of talent. If we were talking about 2 years into the program, I'd wager that Graham/Lenoir could both beat out the competition, but I just don't see it happening right off the bat because of the previous points. Again, I could totally be wrong, we'll see.

Okay got it. I didn't see the beginning, and it makes a lot more sense with that context. I definitely don't think they could come in and beat out current safeties, but I also didn't think switching between the two positions was particularly difficult overall.