2017 Preview - Defensive Backs
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2017 11:07 am
Last year was a rough one for our defensive backs, being especially vulnerable to long passes. Some changes have been made for the coming year that will hopefully address this problem.
Our DBs currently on the roster are:
#5 Senior Aaron Diggs
#23 Senior Josh Smith
#38 Senior David Griffith
#42 Senior Myles Spearman
#3 Junior Timothy Smith
#6 Junior Xavier Rowe
#30 Junior Justin Fitzpatrick
#12 Sophomore Darron Wheeler
#20 Sophomore Eric Carrera
#24 Sophomore Mike Viti
#11 Redshirt Freshman Darius Patterson - transfer from College of the Desert
Freshman Brent Carter
Freshman Andre Whitley
There’s also a couple of guys that could be showing up on the roster at some point, but are not currently (I don’t really know their status, but maybe they’ll be added to the roster once they really get going with the late summer preseason practices):
Brandon Mayes - Senior, transfer from Northern Illinois
Tyrin Holloway - Senior, transfer from Liberty University
Seniors
Juniors
Sophomores
Redshirt Freshmen
Freshmen
Of those players, here’s who played last year and their stats:
Xavier Rowe - 11 games played, 59 total tackles (0.5 for loss), 3 interceptions, 3 pass breakups
David Griffith - 11 games played, 54 total tackles (5 for loss), 1 interception, 3 pass breakups
Mike Viti - 11 games played, 32 total tackles, 1 interception, 8 pass breakups (led the team)
Eric Carrera - 10 games played, 28 total tackles (1 for loss), 1 interception, 1 pass breakup
Justin Fitzpatrick - 11 games played, 19 total tackles (1 for loss), 3 pass breakups
Timothy Smith - 10 games played, 18 total tackles (1 for loss), 1 interception, 5 pass breakups
Darron Wheeler - 9 games played, 16 total tackles (1 for loss), 1 interception, 3 pass breakups
Josh Smith - 8 game played, 7 total tackles, 1 forced fumble
Aaron Diggs - 2 games played (due to injury), 6 total tackles (1 for loss)
Players who are not returning, and their stats from last year:
Alex Olivas - 6 games played, 15 tackles (.5 for loss)
Trev Hadachek - did not see any game action
We didn’t lose much in terms of production after last year. Both players were actually Juniors who it appears chose not to return this year. It’s kinda hard judging what I think is going to happen, mostly because I don’t know the status of the three possible incoming transfers. I was told that they’d be here during the summer training sessions (and should be on campus now), but I haven’t seen any confirmation on that yet. That’s not surprising at this point, just makes it a little harder to plan.
I think that the addition of the two senior transfers will help quite a bit. Lots of experience there, one of which had a great deal of starting experience at a generally higher level of football. I’d imagine that we’ll see them play, along with the existing seniors and juniors. I expect that we’ll see a lot of Mike Viti as well, since he did so well as a true freshman last year.
Being an outside fan, it’s hard to tell if the overall issues from last year were from a lack of talent, lack of execution, or lack of good coaching. I think that bringing in a couple of transfers plus the growth of some of the younger players should help with the first two...either by putting pressure on the returning guys to do better, or by beating them out for starting positions. As for the 3rd possibility, we’ve hired a new defensive coordinator/secondary coach, Tony Grantham. Grantham has a fairly impressive resume, so hopefully he can get the guys defending better.
Last year we were 120th out of 122 FCS teams in passing yards allowed...something had to change, and regardless of how it all shakes out this season, changes have been made and issues from last year have been addressed.
Our DBs currently on the roster are:
#5 Senior Aaron Diggs
#23 Senior Josh Smith
#38 Senior David Griffith
#42 Senior Myles Spearman
#3 Junior Timothy Smith
#6 Junior Xavier Rowe
#30 Junior Justin Fitzpatrick
#12 Sophomore Darron Wheeler
#20 Sophomore Eric Carrera
#24 Sophomore Mike Viti
#11 Redshirt Freshman Darius Patterson - transfer from College of the Desert
Freshman Brent Carter
Freshman Andre Whitley
There’s also a couple of guys that could be showing up on the roster at some point, but are not currently (I don’t really know their status, but maybe they’ll be added to the roster once they really get going with the late summer preseason practices):
Brandon Mayes - Senior, transfer from Northern Illinois
Tyrin Holloway - Senior, transfer from Liberty University
Seniors
Juniors
Sophomores
Redshirt Freshmen
Freshmen
Of those players, here’s who played last year and their stats:
Xavier Rowe - 11 games played, 59 total tackles (0.5 for loss), 3 interceptions, 3 pass breakups
David Griffith - 11 games played, 54 total tackles (5 for loss), 1 interception, 3 pass breakups
Mike Viti - 11 games played, 32 total tackles, 1 interception, 8 pass breakups (led the team)
Eric Carrera - 10 games played, 28 total tackles (1 for loss), 1 interception, 1 pass breakup
Justin Fitzpatrick - 11 games played, 19 total tackles (1 for loss), 3 pass breakups
Timothy Smith - 10 games played, 18 total tackles (1 for loss), 1 interception, 5 pass breakups
Darron Wheeler - 9 games played, 16 total tackles (1 for loss), 1 interception, 3 pass breakups
Josh Smith - 8 game played, 7 total tackles, 1 forced fumble
Aaron Diggs - 2 games played (due to injury), 6 total tackles (1 for loss)
Players who are not returning, and their stats from last year:
Alex Olivas - 6 games played, 15 tackles (.5 for loss)
Trev Hadachek - did not see any game action
We didn’t lose much in terms of production after last year. Both players were actually Juniors who it appears chose not to return this year. It’s kinda hard judging what I think is going to happen, mostly because I don’t know the status of the three possible incoming transfers. I was told that they’d be here during the summer training sessions (and should be on campus now), but I haven’t seen any confirmation on that yet. That’s not surprising at this point, just makes it a little harder to plan.
I think that the addition of the two senior transfers will help quite a bit. Lots of experience there, one of which had a great deal of starting experience at a generally higher level of football. I’d imagine that we’ll see them play, along with the existing seniors and juniors. I expect that we’ll see a lot of Mike Viti as well, since he did so well as a true freshman last year.
Being an outside fan, it’s hard to tell if the overall issues from last year were from a lack of talent, lack of execution, or lack of good coaching. I think that bringing in a couple of transfers plus the growth of some of the younger players should help with the first two...either by putting pressure on the returning guys to do better, or by beating them out for starting positions. As for the 3rd possibility, we’ve hired a new defensive coordinator/secondary coach, Tony Grantham. Grantham has a fairly impressive resume, so hopefully he can get the guys defending better.
Last year we were 120th out of 122 FCS teams in passing yards allowed...something had to change, and regardless of how it all shakes out this season, changes have been made and issues from last year have been addressed.