Recruiting. It’s 50/50 in college football, and this is half the game. I think that the systemic problems we have been chronically suffering from in the secondary are, in addition to lack of schematic diversity, creativity, and fundamental technique, also attributed to some serious square peg in round hole recruiting.

Take these previous two classes, for example. We have a prototypical FS prospect. 6’1, 200 lbs, runs a 4.4. Hits hard, has flexible hips. What do we do with Harley? Convert him into a CB, of course. Haven’t we seen this before? Ahem, Jamie Robinson. Lets let Harley “start off at corner” like Jamie did, and eventually realize that Oh! he shoulda played FS all along. Too late, he’s got one year left to learn, experiment, error, and improve. All in a year.

Myron isn’t a deep safety. He’s a 4th LB. He’s good enough in coverage to take a TE or back, and good enough at hitting to play up. But not exceptional enough in either to be a LB or a Safety. He’s the perfect tweener, the guys NFL scouts go crazy for. Scouts love his diversity, and will have enough schematic creativity to implement him correctly. Something lacking in our defense.

I fear that same blunder is gonna repeat itself in Moody.

We recruit safeties and make them play corner. Then we recruit linebackers and make them play safety. We skip out on true corners citing lack of size or speed (*cough Alphonso Smith) or Janoris Jenkins (happens to be starting for UF freshman year)

The recruiting there just isn’t efficient or smooth. There’s no consistency. He’s searching for that next athletic freek, that next Cro or Deion, that makes his defense work. In the process, he skips over real football players, that when coached and implemented in a creative, cohesive scheme, give you WAKE or BC or VT.

A really good poster on the rivals FSU site (is TomahawkNation as anal with regards to reference to competing websites as they are?) believes Downs has the potential to be a very special player on defense. An immediate impact type of guy. He’d be very good at WR as well. The question with him is, where is he going to have the most relative impact? That is, the biggest contribution with regards to the team and his position? I think it’s safety.

With the propensity that Jimbo has shown to rotate WRs in and out, and the players we’ve recruited there that would fit Downs’ mold (an outside guy) he would definitely make an impact, but it would be lessoned by all the other guys also making an impact. Like Haulstead, who was Dawsey and Jimbo’s #1 target at WR. Or Rodney Smith, who’s underrated and could be a better Carr. And Xavier Rhodes, who has a great frame and a good high school pedigree (Dwayne Bowe). Not to mention the players currently on the team. Commack, Fortson, Gehres…

At Safety, it would be him, Harley (I hope) and Starling (please please please). I have no confidence in any of our returning safeties, assuming Parks stays at corner (he’s got the hips, just has to work through the stiffness).

So we’d look a lot like Texas does now. 3 or 4 very good prospects. Harley at FS, Starling naturally at SS (but more of a true SS, not this proto half LB half safety thing that the rover at FSU has become) and Downs at either. We have depth and competition. Downs has a more expedient route to playing time there, and a more direct influence on the game (there are only two safeties, while we play 3 and 4 wide a lot of the time)

Now, you add Brinson back at Corner (who is a Janoris Jenkins clone), Terrance Parks, Allen, PRob—more than likely coming back, especially after last night’s flag fest on national TV, maybe Xavier Rhodes, AJ Alexander (some report he’s got the hips and flexibility to play corner, we know he has the speed)

Texas and UF have shown that you don’t necessarily need tons of experience on defense, due to the nature of how a good defense is played..as a cohesive unit. You mask the deficicincies and accentuate the strengths with creative scheme, instead of expecting perfect play to make your vanilla man to man or all out blitz or outside technique when the other team has thrown slants while you vacate the middle….ugh

If we get a good DC, a DC that is a coach and schemer first, not a recruiter, we’ll be fine. But we don’t have much time. With each passing year, we become less and less FSU in the eyes of potential recruits. If that image is any more tarnished, we’re going to be forced to sell out and go for recruiters before coaches, and we’ve seen how that works out (Clemson)