Hamlin comfortable as first-unit free safety

in 2017. The player with the inside track, early as it might be, to start alongside him at strong safety is in the same boat.

Phil Campbell, a redshirt sophomore who made his first career start in the season finale against Miami and also saw plenty of action the previous week at Virginia Tech, has a renewed sense of confidence after a quiet first couple years. In fact, he’d fallen so far down the depth chart on defense that in October, he was working with the running backs for a couple weeks.

“It was tough, but I just had to let it go and come out every day and practice,” Campbell said. “I love the coaching staff. Coach Narduzzi, he was always talking to me, he never let me slip away, and he just kept telling me to keep fighting. I believe in him, and they gave me my shot.”

That doesn’t mean Campbell can get comfortable and cruise into the spring game. His main competition comes in the form of redshirt senior Dennis Briggs, who opened last season as the starter during Jordan Whitehead’s suspension, as well as redshirt junior Jazzee Stocker. Campbell’s classmate Therran Coleman has been banged up lately, but he could seemingly end up anywhere in the secondary.

Behind Hamlin is former Central Catholic teammate Bricen Garner, who made six starts last season as a redshirt freshman. Paris Ford is trending toward cornerback, but as Hamlin put it, “he can do whatever; he’s probably the most athletic on the team.”

Superlatives aside, the stable is as deep as it is still unproven. And yet, the players themselves have much more experience with Pitt football than the two men coaching them.

New secondary coach Archie Collins, who’s keeping a closer eye on the cornerbacks, and new safeties coach Cory Sanders are learning the defense in tandem, trying to bring the best out of their defensive backs along the way. Collins essentially replaces secondary coach Renaldo Hill, while Sanders takes over the position group that was previously the focus of former defensive coordinator Josh Conklin.

“It’s been really good. Archie, he’s been coaching DBs forever,” said Sanders, 32, who has just one year of Division I coaching experience from last year at Western Michigan. “I’m a young guy coming about, and he’s been giving me new insight on some stuff, and new ways to do things, different ways to do it. But he’s been a great person to work with. … We do everything together out here.”

Hamlin and Campbell said it helps having specialized assistants for the safeties who were exposed at times last season. Take that Oklahoma State game, the one Hamlin referenced right away. He was inserted to start the second half because the first was such a field day for the Cowboys as they racked up 49 points.

Though Sanders is new to the coaching staff, he sounded like someone who has been well-schooled in what the Panthers need to improve.

“Communication was the big emphasis today,” he said Thursday. “To make sure we’re just communicating from the field safety to the boundary safety, to make sure we’re getting all our checks and we’re on the same page so we’re not giving up any dumb big plays.”

Coaches and players have a little less than six more months to keep tightening up.