Rice transfer J.W. Banks aims to make immediate impact in Rams’ secondary.
Cornerback shores up unit with confidence
FORT COLLINS» First impressions are important, but within the structure of a football program, there can be more than one to judge.
V.J. Banks understood as much coming to Colorado State as a graduate transfer cornerback from Rice. In the summer, he wanted to get to know his teammates as people and as workers. During that phase of the offseason, getting better and proving you can help is paramount. Socially, Banks felt he really had a chance to get to know and understand his teammates.
When practice started, he knew he’d have to reintroduce himself as a player on a mission. The time for worrying about stepping on any toes was long past.
“Especially at the position I play. A lot of it is confidence,” he said. “You have to come in and think you’re the best guy out there, know you’re the best guy out there and play your game.”
It would be a disservice to himself and the Rams if he approached it any other way. His experience at Rice — 22 career starts — makes him the secondmost experienced player on the defense behind linebacker Josh Watson, and it’s a unit that most definitely needs to grow up in a hurry.
In that regard, safety Jordan Fogal — who walked the same path last year coming from Utah — knew he’d be a key addition right away, giving kudos to Banks for handling it all with grace and purpose.
“Obviously, older guys are going to be more comfortable, but there’s seeing things coming into a new program, a new system. You’re going to lose a little bit of confidence, but we picked him up well and had him jelling well with the team,” Fogal said. “His maturity just brought him over the top. (Friday and Saturday) was no comparison, the difference in how he played, the way he was running to the ball. His maturity is the biggest thing.”
Banks joins a secondary woefully short on numbers in the spring, but now there are enough people back there to where corners and safeties can actually get a break after chasing down a long post pattern.
Naturally, the additions are all young, and coach Mike Bobo can already see Banks providing a mentoring service for the likes of Rashad Ajayi and Tywan Francis at corner, even the freshmen safeties.
“There’s a confidence about him when he talks to his coaches and answers questions, and the young guys hear that,” Bobo said. “He’s been a good influence, him and Jordan Fogal, two graduate kids, on those young guys. Those young guys, they’re competing their tails off.”