Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Safeties showing promise as the competition heats up
CORAL GABLES — During the last two seasons, it’s been easy for Ephraim Banda to find a pair of starting safeties that not only helped set the tone for the Hurricanes defense on the field, but were difference makers off it, too.
But with Jaquan Johnson and Sheldrick Redwine now on NFL rosters, Banda — Miami’s safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator — has to find players that can try to fill that void.
It likely won’t be an easy task, but early in fall camp, Banda says he’s encouraged by what he’s seen from the likes of Derrick Smith, Robert Hall, former Palm Beach Gardens standouts Gurvan Hall and Amari Carter and freshman newcomer Keontra Smith, a former standout at
Chaminade-Madonna.
That group will only get deeper when former USC safety Bubba Bolden, who is wrapping up the academic requirements needed to transfer, enrolls at Miami in the coming weeks. Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz said he expects Bolden to be on campus and ready to play in time for Miami’s Aug. 24 opener against Florida.
“I truly believe this, this is not coach talk, but I’ve got a four-way fight right now and these kids are getting after it,” Banda
said Thursday after Miami wrapped up its sixth practice. “Every day [Smith] does something good. Then Gurvan does. Then Amari does. Then Rob does. And then all of a sudden, Keontra pops up out of nowhere and does something really well. Then there’s days when they come out there and they don’t do as well.
“What we’re trying to create on Greentree [Practice Field], what we know is the equation to success is pushing these kids to the limit and seeing which one cracks or which one rises to the top.”
For Miami, maintaining the standard created by the likes of Ed Reed and Sean Taylor and recently upheld by Johnson, Redwine, Rayshawn Jenkins and Jamal Carter is a must.
Last season, the Hurricanes led the nation when it came to defending the pass, allowing opponents an average of just 135.6 yards per game. Johnson was Miami’s leading defender with 92 tackles and two interceptions, while Redwine wasn’t far behind with 64 tackles and three interceptions.
None of the four players trying to land one of Miami’s starting jobs or significant time in the rotation were that productive, but each is confident he can be effective and Carter, a junior, is especially embracing his role as one of the veterans in the safeties room.
And he says that even as they’re competing for playing time, he’s forged an especially close bond with Hall, his former high school teammate and roommate.
“I feel like everything we go through here, nothing is easy. You need those people around you. … Everyone is getting closer. Gurvan, that is like my brother. We fight. We’re there for each other when we need one another. It’s just a bond that real brothers have,” said Carter, who played in 12 games last season and registered 12 tackles. “We’re not related, but that’s like my brother on and off the field. …
“When you look at it how you’re supposed to look at it, you’re competing against yourself. You’ve got to come out here every day and be better. If you’re not doing that, then you’re not making the person next to you better. So, if you [take] the day off and I’m stooping down to [your] level, then I’m going to get worse. All of us are going to get worse. It’s not just about competing against each other. It’s competing within yourself to make yourself better and the guys around you better. That’s how a team gets better.”
Added Hall, “We always joke around, but I look up to [Carter] as a big brother. He’s always on me. Like when I do wrong, he’ll always pull me back and lead me to the right direction.”
Given the kind of depth he might have at the position, Banda said Wednesday he has not ruled out a rotation that will distribute playing time equally among Miami’s safeties group.
Yes, starters will have to be named, but he made it clear that what matters to him isn’t necessarily finding who can start, but who can be effective when the Hurricanes need someone to step up in the fourth quarter of a close game.
“I know starting is so important for you guys [the media] and your typing and your clicks and your subscriptions and all that, and I get it. But at the end of the day, you really need to see who’s been into the game, and in the fourth quarter, who’s in the game. A guy has to start, but, at the end of the day, there might be a guy in the next series and that guy might play more,” Banda said. “I know it’s coach talk and it doesn’t sell the papers and everything like that, but that’s our situation.
“If it’s up to us, we’d have 22 starters. I mean, twodeep, now you’re rolling. And you see that with the best teams in the country, right? I mean, they’re rolling kids. You see one kid, next series another kid’s in. That’s how you get great.”