It’s amazing how quickly things can change in college football.
In 2015, IU’s secondary was one of the worst in the Big Ten Conference as it ranked near the bottom in most statistical categories. Two years later, the Hoosiers' secondary is the best unit on the team and will challenge for the best secondary in the Big Ten.
The group has good reason to be confident in its potential this season.
“The sky is the limit if all of us stay focused,” junior safety Jonathan Crawford said. “We’re ready to do big things.”
Senior safety Chase Dutra echoed Crawford's thoughts.
“With the depth we have, the knowledge we have, the playing experience we have, how hard we are working,” Dutra said, “I think we can be the best in the Big Ten. We’re shooting for a top-25 defense in general."
With the return of senior cornerback Rashard Fant, IU has all five starters returning from last year’s secondary. Fant has the potential to be the best cornerback in the Big Ten and a truly imposing lockdown force.
Senior defensive back Tony Fields has played 38 games in his career and started each game last season. Crawford has started all 26 games of his career and had seven takeaways in 2016.
Sophomores Marcelino Ball and A’Shon Riggins played significant snaps as freshmen last season and looked like long-term starters at their positions. Riggins started eight games at cornerback and tallied nine pass breakups, while Ball started in 12 games at the husky position.
Both have the physical traits and the experience to turn into All-Big Ten players this season, but if not, there are plenty of talented players waiting in the wings to take their spots.
Redshirt sophomore Andre Brown Jr. returns at cornerback after missing all of last season with an injury. The season prior, he started eight games as a freshman before getting injured.
Coaches and players alike have raved about how good he has looked.
Add in Dutra, who has 30 career games played, and senior defensive back Ben Bach, who started four times last year and can play multiple positions, and the Hoosiers have eight highly experienced players in the secondary who can be used interchangeably.
This doesn’t even consider the potential impact of some of the younger players in the secondary such as sophomore Kahlil Bryant and freshmen Raheem Layne, LaDamion Hunt and Bryant Fitzgerald.
A lot of the players in the secondary have experience at cornerback, safety and husky. This allows defensive coaches to deploy the players in the most effective ways on each play.
“Well, the great thing about it is it number one, it makes those guys know the position,” cornerbacks coach Brandon Shelby said. "When you have a corner who can play safety and husky and vice versa, they know the weaknesses of the defense and make sure they know how offenses want to attack.”
Safeties coach Noah Joseph says finding interchangeable parts is a key part of IU’s recruiting philosophy.
“We want to recruit corners and guys who can be able to really do three things: they’ve got to be able to play in space, they’ve got to be able to tackle and they’ve got to be able to play the deep ball,” Joseph said.
IU Coach Tom Allen’s 4-2-5 scheme looks to account for the current offensive climate in college football where the spread passing attack has become ubiquitous. The versatility of the secondary also helps pressure the opposing offense because there are no weak points to attack.
With the talent returning and the depth accumulated over the last few seasons, IU’s secondary could progress even further this season and become one of the best in the country.
It should be a “No-Fly Zone” in Bloomington when Ohio State comes to town.
