At a position where tackling is imperative, senior corner, D.J. Hayden said the secondary takes pride in themselves as two dimensional players.
“We pride ourselves on being able to tackle and cover because that’s what we have to do,” Hayden said. “That’s what we have to do to help our defense out (and) help our team.”
Tackling was not always the Cougars’ strong suit however. After UH struggled to make tackles in the first two games, head coach Tony Levine said he experimented with different combinations in the secondary.
“What we’ve seen out of the secondary the last few weeks is improved tackling. They’ve been physical, they set the edge better, and Saturday when Rice was throwing the ball we did not do a good job of covering the ball,” Levine said. “They had some great hits on Saturday, and they weren’t all from our linebackers, many were from our smaller defensive backs as well.”
Levine threw freshman defensive back Trevon Stewart into the fire at free safety against UCLA — a position he had not played before — after making seven tackles at nickleback against Louisiana Tech.
Stewart took over for junior defensive back, Kent Brooks, who opened the season as starting free safety.
Junior defensive back Colton Valencia has taken over for senior defensive back Chris Cermin who is now second on the depth chart at strong safety, four weeks into the season.
Levine said the squad is coming along.
“Our secondary is meshing together well. Part of that is based a little from trying to find the right combination back there. Trevon Stewart is a good example of that, moving from corner down to safety,” Levine said. “Colton Valencia, who was a special teams guy, is now a starter. Thomas Bates, also a special teams guy, is now working in the rotation at corner. I feel good about our mix right now back there.”
With the addition of Valencia and Stewart into the lineup, the Cougars are still not where they want to be. The team is 88th in the nation in pass efficiency defense, allowing opponents a rating of 139.6. UH is also 105th in pass defense out of 120 schools.
The secondary, self-coined as the The Jackboyz, had their best performance of the season against Rice. The Owl’s quarterback redshirt freshman Driphus Jackson finished 17-35, throwing for 272 yards.
If not for an 88-yard touchdown pass UH could have held Jackson under 200 yards passing.
Hayden said the secondary is a close group whose mix of veterans and young players came together in the summer.
“When they first came in and we used to have 7-on-7s, we got a feel for them and we just bonded,” Hayden said. “We talk trash to the younger guys a little bit and give them a hard time, but they’re cool.”
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