Talented secondary improving
Published 6:00 pm Thursday, October 24, 2019
In today’s hectic, fast-paced college football world, LSU head coach Ed Orgeron is “not sure there’s such a thing as a true shutdown cornerback.”
But he said he likes the pair he has in senior Kristian Fulton and true freshman Derek Stingley.
In fact, when you throw in junior safeties Grant Delpit and JaCoby Stevens, it might be as talented a secondary as Orgeron has had at LSU, aka, DBU.
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Delpit is a returning unanimous All-American who was also on The Associated Press’ midseason first team released last week. Stevens is the reigning Southeastern Conference co-defensive player of the week.
But the secondary has been something of a work in progress for the undefeated Tigers (7-0).
“We’ve given up a couple plays and missed a couple tackles that we shouldn’t miss,” Delpit said. “But the last few weeks, we’ve been playing pretty well as a defense as a whole, and we’ll try to carry that into this SEC run that we have going on.”
Delpit, for instance, who was all over the field last year, often as not rushing the passer and wreaking havoc in opposing backfields, spent most of the early part of the season patrolling the deep part of the field.
That’s changing as the season wears on. Last week, for instance, he seemed to be used more like a year ago, often lined up near the line of scrimmage.
He responded with a team-high 11 tackles and was within a whisker of several quarterback sacks.
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Stevens, a talented athlete who was a five-star recruit out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, took some time to find his role on the defense.
“We really wanted him,” Orgeron said. “We felt he could become an excellent player … we had to figure out where we could put him, where he could play best. He got better developed, he got better. The closer to the ball he is, the better he is.”
That was often last week, as Stevens finished with eight tackles, including a sack and a key stop on a Bulldogs’ fourth-down gamble, as well as a leaping, one-handed interception that set up the second of two quick LSU touchdowns just before halftime.
“He’s great in coverage,” Orgeron said. “You saw the interception. But pound for pound, he’s the strongest player on our team. He plays the game the way it ought to be played.”
The corner spots have been interesting. You can usually tell an opponent’s plan pretty early.
As the season has gone on, offenses seem to be picking their poison, one side or the other. One team thinks it can get to Stingley, the next might prefer taking its shots at Fulton.
Against Florida, for instance, the Gators’ plan evidently was to go at Stingley. It worked, to a degree, most notably when he was victimized for four completions on the Gators’ opening drive of the second half, including a touchdown.
But he also came up with arguably the play of the game with an interception in his own end zone that was the defensive stop the Tigers needed to get some breathing room in a 42-28 victory.
Maybe that was why Stingley looked as lonely as the Maytag repairman last week against Mississippi State, when he was never targeted.
In fact, he didn’t have a stat, good or bad, while keeping his receiver under tight wraps.
The Bulldogs’ focus seemed to be on Fulton — and they paid for it, as he came up with one key interception and deflected two other passes that went his way.
“I think Kristian had his best game, obviously,” Orgeron said. “He had that pick (on a) new coverage we ran.
“Guys are going to pick on Derek, they’re going to pick on Kristian. Sometimes they’re going to have not-so-great games, sometimes great games.”
It’s just life in the secondary these days, when, due to the offenses, you almost have to grade on a curve.
“But most of the time they’re going to win their one-on-one matchups,” Orgeron said. “That’s what allows us to go free man-to-man most of the time.”
After using zone defenses much of the first half against Florida, LSU slowed down that budding track meet with more one-on-one coverage in the second half, in which the Gators scored one touchdown.
Mississippi State had 238 yards passing, but 81 of them came in the fourth quarter after the defensive starters had retired for the day.
Auburn at LSU 2:30 p.m., CBS
LSU Tigers safety Grant Delpit (7) gets set to cover Utah State Aggies tight end Caleb Repp (87) at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Saturday, October 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Lake Charles American Press, Kirk Meche)
