re: 2014 Recruiting Discussion

Thinking about the safety situation:

In December we expected to sign two freshmen safeties and yet toyed with the idea of signing a JUCO in Iloka. We ultimately decided to pass because we were in good shape with 2 elite safeties. Then (literally 2 days later), Yates left and we had a huge hole.

I must have asked about our safety situation once a week and every single time I was told we were going to take 2. Every time. And then in the end we took just the one even after last night I was told we called our backup and said sorry, not going to happen (I don't know who it was). We fricked up somewhere. There's really no way to hide that.

We have bodies for '14 but here is our safety situation for '15 as of now:

Burns (Senior) - has not played a snap of defense in 3 years on campus. I honestly figured he wouldn't even stick around for year 5 though I don't base that on anything other than he doesn't play
Wiggins (Junior) - fans have been trying to spin him to LB since he arrived. Played nothing but STs this year
Miles (Sophomore) - top prospect but injury kept him out
Wilson (Fr/So) - obviously hasn't played yet
Davis (Sophomore) - spent this past fall as a CB. I don't know if he's been moved but you have to think he will be

Safeties generally take time to develop and to this point, our entire set of options at the position have not played a down. Some will develop but it's almost certain some won't. It's just the way things work. It's also a high brow position. It's very rare that you find top JUCO safeties for this reason. We better hope that we have zero injuries in '15 because one injury could be devastating.