The safety positions for the Ole Miss Rebels have a lot of moving parts this spring.
At the rover spot vacated by former senior Trae Elston, sophomore Zedrick Woods is playing, along with junior C.J. Moore.
At free safety, junior C.J. Hampton is the No. 1 option, with junior A.J. Moore also seeing time there along with redshirt freshman Armani Linton.
Zedrick Woods practices tackling during Monday’s practice. (Photo by: Ariel Cobbert)
At the husky position, redshirt freshman Montrell Custis and true freshmen Myles Hartsfield and Greg Eisworth are all competing while senior Tony Conner recovers from knee surgery.
Safeties coach Corey Batoon broke down what he was looking to do with the safety position during the spring.
“We have a couple of guys who have been in the system two or three years,” Batoon said. “They know the terminology, just trying to see where they best fit in the system, and spring is the time to do that.”
Batoon said he was impressed with the progress Custis made during his redshirt season.
“He got in the weight room and changed his body,” Batoon said. “He was a corner body, now you look at him out there and he’s one of our biggest safeties now, so he’s done a great job in the offseason and from an understanding perspective he’s really come along.”
Batoon said he liked the potential he saw from Linton, but recognized that the redshirt freshman still needed time to adjust to the college level.
“I think he’s still trying to feel his way through it,” Batoon said. “As he gets more confidence in himself, he’ll be fine.”
Zedrick Woods saw a lot of time his freshman year with the Rebels, but did not have a set position, playing dimeback, husky, rover and free safety during the season.
Batoon said he saw this as a positive for Woods learning the defense, but the goal was to find which position he could really excel at.
“Very good football I.Q. as a freshman coming in and really just trying to find a place that he feels most comfortable, cause knowledge-wise he knows all four positions,” Batoon said.
Hartsfield also impressed Batoon with his versatility.
“Looks like a guy that’s not out of high school,” Batoon said. “He spent a year in prep school and looks kind of similar to a junior college guy in terms of his maturity. He’s a physical kid.”
Batoon said C.J. Hampton has a chance to really step up and lead the new Ole Miss secondary.
“(Hampton) maybe should have redshirted that freshman year, but we didn’t have the depth that we wanted, so he was able to play, so the benefit of that was he learned the system,” Batoon said. “We haven’t really moved him around to a bunch of other positions so he knows that position. He’s a very good vocal leader out there, he helps those kids get lined up. He’s been great in terms of communication where he’s able to help the guys around him play a little bit better, play a little bit faster.”
– Cody Thomason
