By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – A candy store is a good place to mix and match. A few chocolate covered peanuts, some gummy bears, a couple of caramel chews and you have a nice selection that will satisfy.
On the other hand, a defensive secondary isn’t ideal for a coaching staff to be mixing and matching, looking for the proper alignment. It’s an especially difficult task with the opening game of the season – against a potent University of Houston offense, no less – just 17 days away.
But Tennessee Tech’s coaching staff has been doing just that over the first two weeks of fall camp, looking to find proper replacements following some huge losses. Veteran coach Watson Brown feels that they’ve finally settled on a winning combination.
“The secondary is not a good place to be inexperienced,” Brown said. “We’ve been playing with the same guys around her a long time. We’re now learning just how good we’ve had it with Marty Jones, Austin Tallant and Cory Webber. Honestly, we’ve taken things for granted. We’ve had those guys forever.”
Not any more, and Brown and the defensive staff have been trying to find a lineup to go against Houston on Sept. 5.
“Safeties are so important,” Brown said. “What we’ve tried to do in the second week of preseason is put our older guys up first. We’ve moved them around a little bit, but I think we’ve got it the way we want it.”
The way includes several players in the secondary in new positions, players who have seen plenty of playing time and Brown hopes that experience translates into a cohesive unit. Jimmy Laughlin has moved from rover to free safety, Stephen Bush has moved from runningback to strong safety, and Bill Dillard has moved from cornerback to rover. Dillard’s move has lifted Demario Donnell onto the first unit at one corner, while Maleek Hall mans the other corner.
“Dillard played rover his sophomore year, so he’s had experience there,” Brown said. “Jimmy has moved to Marty Jones’ position at free safety. The best tackler on our team needs to be sitting back there, and that’s Jimmy.
“We’ve got older guys back there, again,” Brown said.
Laughlin, who ranked seventh on the team a year ago with 45 total tackles, is third in that category among the returnees behind linebackers Jay Rudwall and Trey Thompson. He hasn’t hesitated in taking on a greater leadership role in his senior season.
“Guys like Marty and Austin are hard to replace. We have some really big shoes to fill, but the guys that are coming in are just as skilled, if not even more skilled,” said Laughlin, a 6-3 senior from Vestavia, Ala. “The main thing right now is knowing where to be, being in the right place, which is what those (graduated) guys were so good at doing. It will come with time. By the time the first game comes, we should be solid.”
Brown feels that the shifting is complete.
“I think we now have them in the right places,” he said. “This just needs to mesh. We have some really good young ones behind them, but I think the older guys can hold them off because of their experience. I feel a lot better about it now than I did two weeks ago.”
To be making these moves so close to the start of the season is a concern for Brown, but nothing he hasn’t worked through in his long coaching career.
“Yes, it’s a little bit of a concern, but it happens. We just haven’t had to do it in so long. I feel better now that we have an older guy at each position, and have really good talent behind them, so if it comes on, we’re on our way,” Brown said.
“Three of the five are seniors (Bush, Laughlin and Donnell),” he said. “We’re back to a secondary to go out there against Houston that has played a lot of football. They’ve been around awhile.”
Laughlin has been a model of consistency while playing in 33 career games over his first three seasons. He made 40 tackles as a freshman, 41 as a sophomore and 45 last year. He’s part of a secondary that heads into the season with 148 combined games played between them.
“The main thing the coaches have done right now is just put experience out there,” Laughlin said. “Guys who have played. They want experience back there, especially because we have a lot of young guys at those positions. We’ll be able to coach them up and get them on the right path.”
A couple of the “younger” guys expected to bolster the secondary are Keith Flanigan and Johnnie Anderson. Flanigan is a sophomore from Atlanta who has played in 11 games a year ago. Anderson is a redshirt freshman from Athens, Ala.
“Keith is a competitor, that’s the best way to describe him,” Laughlin said. “He’s one of the hardest workers out there. When his times comes, you’ll be calling his name a lot. I’m excited about what he will be able to do.”
Anderson got similar praise from Laughlin.
“Same thing with Johnnie. He hasn’t had the experience, but when he gets in there…” Laughlin said, shaking his head. “He’s learning the defense and when he gets it down, he’s going to be a force to reckon with.”
In addition, the Golden Eagles boast a handful of promising yong players on the corners, according to Brown.
“We’ve got three freshman corners that we think are going to be really good,” he said, naming Anthony Flemister from Chattanooga, Dante Rudolph from Gadsden, Ala., and Josh Cunningham from Murfreesboro, Tenn. “It’s just a question of how quick they come on, because we’ll play them. They’re catching up to the older guys. Those three are really going to be good players, so it’s just a question of how quick they do it.”
Hopefully pretty quickly, considering the gauntlet facing the Golden Eagles in the first four weeks of the 2015 season.
“The first four games will really be a test,” Brown said. “Houston is really fast. Then we turn around and go to Wofford, which is a completely different style, a wishbone. Then we’ve got to go to Mercer, which is totally different again, and next we go to Murray State, which is pass it on every down. Our secondary will look at four different things over the first four weeks.”
For those young players, school is in session.
“We thought we better mature ourselves at the start,” Brown said. “The secondary is not a good place for school to be in session.”
Photo above, from left: Jimmy Laughlin, Keith Flanigan and Johnnie Anderson complete a running session after Wednesday's practice.
