THE FIELD: 2024 Cornerbacks Preview
THE FIELD: 2024 Cornerbacks Preview
Ranking the CB and nickel groups Nebraska will face this season — and where NU stacks up amongst them
This is the first in a season preview series analyzing and ranking the positional groups of Nebraska’s opponents and Nebraska’s in relation.
All of the other entries can be found here: Running Backs
Nebraska will face one of the tougher cornerback slates this year of any team west of the Mississippi — or, at least, in the school’s recent memory. In addition to the usual elite secondary play NU finds in the Big Ten, in the non-conference, NU will take on a likely top pro draft pick, an underrated Texas small-school star, and one of the nation’s best zone coverage nickels. On the whole, three of the players on this list made an All-America team in 2023, and, by my estimation, at least seven on this list have outside shots at reaching that level this year. Several others are solid bets to hear their names called in a future NFL draft. It’s a gauntlet.
Let’s get to ranking:
13. Northern Iowa
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Fletcher Marshall Jr., fifth-year senior; Robbie Peterson Jr., sixth-year senior
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Albert Nunes, fifth-year senior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Jonathan Cabral-Martin, fourth-year senior; Alonzo Morgan III, second-year sophomore
Projected Reserve Nickel: Tate Sander, third-year sophomore
I hate to start this list picking on the FCS team — and they won’t be last at every position — but UNI’s corner room lost all three of its starters from 2023, with Demarcus Governor and Corry Thomas Jr. graduating and FCS Freshman All-American Dalsean Staley transferring up to San Diego State.
The likely No. 1 option at outside corner is Marshall, who was the top reserve in 2023. His play wasn’t particularly effective and came against non-FBS competition, but he’s the only guy with any real experience in this room (though that was just 154 total snaps). He started his career at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas before transferring to East Carolina in 2022, where he didn’t play much, and then down to the FCS level last year.
The other two spots seem like complete toss-ups. Peterson and Nunes, both incoming single-season senior transfers, were UNI’s starters for the spring game, though those two spots could go several different directions by August. Nunes also started his career at the Kansas junior college level before spending last season at Eastern Kentucky, where he did play about 150 snaps in the slot. He gave up completions at about a 60% clip in coverage but graded out as a solid run defender. Peterson was a two-year starter and all-conference pick for Division III Aurora, in addition to being all-conference in the high jump and triple jump for the Spartans’ track team. He should at least be a good athlete.
Cabral-Martin and Morgan both played in two games last year, but neither topped 60 snaps. UNI’s roster lists 10 more players in the secondary, but none has played yet, so it’s tough to suss out who will see the field at corner. Some will surely factor in as depth.
Information is pretty limited on this group, but based on the lack of experience alone, this should be a group Nebraska is able to exploit.
12. Purdue
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Markevious Brown, fourth-year senior; Nyland Green, fourth-year junior
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Kyndrich Breedlove, fourth-year junior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Botros Alisandro, third-year junior; Salim Turner-Muhammad, sixth-year senior
Projected Reserve Nickel: Derrick Rogers Jr., second-year sophomore
Illinois’ secondary made a huge jump in its second year under Ryan Walters when he was the defensive coordinator. Purdue will hope for a similar jump with Walters as head coach, but the players in this room are either middling or unproven.
Brown returns as a starter but was the worst-graded corner in coverage in the Big Ten last season (and one of the worst overall defensive players to be on the field for more than 200 snaps) per PFF, surrendering 41 catches for 576 yards and five touchdowns. He’s a good run defender, finishing last season with 45 tackles, and did have some ball disruption with two forced fumbles. His numbers in zone coverage are average, but he’s a major liability in one-on-one man situations, giving up 34 catches for 483 yards and four touchdowns in 56 such targets. Which is a problem, as Walters’ scheme led the Big Ten in use of man coverage, at nearly 70% of snaps. Not great!
The other two spots lost their starters, part of a pretty huge exodus of talent from the overall Purdue defense. The staff hit the transfer portal hard for replacements, quietly pulling a mini-Colorado overhaul. One of the biggest gets was Green, a former five-star high school recruit. He’s undeniably talented — he was the No. 19 overall player in the 2021 recruiting class when he committed to Georgia — and Walters is an undeniably good developer of corners, but Green’s also only played about 100 snaps and faced five total targets in three years of college. He’s an imposing physical presence at 6’1 and can move on film, but there’s more to being a good corner.
Purdue also brought in Breedlove to replace departing longtime nickel Cam Allen. Breedlove started his career at Mississippi before transferring last year to play for Deion Sanders at Colorado, then hit the portal again this offseason after barely seeing the field in Boulder. He’s only faced 13 targets in his career and is also, essentially, a complete unknown.
The Boilermakers will have some decent depth. Alisandro and Rogers both played a lot for Purdue last season in reserve roles and could possibly even step in as starters if the transfers don’t live up to expectations. Turner-Muhammad is also experienced, playing over 600 career snaps at Stanford before sitting out last season. None of these guys has a particularly good play profile, but they have at least seen the field at the Power 5 level.
This unit feels like the one with the most variance on this list. On paper, this should be among the worst corner groupings in the Big Ten — and possibly even the Power 5 — but you also could have probably said that about Illinois in 2021 before they broke out under Walters. Green and Breedlove both couldn’t see the field at their previous schools, but there’s also the reasonable explanation that they were in some of the most competitive DB rooms in the country. It’s possible they were good players who were buried behind upperclassmen and Walters turns them into all-conference guys, making this ranking look really stupid. … Or they could have not been playing because they’re bad at football. Right now, this group seems a lot more like athletic potential than actual proven production.
11. UTEP
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: AJ Odums, fourth-year senior; Amier Boyd-Matthews, third-year sophomore
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Josiah Allen, fourth-year senior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Yessman Green, fourth-year senior; Jaylon Shelton, fourth-year junior
Projected Reserve Nickel: Kory Chapman, fourth-year senior
Nebraska’s new-look passing offense will face a good player in the opener in Odums, who grades out as one of the 15 best returning outside corners in college football per PFF. A transfer from New Mexico before the 2023 season, Odums last year allowed only 21 catches for 173 yards in 42 targets while starting every game for the Miners.
His best skill is big-play prevention. UTEP played a lot of Cover 4 and Cover 2 two-high looks last year,1 coverages that ask their corners to drop down the field and read-out route combinations, and Odums is a smooth backpeddler who incorporates his size and feel for when to turn and run to rarely let a route get past him (he’s #1, the corner to the bottom of the screen):
He was especially effective at getting physical with receivers at the top of route stems (also known as “stacking” to keep them from gaining leverage and running past him, something that showed up when he did play press-man coverage (which UTEP rarely employed). Below, Odums (in the slot over the No. 2 receiver) contacts a tight end at the stem of their route, is strong enough to handle the initial impact, and able to turn and run with him downfield. Compare that to the DB next to him in the slot (the starting nickel, Allen) and his technique:
Overall, Odums’ 8.2 yards per catch against finished 10th nationally out of the 263 outside corners to play at least 250 snaps last season.
He also has versatility, playing in the slot and even as a deep middle safety on passing downs and in pressure packages. In a game against Western Kentucky last season, the previous UTEP staff would lock Odums on Malachi Corley — a second-round pick in May’s draft — in passing situations.
Where Odums struggles is with athleticism, which manifests in both his downfield speed and ability to stop and start:
Here, UTEP is in an off Cover 4 shell. Odums (the outside corner at the top of the screen) is responsible to play a deep quarter of the field and lock into man coverage if the receiver threatens him vertically downfield 10 or more yards. Odums’ initial backpedal is good and ensures the route likely won’t get past him deep, but he’s also simply not able to recover fast enough when the receiver breaks off back to the QB on a hook, allowing a completion from the far hash on an RPO. There were several reps on film where Odums struggled to change his momentum to run with routes, both forward and backward or side-to-side. That made him vulnerable to short in-breakers routes and things like curls or comebacks, and made him a liability on deep crossers. When his technique fails him, he’s usually not athletic enough to recover.
He’s also light at 175 pounds and a poor tackler; he showed a willingness to be physical and set the edge but was rarely able to fight through blocks from receivers. Still, despite the athleticism concerns, his instincts, length and technique work give him a chance to be taken in the NFL Draft next year, and he’s probably one of the 10 best outside corners on this list.
UTEP’s other experienced option is Allen, who’s made 16 starts over two years at nickel. Allen is a physical and aggressive player, but he often also played out of control and lacked any sort of instincts or technique in pass coverage. Where Odums was good at contacting receivers in ways that helped him stay on top of routes, when Allen tries it he usually ends up getting rocked and put off balance and needing to recover. The Odums clip I mentioned above is a great example.
He was also wild in his responsibilities in the run game. In all three games I watched (Liberty, Western Kentucky, and UNLV), the offense put their slot receiver (Allen’s assignment) in motion on over half the snaps, moving Allen around and confusing his responsibilities. Of the 223 FBS corners to play at least 200 snaps last year, Allen finished 220th in PFF’s run defense grade. And while he is physical and aggressive, he’s also 5’10 and under 180 pounds, forcing him to dive low at bigger players to get them down. Which led to a lot of major busts:
The outside corner spot opposite Odums will be breaking in a new starter, and Boyd-Matthews — the Miners’ top reserve outside corner last year as a redshirt freshman, who also made one start in 2022 as a true freshman — appears the likely replacement. Boyd-Matthews is the best runner and athlete out of all three, and his frame is tall and lanky, too. But his limited reps in 2023 also show a player who struggled with his responsibilities and technique in pass coverage, and he often got bullied by stronger receivers down the field, with at least a couple examples in the games I saw of him getting boxed out on back-shoulder throws for big gains:
For depth, Green and Shelton are transfers from Jacksonville State and Texas State, respectively, who have logged decent snaps at their previous schools. Chapman played some nickel last year but looks in line to play safety now. The Miners also have several no-experience freshmen DBs on the roster who could factor into the mix.
Overall, the Miners have a good elite player in Odums and either decent experience or athletic potential at the other two spots, plus a couple other bodies with college reps. While Allen is a player NU can exploit and Boyd-Matthews isn’t guaranteed to progress in a bigger role, the room as a whole has more proven quality than at least one Big Ten team NU will face this year.
10. Indiana
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Jamari Sharpe, third-year sophomore; Jamier Johnson, fourth-year junior OR JoJo Johnson, fourth-year junior OR DeAngelo Ponds, second-year sophomore
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Amare Ferrell, second-year sophomore
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Lincoln Murff, second-year freshman; Dontrae Henderson, first-year freshman; Josh Philostin, first-year freshman
Projected Reserve Nickel: Shawn Asbury II, fourth-year senior
The Hoosiers took a hit when starting corner Kobee Minor transferred in April, leaving the room pretty barren for new coach Curt Cignetti. Sharpe is a returning starter, but the other players in the room saw the field for just a combined 160 snaps in 2023, and Cignetti hit the portal pretty hard for replacements (which doesn’t inspire confidence).
Sharpe is the only player I have any real confidence in saying will be in the lineup. Last year as a redshirt freshman, he played 516 snaps across nine starts, and he seemed to have one of the outside corner spots secured from spring practice reporting. He finished 37th out of 48 qualifying starting corners in the Big Ten in coverage grade, but at 6’1 is a lanky athlete, and he put up some promising numbers in man coverage. That’s at least an interesting developmental player who can grow.
The rest of the spots … I couldn’t tell you. Jamier Johnson is a former top 300 recruit who transferred in to the Hoosiers last year from Texas and was the team’s best coverage defender in the first four games before an injury ended his season in a redshirt. He started Indiana’s spring game opposite Sharpe. JoJo Johnson, who previously played at Notre Dame and Iowa Western Community College, was the top reserve outside corner last year and also appeared to be in a real competition for the spot in the spring.
But Ponds transferred in May 5 after spring ball and may now be the front runner. A Freshman All-American last year at James Madison (Cignetti’s former job), Ponds’ statistical profile would immediately make him the best player in the room. He finished seventh nationally among all corners in coverage grade per PFF last year, allowing 259 yards in 434 coverage snaps. He was also one of the most disruptive DBs in the country last year, with 12 forced incompletions and 10 pass break-ups (12th and eighth nationally, respectively). But he’s also listed at 5’9 and 160 pounds, which is a lot harder to survive at in the Big Ten than the Sun Belt, so there are some reasonable doubts on how his game is going to translate. Regardless of how he performs at a higher competition level, he should at least be a solid coverage player who has good demonstrated ball skills.
Nickel also doesn’t have a clear answer. Returnees Nicolas Toomer and Asbury played in the slot a bit last year, but both appeared to have moved to safety full-time in the spring. Ferrell started the spring game after transferring in from Old Dominion in January. He was a physical and productive player in the slot, finishing with 93 tackles and an elite PFF run defense grade, and he had a good profile in zone coverage — just nine catches allowed for 45 yards in 249 snaps — but he’s also undersized and transferring up from the G5 into a league where he’s now going to be at a physical disadvantage.
Beyond those players, there’s no depth, with the rest of the room first- or second-year freshmen.
Overall, Ponds is a unique and interesting player transferring up, and he may just continue being awesome at a higher level. He also could be physically overmatched in ways he wasn’t at JMU and see his production dip. Ferrell seems like a junkyard dog-type of nickel, but I also question what happens when he sees Big Ten athletes at slot receiver and tight end. Sharpe may be a dude down the line, but his play last year was pretty raw, and he still feels project-y. There’s a world where this coalesces into a good unit, but there are still enough questions here it falls behind the rest of the list.
9. USC
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Jacobe Covington, fifth-year senior OR John Humphrey, fifth-year senior OR DeCarlos Nicholson, fifth-year senior
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Jaylin Smith, fourth-year senior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Prophet Brown, fourth-year junior, Macelles Williams, first-year freshman
Projected Reserve Nickel: Christian Pierce, second-year sophomore
USC’s defense was dismal last year, but the secondary play and isolated metrics from the cornerbacks room were actually OK. But the room is also starting over on the outside, as the Trojans lose two starters and will need transfers or depth pieces to continue solid play in bigger roles.
Smith does provide some experience, starting 20 games over the last four seasons, and he’s a good hybrid box player/overhang defender. He’s not elite in coverage, but he’s also not a liability, either, surrendering 255 yards on over 400 coverage snaps last year. He’s largely just a solid run defender and tackler, with his 65 solo stops last season leading the team. He also a weapon as a pass rusher and penetrator, generating 5.5 tackles for a loss and getting seven pressures and a sack in just 19 pass rush attempts. He’s a player who should fit well into the Big Ten.
The outside spots are up for grabs in a three-way race. Covington is a longtime reserve who started last year’s Holiday Bowl and performed well, allowing two catches for 11 yards. He actually finished last season as USC’s highest-graded coverage defender, but he only played 105 snaps on defense, 72 of which came in that bowl game. If he can translate his play in a smaller sample size into a bigger role, he’s likely to earn one of the spots.
The Trojans used the transfer portal to bring in competition, snagging Humphrey from UCLA and Nicholson from Mississippi State. Humphrey started all 12 games on the outside last year for the Bruins (under now-USC coordinator D’Anton Lynn), where he he generated a lot of ball production — with four pass break-ups and two interceptions — but also got cooked for a lot of yardage. Nicholson was a JUCO quarterback who switched to corner as a sophomore before transferring to Mississippi State and starting seven games last year. He was similarly pretty vulnerable in coverage but generated a lot of ball production.
Covington and Nicholson started USC’s spring game (though Humphrey was out with injury, so that might not mean much). All three are 6’2 or taller, so this is going to be a long and lanky group, at worst.
For depth, Brown played 171 snaps as a reserve outside corner last year but was ineffective and seems to be behind the other three candidates. Williams, a true freshman, was buzzy in the spring and may also factor in here by the time NU goes to Los Angeles in November.
Smith is a fun player, but the questions on the outside don’t have proven answers, and the Trojans will also be breaking in a new coordinator. This group could be better the later the season goes on but right now is a bit of a mystery.
8. UCLA
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Devin Kirkwood, fourth-year senior; Jaylin Davies, fourth-year junior
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: K.J. Wallace, sixth-year senior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Bryan Addison, sixth-year senior; Kaylin Moore, fourth-year junior; Kayne Clark, second-year freshman; Jadyn Marshall, third-year sophomore
Reserve Nickel: D.J. Justice, fourth-year junior
The Bruins’ cornerback room had a chance to be elite but suffered a loss when two-year starter Humphrey transferred across town to USC for this sixth season. Still, UCLA is going to return two solid players on the outside who played over 400 snaps in 2023.
Davies was one of the highest-graded run defenders among all outside corners per PFF, but he’s also is a candidate to be the worst coverage defender on this list, surrendering 666 yards2 and 16.2 yards per catch in 12 starts last year, with opposing quarterbacks completing almost 65% of their passes when targeting him. He was especially bad when the Bruins were in zone coverage, surrendering 22 catches or 400 yards on 29 targets while in zone.
But he is a good havoc-causer, forcing an incompletion on 17% of his targets (which would have been eighth among all corners in the Big 10 last year) and leading UCLA with seven pass break-ups. He’ll come up and hit you and has good ball skills, but this is also a player the data says can definitely be had for some yardage. He was also a sophomore first-year starter, so there’s definitely some room for growth there.
Kirkwood, who started three games as a reserve but still played starter-level snaps in 2023, was sort of a mirror image to Davies, rarely letting catches against him go for any yardage but also making few splash plays. At 6’3, Kirkwood is long and lanky, and teams rarely were able to get over the top of him to try anything down the field; the average depth of target on throws against him was 9.8, which would have been eighth in the Big Ten last year. Kirkwood seems like the better player on the outside, but Davies also started over him last year.
UCLA had a hole to fill at nickel in the offseason and brought in Wallace from Georgia Tech in the portal. He made a big improvement in coverage last year in his second season as a starter, cutting his yardage surrendered and targets almost in half. He profiles as a solid coverage man in the slot but was also a poor tackler and graded out bad against the run. At 186 pounds, it’s tough to see that getting better now that he’s in a conference with teams like Michigan.
The Bruins are also going to be in a pinch for depth. Addison and Moore were brought in from Oregon and Cal, respectively, through the portal after playing reserve roles at their previous schools. Otherwise, Clark is the most experienced returning outside corner, playing 44 snaps on defense last year while redshirting, and Marshall and Justice have predominantly seen the field only on special teams. Any of the top three go down and this is a thin group.
UCLA is going to roll out three starters with accumulated starting experience in a Power 5 conference, which normally would rank pretty high. But their play last year was middling, so it’s tough to put them any higher.
7. Illinois
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Tyler Strain, fourth-year junior; Jaheim Clarke, second-year sophomore
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Xavier Scott, third-year junior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Kaleb Patterson, second-year sophomore; Saboor Karriem, second-year sophomore; Chase Canada, second-year sophomore
Projected Reserve Nickel: Tyson Rooks, third-year sophomore
Strain and Scott stepped in as starters in 2023 as the Illini saw a mass exodus of talent from their 2022 secondary to the NFL. Both were good players, but beyond them, the room has been hard hit by the portal, with last year’s No. 1 outside corner Tahveon Nicholson and several depth pieces now playing for new schools.
The coverage data would tell you Scott was one of the worst coverage players in the Big Ten last year, with his 91 targets against leading the conference. But the film showed him being put in a lot of tough spots by the defensive structure, and he finished last season as one of the best nickels in the country last year against the run.
Illinois’ 5-2 defense — the same style installed by Purdue’s Walters during his time in Champaign — typically plays five down defensive lineman, one or two linebacker over the offensive line, and one deep safety 20 yards down the field. That setup routinely leaves the corners and nickels in one-on-one man coverage outside (Purdue and Illinois finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the Big Ten in usage of man coverage last season).
That style is especially hard on nickels, who are typically playing near the hash on cut-down splits and have to defend routes that could potentially break two ways: to the sideline or to the middle of the field.3 A lot of the pass production against Scott — and there was a lot, with him allowing over 663 yards — came either on pick-route actions designed to take advantage of the heavy man coverage or simple two-way option routes. You want someone to defend those well, but allowing yardage on those is also partially a function of the defensive style you’ve elected to play. And when Illinois did want to play two-high coverage, Scott was often the player dropping from near the line of scrimmage into the deep half of the field, which is another very difficult ask:
In the clip above, Scott, running with the motion, is asked to drop from 7 yards into the deep half 20 yards down the field in Tampa 2. Florida Atlantic completes an RPO in front of him (which is a catch PFF credits against him but is really just a borderline impossible ask of any DB). Illinois was having him do this probably 10 to 15 times a game, depending on how worried about getting beaten down the field they were. Scott had a few busts and struggled to stay with hyper-quick receivers in man coverage on film, but this is my long rant saying I don’t think his poor coverage data reflects his actual play.
If you take that away, Scott is a fun player. Despite being small for a Power 5 nickel, at 5’11, 190, he’s pretty much always willing to hit someone bigger than him and never missed a tackle. He finished third nationally in run defense grade for all corners per PFF, and his tape is full of big hits on bigger players:
He finished 2023 with 53 solo tackles and only six missed. He was also a first-year starter in his second year of college; if he’s able to improve the coverage a bit, he could be a top nickel in the conference.
Strain made five starts on the outside in 2023, finishing 22nd in the Big Ten in PFF coverage grade, but I weirdly felt his play was worse than the numbers.
He is undeniably sticky in man, rarely letting cuts or moves get him off balance or making him double back, and he was pretty much impossible to get past if he was able to contact you:
Above, he’s the outside corner to the top of the screen at the start, #20. Illinois is in Cover 1, and playing with outside leverage he’s effective at shutting off a basic route breaking to the inside by getting his hands on the receiver and riding his hip. When he was able to make contact like this, not many got loose against him.
But the times he missed making contact were ugly. Playing off coverage, there were several reps in the two games I watched where he gets beat by wide margins, especially to the inside. He also struggles when in a backpedal, showing poor feel for when to flip his hips and turn and run with a route downfield, leading to him getting beaten a lot over the top. And where I thought Scott was good at identifying route combinations and responding to them (but was just put in a bad position by the defensive structure), Strain was in good position to cut off the myriad pick/wheel man beaters to the outside Illinois saw and rarely recognized them. His feel just seemed off:
Above, Illinois is in the Tampa 2 drop (also a good example of Scott having to drop back into the deep half), with Strain playing outside corner to the top of the screen. His responsibility is to play the flat and drop on anything 10 or so yards down the field. Kansas attacks with a Post-Wheel combination from the receiver and the running back, with a drag route coming from the other side of the formation to the flat. Strain initially runs with the wheel, the correct decision, but keeps dropping down the field with the wheel, even after he identifies the flat route running right into his zone. Ideally, he’d drop the wheel route to come down and close on the flat route. But, instead, he hesitates in no man’s land and ends up covering neither; a pressured throwaway by KU is all that prevents a big gain to the drag.
Still, Strain allowed just 271 yards while playing 250 coverage snaps. But he is gettable.
The other spot is a complete unknown. After Nicholson — Illinois’ top corner last season — left in the transfer portal for Mississippi and then Louisville, the likely replacements in the spring seemed to be rising sophomore Zachary Tobe, last year’s top reserve outside corner, and Elijah Mc-Cantos. But then both Tobe and Mc-Cantos also bailed for the portal in May, really throwing this spot into chaos.
Clarke and Patterson would seem to be the next men up, based simply on having played some defensive snaps last year (32 and 12 snaps, respectively), but really this is going to come down to who emerges from a sizeable group of freshmen and sophomores.
Clarke is a big, tall presence on the outside at 6’1, and played in all games as a special teamer as a true freshman. Patterson was in his first year with the program in 2023 after transferring up from a junior college. He played in four games and redshirted. Canada is in his first year with the program as a JUCO transfer and could also factor in, and at 6’0, 190 has the size to play in the Power 5.
I weirdly felt Scott’s play was better than the PFF numbers would indicate and Strain’s worse. But either way, they were already two decent Big Ten secondary players last year as sophomores who are likely to be even better as juniors. The other outside spot is concerning, but I also trust Illinois reasonably well to develop DBs.
6. Nebraska
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Tommi Hill, fourth-year senior; Blye Hill, second-year sophomore OR Dwight Bootle II, second-year freshman
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Malcolm Hartzog, third-year junior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Jeremiah Charles, second-year freshman; D’Andre Barnes, second-year freshman; Syncere Safeeullah, second-year freshman; Brice Turner, second-year freshman; Mario Buford, first-year freshman
Projected Reserve Nickel: Koby Bretz, fourth-year junior
One of the most under-discussed aspects of Nebraska’s 2023 season was … Tommi Hill became awesome? Like, one-of-the-best-corners-in-the-country awesome?
Hill started last year splitting his snaps between both sides of the ball, then switched to defense full-time around mid-season — and would go on to finish second among all corners in the Big Ten in coverage grade, ahead of guys like Will Johnson from Michigan, Ricardo Hallman from Wisconsin, Cooper DeJean from Iowa, and Denzel Burke from Ohio State. He was both elite at preventing yardage — his 9.7 yards per catch allowed was seventh in the conference and 31st nationally — and was incredibly disruptive, picking off four passes and breaking up six more in fewer than 300 coverage snaps. He also had two additional dropped picks per PFF. Overall, opposing quarterbacks had a 40.8 passer rating when targeting Hill in coverage, the seventh best number in the entire country among all corners.
At 6’1 and with elite movement skills, he finished first in the Big Ten among corners in man coverage grade, but was also adept in zone, finishing fifth. Hill had always been a pretty clearly “different” athlete, but over the last seven or so games of 2023 he married that athletic juice with better route recognition and savvy in coverage. He’s long enough to be able to take on bigger receivers or even tight ends down the field, but also has the movement skills to stay with smaller, quicker guys. With improved nuance to his game in 2023, he was a tough player to go against.
Corner is a volatile position — I’d expect some of the ball production to regress a bit this year — but the things he was good at last year are typically things that hold up year-to-year. If he puts out another good season of tape, it’s not hyperbolic to think he could have the upside of being a top-50 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Hartzog is the most experienced player in the room with 18 starts over the last two seasons, but he seems to be switching positions from outside corner to the nickel position vacated by Omar Brown. After a lightning-in-a-bottle freshman year in which he went from an undersized, unheralded recruit to the starting lineup, Hartzog’s sophomore season was far shakier, as teams consistently targeted him in their gameplans, especially downfield. Hartzog would allow a team-leading 454 yards in coverage (fifth-most of any corner in the Big Ten) and a 64% completion percentage against (11th-worst of any corner in the Big Ten). A huge part of his struggles came against bigger receivers on the outside, as length and height gave him a ton of issues — it’s just hard to survive as an outside corner in the Power 5 at a listed height of 5’9 (though my money would be on 5’7).
A move to the slot would likely insulate him against having to play against bigger, more physical X receiver types and would seem to suit his junkyard dog-style of play better (he was the third-highest graded run defender of any NU starter last season, finishing only behind Nick Henrich and DeShon Singleton). It would also give him more shots at the ball production and havoc he became known for as a freshman, which regressed last year (he led the team with three interceptions as a freshman but had none last year). A move inside will hopefully fit his game better.
The outside spot opposite Tommi Hill, though, remains a pretty glaring question. Blye Hill, an incoming transfer from the FCS’s St. Francis, received solid praise during the spring and seemed to be the favorite to start … until he suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury during the spring game that will reportedly keep him out through fall camp. Ethan Nation, who played in all 12 games last year as a true freshman, also appeared to be a candidate for the spot but is no longer listed on the roster.
That leaves a huge batch of first- and second-year players with little experience needing to fill the role. Bootle seems the most likely bet from what people outside the program know. He seemed on his way to playing a special teams/reserve role as a true freshman alongside Nation until an injury ended his season in a redshirt. There isn’t really any significant data or tape on him to evaluate, but the staff did separate him from the rest of the pack in 2023.
If he’s able to recover by camp, Blye Hill does have a pretty interesting profile. At 6’3, he seems to have the size and athletic measurements to play Big Ten football. His production with the Red Flash was good and bad: In 40 targets against at the FCS level, he allowed just 17 catches, but those catches went for a combined 270 yards and three touchdowns. That could be variance, and he was just a true freshman, but that’s also not quite the dominant profile you want to see of play at a lower level.
There are other options beyond those three. Charles and Turner are both smaller, elite athleticism guys but spent most or all of 2023 playing wide receiver. Safeeullah and Barnes saw zero and one snaps on defense but have a year of practice reps under their belts. NU also signed 10 defensive backs in its most recent recruiting class — including high four-star corner Mario Buford, younger brother of current Husker safety Marques Buford — who could factor into the race.
All these players will get plenty of reps in fall camp with Tommi Hill established and Blye Hill likely out. The staff has thrown numbers at the position, and I do sort of trust one or two players will emerge into being an at least dependable option. Though that’s not a guarantee.
At nickel, Bretz saw the field as the No. 3 at times last year and was a good pass defender in 60 snaps. If one of the young outside corners can’t take the job in fall camp, moving Hartzog back outside and letting Bretz (or another safety) play nickel is probably the break-glass solution.
Overall, NU has one of the best outside corners in the conference and another guy with two years of starting experience who should be playing a role more suited to his skills. But the other outside corner spot is about as big of a glaring liability as exists on this list, which keeps this group from going any higher.
5. Wisconsin
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Ricardo Hallman, fourth-year junior; Nyzier Fourqurean, fifth-year senior
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Austin Brown, third-year junior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Jonas Duclona, second-year sophomore; RJ Delancy, sixth-year senior; Jace Arnold, second-year freshman
Projected Reserve Nickel: Max Lofy, fifth-year senior; Owen Arnett, fourth-year junior
Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell was known at his last job for turning unheralded secondary recruits into elite cover men, helping multiple low-ranked Cincinnati commits like Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner turn into NFL draft picks. Hallman, after rapid improvement under Fickell in his first year with the Badgers, appears to be the latest in that pipeline.
Hallman led all corners nationally with seven interceptions last year, leading to a nod as a third-team All-American. He finished fourth in the conference in coverage grade, surrendering just 32 catches and one touchdown in 64 targets. He’s not a big player, listed at just 5-10 and 180 pounds, but he makes up for with a sticky athleticism.
He’s due to see the interception total pretty wildly regress in 2024 (his seven INTs came on just 10 total pass break-ups per PFF) but the underlying play is solid; it wasn’t necessarily fluky ball production.
Fourqurean4 transferred up to the Badgers from Grand Valley State last season and took over the starting job opposite Hallman by the end of the year, making five starts. He had some low moments — he got picked on in games against Ohio State and LSU, surrendering a combined 13 catches for 149 yards and three touchdowns in 15 targets, but was solid for a player coming up from Division II. At 6’1 and 190 pounds, he also was a good run defender and tackler.
The Badgers will have to replace starter Jason Maitre in the slot, though Brown does have experience, logging nearly 350 snaps and making five starts last year as a reserve safety and nickel. He graded out as average in pretty much all areas last year, though it’s still tough to tell much about his game based on the small sample size.
For reserves, Duclona played in all 12 games last year as a true freshman and appears to be the top depth option on the outside, though the staff did add Delancy from Toledo for depth in the portal. Arnold and Arnett didn’t play on defense last year, and UW also took three freshman corners in its most recent recruiting class, so any one of them could factor in here, as well.
This unit features an elite player in Hallman — though one I think will be less well-regarded when regression keeps him from intercepting 70% of the passes he touches — and another competent player in Fourqurean with upside to improve in his second FBS season. Brown is still a bit of a question mark, but also won’t be totally new out there. And I’d also just expect a Fickell corner room to make a big jump in Year 2.
4. Colorado
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Travis Hunter, third-year junior; DJ McKinney, third-year sophomore
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Preston Hodge, fourth-year senior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Colton Hood, second-year freshman; Ivan Yates, fifth-year senior; Nahmier Robinson, second-year freshman; Nathaniel Watson, second-year sophomore; Braden Kieth, third-year sophomore
Projected Reserve Nickel: Herman Smith III, fourth-year senior
Even the most casual college football fan will be familiar with Hunter, a two-way star who burst onto the national scene last year as a first-team All-American for the Buffaloes after following Deion Sanders up from Jackson State.
Hunter’s outsized reputation as a highlight generator inflates his actual production as a coverage defender a bit — he did surrender 414 yards last year and allow five touchdowns — but his understanding of route concepts and feel for when to freelance, combined with his elite athleticism and burst, makes him one of the best playmaking corners in the country. Especially in short zone coverage, his ability to diagnose what an offense is trying to do and then zip over gum it up allows him to get his hands on a ton of balls, with three picks and five other pass break-ups last year in nine starts:
For all the talk of his flash and media hype, he’s mostly just a good player because he’s really damn smart and prepared. Even if he’s not quite the down-to-down coverage defender as his reputation would indicate (which also probably has something to do with him being gassed from playing 350 snaps as a wide receiver on offense last year), he is just one of the most disruptive and chaos-creating defensive players in the country, full stop.
At the other spots, a lot has been made about the Buffs losing last year’s two top outside corners, former five-star recruits Omarion Cooper and Cormani McClain, to the portal in the offseason. But neither was particularly effective last year, and the portal replacements in McKinney and Hodge seem to represent clear upgrades.
Hodge’s transfer rating was pretty low, but the numbers would say he’s a real dude. He was the second-highest graded overall coverage defender at the Group of 5 level last year (behind recent first-round NFL Draft pick Quinyon Mitchell) while playing in the slot for Liberty, and he was the third-highest graded zone coverage corner nationally in any classification. His numbers at the C-USA level show a player who, like Hunter, got his hands on a lot of balls and caused disruption but could be had for some yardage (he allowed a completion on nearly 60% of his targets against). But most of that yardage came on short completions, as he rarely was credited with giving up big plays. He’s also a solid tackler and, at 200 pounds, is likely big and physical enough to hold up in run defense from the overhang position against Power 5 teams.
McKinney is a bit more of an unknown but is still a promising player. Transferring in from a rotational role at Oklahoma State, his coverage grade and underlying stats very good. But it also came on limited snaps, and he was prone to giving up big plays through missed tackles and run-after-catch. But with a 6’0 frame, good athleticism, and a solid statistical profile, he could be a rising young player if Sanders is able to develop him.
Where the Buffs are hurt is depth. At one point this offseason they had just four corners on the roster. In addition to Hodge and McKinney, they added freshman Auburn transfer Colton Hood and Furman transfer Ivan Yates from the portal, but Hood hasn’t played and Yates was a middling player at the FCS level. Robinson, Watson and Keith are the only other corners on the roster — Robinson and Keith are in-state walk-ons — and none has played a meaningful snap.
Hunter and Hodge are established all-conference players, and if McKinney translates his small-sample-size excellence into a bigger role, this is a pretty unimpeachable top three. But I also think any of these guys get hurt and the Buffs are going to be deep in it. Maybe running off a third of your roster every year is bad?
3. Rutgers
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Robert Longerbeam, fourth-year senior; Eric Rogers, fifth-year senior
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Desmond Igbinosun, fourth-year senior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Zilan Williams, third-year sophomore; Al-Shadee Salaam, fourth-year senior
Projected Reserve Nickel: Bo Mascoe, second-year freshman; Timmy Ward, fourth-year senior
The foundation of Greg Schiano’s second Rutgers’ tenure has been built on the defensive backfield. The program has put several corners into the NFL recently, including 2024 second-round draft pick Max Melton. Even with Melton leaving, the Scarlet Knights should again have one of the best units in the conference.
Longerbeam is a three-year returning starter who’s played 1,588 snaps over his career. He was often thrown at over the last two seasons as teams avoided Melton, but he still allowed little yardage, giving up just 40 catches and 335 yards in 77 targets. His 49.2% completion rate against ranked 10th in the Big Ten last year, and his 8.8 yards per reception against ranked fourth. He should again be one of the best corners in the conference.
Longerbeam’s best skill is his patience. He shows a good ability to recognize what concepts offenses are trying to attack him and clamps down on them, in both man coverage and zone (#7 at the bottom of the screen in both clips):
While he’s exceptionally patient at the stem of routes, he had the best ability of all the corners I saw to hit the gas and close once the receiver declared their route:
He didn’t have a ton of ball production with only one interception, but he also had six other pass break-ups and 7 forced incompletions, so some positive regression in the interception total is probably coming.
Igninosun has started 17 games at nickel over the last two years and is one of the more interesting schematic pieces in the Big Ten. He’s a solid coverage defender, allowing only 119 yards in 24 targets against, and at 6’3, 210 pounds is big enough to play several roles in the defense. Rutgers often moves him around; in the game against Michigan last year, in addition to his regular slot coverage snaps, I saw him aligned as a deep-hash safety, in the box as a de-facto linebacker, and as a 7-tech edge defender in a Bear front where he was pass-rushing against offensive tackles:5
He’s also a weapon on blitzes, as he rushed the passer about four times per game last year and generated eight pressures and four quarterback hurries.
If you’re looking for a weak link, Rogers is new to the starting lineup and unproven. He played a lot and well as a reserve last year in his first year with the Scarlet Knights as a transfer from Northern Illinois, but will be stepping into a bigger role. He’s a physical presence at 6’2, and in the games I saw he played with good technique and stayed on top of routes. The depth is also an issue. Williams, Mascoe and Ward are the only returning players who saw reps last year, but it was a combined 29 snaps in blowouts. If any of the top three guys go down, Rutgers will be rolling out players who haven’t previously seen the field in big moments. For a developmental program, that’s usually not a great sign.
Longerbeam and Igbinosun are about as good a top two as you can find in a cornerbacks room and will push for All-Big Ten honors. Rogers is still largely unproven at the Power Five level, though the profile for success is there, and the lack of any proven backups hurts Rutgers rankings compared with the teams ahead of them on this list.
2. Iowa
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Deshaun Lee, third-year sophomore; Jemari Harris, sixth-year senior
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Sebastian Castro, sixth-year senior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: TJ Hall, third-year junior; Deavin Hilson, fourth-year junior; John Nestor, second-year sophomore
Reserve Nickel: Jaxon Rexroth, fourth-year junior
Castro, for my money, is probably best college player on this list. A starter for most of the past two seasons and a third-team All-American in 2023, he functions as essentially a slimmed-down Will linebacker in Iowa’s defense, blasting receivers in zone coverage on underneath routes and filling hard into the C gaps. But he’s also just extremely good in that role: He finished as PFF’s highest-graded corner in zone coverage last year, allowing just 148 total yards in 362 zone snaps and 49 targets, and was also Iowa’s highest-graded run defender.
His man coverage numbers and tape border on poor, and no one would confuse him with a great athlete, but he’s excellent in his specific role in Iowa’s zone-heavy system. While I think he would struggle to crack a 4.7 if you asked him to run a straight-line 40-yard dash, he’s excellent moving side-to-size while playing those underneath zones and has an elite understanding of his responsibilities and reads and great instincts:
While he’ll give up completions underneath, his real skill is in not letting those catches against him amount to anything: In 72 targets against, he would allow 39 completions, but for only a total of 239 yards. He doesn’t seem great on tape running with routes down the field, but Iowa rarely asked him to and teams rarely tried him when he did, with his 6.8-yad average depth of target finishing 10th nationally among all corners. He finished third nationally last year in yardage allowed per snap out of the slot, and the two players ahead of him faced 30 and 28 targets, meaning he nearly matched their yardage allowed per snap while being challenged almost twice as often.
He also had plenty of ball production, leading the team with three interceptions and being tied for the team lead with seven pass break-ups. Add on that he will fill on runs in the box like an LB and is one of the biggest hitters in college football, and you’ve got a pretty formidable player on the overhang:
But the outside spots do offer more question marks than usual for Iowa’s secondary. Lee made six starts in 2023, including the final four games with Cooper DeJean out of the lineup after an injury. He had a lot of ball production, leading the team in forced incompletions and finishing third in pass break-ups, but majority of those plays came in three games against bad passing offenses (Utah State, Illinois, and Nebraska) and he finished second on the team in yardage allowed while only playing about 250 snaps (nobody else in Iowa’s top eight of yardage allowed played fewer than 400 snaps). Lee does excel in run defense, finishing only slightly behind Castro in PFF grade. It was also his first year playing big snaps, so there’s room for growth here.
But Harris was borderline bad in coverage for much of the season. He gave up the second-most yardage of any Big Ten outside corner in 2023 (behind only Purdue’s Brown) and allowed a completion 62% of the time offenses targeted him, the worst by any Iowa corner, starter or reserve, since 2020. He is an extremely limited athlete for a Power 5 corner, and just lacks any foot speed. That manifested itself in him getting run past down the field a lot (the first clip below; he’s the outside corner to the top of the screen) and needing to play so far off receivers to not get beat downfield that he can’t close and recover on curls and comebacks (the second clip, to the bottom of the screen):
He did get his hands on a lot of balls — with seven forced incompletions and eight pass-breakups, both among the top in the conference — but ball production is often pretty variable year-to-year, and without that his profile showed a guy who was getting targeted by offenses, beat a lot, and for big yardage. It’s worth noting he did spend last season recovering from an undisclosed injury that kept him out for all of 2022, so he could be better another year recovered, but if the ball production regresses, he also could just be the biggest liability at outside corner Iowa has trotted out in some time.
The depth here on paper is pretty poor, as none of these players has logged more than 30 career snaps on defense. But Iowa seems to pull out random good corners from previous unknowns every year, so that’s less of a concern with them.
Castro is an All-America candidate, and Harris and Lee are both, at worse, competent outside corners. But they’re also shakier players at that spot than Iowa has rolled out in at least the last several seasons. This will still probably finish as a top 10 unit nationally — as that’s what Iowa seem to always do — but the team above them has a legit chance to finish No. 1.
1. Ohio State
PROJECTED STARTING OUTSIDE CORNERS: Denzel Burke, fourth-year senior; Davison Igbinosun, third-year junior
PROJECTED STARTING NICKEL: Jordan Hancock, fourth-year junior
Projected Reserve Outside Corners: Jermaine Mathews Jr., second-year sophomore; Calvin Simpson-Hunt, second-year freshman; Aaron Scorr Jr., first-year freshman; Bryce West, first-year freshman
Projected Reserve Nickel: Lorenzo Styles Jr., fourth-year senior; Miles Lockhart, first-year freshman
The Buckeyes return all three starters from one of the country’s best secondaries in 2023, all three of whom are listed in the early rankings for the top 10 cornerbacks in next year’s NFL draft. This is one of the most experienced and talented college secondaries in the last few years.
Burke, being mocked as a top-15 pick in 2025, is the best player in this room and one of the five best outside corners in the country. He’s been a key player for OSU since 2021, when he became the first true freshman corner to start a game for the Buckeyes since 1996. He’s a fluid mover who can stay with almost anyone on the field, causes plenty of havoc with 10 forced incompletions and seven pass break-ups last season, and at 6’1 is able to match up with bigger wideouts.
He’s a bit soft against the run, though, despite having good size. Though I value coverage ability well over run defense from a corner, he’s not going to come up and pop a back on wide zone or anything.
Igbinosun — the brother of Rutgers’ Desmond Igbinosun — was a freshman All-America pick at Mississippi in 2022 before transferring to OSU for his sophomore year. He started all 13 games for the Buckeyes on the outside and played 770 defensive snaps, functioning as sort of the thunder to Burke’s lightning. An elite, hard-hitting run defender on the perimeter, Igbinosun finished ninth nationally among all starting FBS corners last year in run defense grade per PFF, ahead of even Castro. He’s also huge — 6’2 and 195 pounds — and is still a good mover at that size. He did surrender a team-leading 353 yards as a coverage defender and generated little ball-production, but the catches also mostly came on completions underneath and he allowed few big plays and almost no yards after catch. It’s also worth noting he got flagged for pass interference six times last year, the most of any returning Big Ten corner. So: an old-fashioned, physical ball-player.
The most versatile player in the OSU backfield is Hancock, who played 401 snaps in the slot last year and also filled in at outside corner in his first year as a starter. He is best moving downhill, routinely jumping short routes and closing off any additional yardage. His average depth of target allowed against was fourth in the Big Ten last year, and his completion percentage against was only a tick down from Burke’s, too, meaning he was making teams beat him in the short area of the field while also not giving up many completions.
For depth, Matthews Jr. was actually Ohio State’s top-graded cover man in a limited role, allowing just 34 receiving yards against in over 100 coverage snaps. Though when Burke was hurt last year, OSU moved Hancock to outside corner rather than sub in Matthews Jr. Beyond him, there’s little experience, as Simpson-Hunt and Styles Jr. played a combined 26 snaps last year on defense, and the rest of their options will be true freshmen. But all of those guys were high-level recruits.
This is an undeniably pretty loaded group, with all three starters having realistic shots at all-conference honors and being top 50 NFL draft picks this time next year. Plus, some talented guys waiting in the wings should anyone go down. Hard for anyone else to beat that.
Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ve opened the comments up for any questions or discussion on the CB rooms.
The next season preview piece will be on the running backs. These take a lot of research and film watching, but I’m aiming to have it out in a couple of weeks. I won’t be able to break down every position grouping before the season, but the goal is to hit all of the main/most important ones.
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The Miners have a new staff so the scheme/structure may be different in 2024.
If I’m in the UCLA game-ops department I’m making this guy’s nickname “The Devil.”
Outside corners have the sideline to help them, and only have to defend to the inside of the field.
A candidate for this year’s College Football All-Name Team?
Though in the below rep he does blow contain on the QB and allow J.J. McCarthy to run for 30 yards, so maybe that one isn’t the most effective.