Corey Winfield thought he’d been sent back to square one. The wide receiver-turned-cornerback anticipated the new coaches coming in, bringing a new system, new playbook and with it all, a far too familiar challenge.

He had a hard enough time learning the plays when he switched positions two seasons ago. Now, he’d have to do it all over again.

“I was like ‘Damn, I have to start over again,’” Winfield said. “But once we got into it and start practicing it just got easier so. It got easier by the day.”

About a week of practice is all it took to install new head coach Dino Babers’ Tampa 2 defense he brought from Bowling Green. But the success of the defense hinges on more than just learning the plays. The secondary has had to learn new techniques, change their mentality and adapt to scheme usually filled with bigger players than those on SU’s roster.

“We’re adapting to it real well,” Winfield said. “We thought it was going to be hard. When we first came we were like ‘Ah, we don’t know what’s going on.’

“But we learned everything in a week or so and (the coaches) were like ‘We’re done with install.’ We was like ‘What? We’re done with everything?’ That’s it so. It’s pretty easy.”

The Tampa 2 defense is a zone coverage scheme where two cornerbacks are responsible for about one-quarter of the field on either sideline and two safeties are in control of deep halves, with the middle linebacker dropping back into coverage to fill in the middle.

Winfield hardly knew anything about the Tampa 2 defense, so he didn’t know what to expect. But safety Chauncey Scissum watched videos of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden talking about the defense.

 

“It was kind of like taking yourself out of play sometimes,” Winfield said of back pedaling. “But now it’s like you’re always in the play.”

The corners can sit back in their zones and read the quarterback to anticipate where he’ll throw the ball. It’s made Winfield play patient and try to play the game “slow and fast at the same time.”

Syracuse’s cornerbacks will have more chances to jump routes along the sideline, Dowels said. But they also have to knock receivers off their routes before they get to the safeties. If multiple receivers flood into one of the safeties’ zones, the corner has to adjust and help.

“We got to trust our brothers down there at the corner,” Scissum said.

The corners play a large role in the Tampa 2’s run defense, keeping rushers inside. If they see certain keys from the offense, they can blitz for a tackle for a loss or sack.

The safety on the blitzing corner’s side will then often shift over to fill the gap.

“We’re definitely going to blitz,” Winfield said. “… There are times where you can just trigger and go, or just chill, so it’s going to be fun.”

Playing so deep gives the safeties more chances to make big open field hits, but also puts more pressure on them to make open field tackles. It’s required a bit of a change in mentality from the safeties, Scissum said, to being more focused on tackles.

The coaching staff has been showing the secondary film from Bowling Green and film of themselves.

Winfield noticed that he had been biting inside on plays he was supposed to be staying out and was able to correct it.

“That’s how we get better,” Winfield said. “We can watch film on somebody else, but you can’t really put it on the field if you’re just watching them.”

The Tampa 2 usually requires big players in the secondary that can hit. But only Scissum of the safeties and Winfield and of the cornerbacks are above average in size.

Safety Antwan Cordy stands at just 5-foot-8 and Dowels is only 5-foot-10. Head coach Dino Babers said he’s seen smaller guys pull it off before. Dowels said size doesn’t matter, but being physical does.

“I play big into what I am and I think that’s good and the coaches see it,” Dowels said.

The coaches have put more of an emphasis on several different tackling drills compared to past years, Dowels said.

Despite the challenges of new techniques and figuring out how SU’s small secondary players fit into a defense meant for bigger players, Winfield isn’t worried. He said the group is learning well and won’t roll over for any shootouts expected with the new offense.

“Running the Tampa 2, it don’t get no better than that,” Winfield said. “Just running it. If we run it, we’re going to make the plays.”

Published on April 1, 2016 at 1:24 am

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus