Friday, November 5, 2010

Safety position

With the re-addition of George Callender, the New Mexico State Aggies have a nice, little rotation at the safety position.

Alphonso Powell (strong safety) and Donyae Coleman (free safety) are still the respective starters in the defensive backfield.

Still, Callender, who at 22 years old is listed as a freshman, received a good amount of snaps last weekend and gives the Aggies versatility deep.

Callender can spell either Coleman or Powell, or he can come in and allow Coleman to shift down to cover the slot receiver in the nickel.

While Coleman struggled in the role last week, he’ll get better — he’s been a bright spot on the Aggie defense so far this year and is arguably the team’s most gifted athletes.

The group is working well together and should be a strength of the defense down the stretch of the schedule.

“He helps a lot, man,” Coleman said of Callender. “He brings that fire too. George is a really great player. He’s young, he’s fast and he’s a big hitter too. I really like George. That’s like my brother. He helps us a lot, it’s like a three-man circle. We can all get breaks or we can move me down to play the slot and have George or Alphonso at a safety. When we go to base, George is out of the game and I’m at safety. We got a big thing going.”

3 comments:

chilero said...

Our secondary is decent - despite the injuries they've had to overcome. Jonte has improved significantly from where he was the first couple of games and to your point, some others have stepped up beyond Devon.

Unfortunately, they're left exposed more than they should by a putrid pass rush. If we can't get to the USU QB and create some occasional pressure - it'll be a long day again for our secondary.

It ain't easy to cover anyone for 10 seconds or more.

Anonymous said...

Refresh the memory for those of us who arent in LC and don't know what happened to George Callender. What was the re-addition, was he hurt, was he out for another reason?

Anonymous said...

For any other FBS team a 27-20 loss to Utah State would be embarrassing, but I guess it's improvement for NM State. Usually the Aggies get blown out in Logan. It's something I guess. Thank God basketball is here.