P.J. Smith fighting for time at safety

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Steven M. Sipple: P.J. Smith fighting for time at safety
Be patient. Stay under control.

P.J. Smith hears it all the time from Nebraska football coaches.

“Read my keys, that’s the bottom line,” says the sophomore safety.

Sometimes he tries too hard to make a tackle, he says. He gets too eager. He flashes back to last season, when he played a reserve role. A quarterback would peel out on a bootleg that looked like a run play before it turned into a pass. Smith would mistakenly read it as a run and fire toward the line of scrimmage.

In essence, he would get “sucked in,” he says.

And you know what can happen when a safety bites on a run fake. …

“Oh, shoot,” he often found himself saying (although “shoot” often was actually an expletive).

“Last year I was excited, man,” Smith says. “I just wanted to get down there and make a tackle.”

This season, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Smith seeks to avoid the dreaded “Oh, shoot,” moments.

“The play’s going to come to you if you just do the things that coach asks you to do,” Smith says. “They’re going to put you in the right situations.”

Be patient. Stay under control. Smith reminds himself often these days because Nebraska’s safeties feel a palpable sense of urgency in preseason camp. The Huskers lost two wise and athletic veteran safeties, Matt O’Hanlon and Larry Asante, to graduation. And if the vaunted Husker defense has a vulnerable area, it’s arguably the safety spots.

Smith is among a half-dozen safeties battling for key roles in the defense’s various packages. If you’re looking for a depth chart, forget it, Smith says.

Nebraska secondary coach Marvin Sanders says it’s too early in camp to try to establish a pecking order.

It’s probably safe to say seniors DeJon Gomes and Anthony West, junior Austin Cassidy and Smith are among the top handful of safeties.

“But who’s No. 1, who’s No. 2, I have no idea,” Smith says.

He talks in rapid-fire sentences. He doesn’t sound like a patient sort. So, his inner dialogue persists: Read your keys. Stay under control. Be patient.

They’re words of wisdom for safeties everywhere.

“With the plays our offense is running, though, it’s tough,” Smith says. “They’re starting to do a lot of different things. They try to suck the safeties in a lot. You just have to be patient and stay deep.”

Smith strives to teach true freshmen Corey Cooper and Harvey Jackson what not to do.

As a redshirt freshman last season, Smith says, he didn’t surrender any memorable big plays. But he came close. Against Louisiana-Lafayette, in Nebraska’s 300th sellout, he made a wrong read that left a receiver wide open on a slant pattern. But the wideout dropped the pass.

“If he would’ve caught it, he would’ve gone to the house,” Smith says, smiling.

He can joke about it now. But in a secondary loaded with talent, such mistakes may lead to a quick demotion.

Loaded with talent? I have trouble believing Nebraska’s secondary isn’t among the top five nationally. It features eight players who have made at least one start.

The Huskers last season led the nation in pass-efficiency defense.

“We have four guys — Eric (Hagg), Prince (Amukamara), Alfonzo (Dennard) and Gomes — who are just monsters,” Smith says. “They have all the talent in the world.

“But you know, our D-line is just ridiculous, too, and also our linebackers. …”

Safeties? Check with me a few games into the season. This evaluation may require some patience.
Click to expand...
 
It must be PJ's day for media coverage. Omaha World Herald did an article on PJ as well

OWH

LINCOLN — During his days at John Curtis High School in River Ridge, La., P.J. Smith followed simple instructions when it came to playing safety: stay deep and don't let anyone behind you.

 

When the sophomore safety got his first opportunities for playing time at Nebraska last fall, his goal was even simpler.

 

“I just wanted to get in and make tackles,” Smith said. “I was flying around and playing excited.”

 

That eagerness led to too many situations Smith refers to as ‘‘ah, shoot'' plays.

 

“I'd think a play was a run, and I'd have to stop and go, ‘ah shoot,' and turn back,” he said.

 

Those misguided attempts at big plays often led to bigger problems in film sessions and meetings, and they're not uncommon for young safeties.

 

But that debut year, and the offseason that followed, have proven invaluable to Smith as he competes for a starting spot this fall. He's more disciplined and relaxed than ever.

 

“I've learned a lot about communication and being patient,” he said. “It's now ready-aim-fire, not ready-fire-aim. I know now that if you read your keys, you'll be in the right spot.”

 

Last year, Matt O'Hanlon showed how effective being in the right spot at the right time can be for a safety in Nebraska's defense. Now that Smith is armed with a better knowledge of the scheme and a calmer on-field disposition, he hopes fewer mistakes can land him more playing time this season.

 

He didn't have any major slip-ups in his first year on the field, but Smith still recalls the time he entered the Louisiana-Lafayette game after Larry Asante and Rickey Thenarse went down with injuries.

 

On his first play at safety, two defenders blitzed and Smith excitedly went flying forward with them. His receiver got behind him and cut in on a slant route.

 

“If he had caught it, nobody was stopping him from going to the house,” Smith said with a laugh.

 

But Smith quickly got the hang of things from there and served as one of the top backups at safety. He did eventually get a chance to flash his playmaking ability on his final play in the Holiday Bowl, and he took advantage of it: Smith's blitz and deflection of a fourth-down pass secured NU's 33-0 shutout.

 

He was expected by many to slide into one of the two starting safety spots this season, but Smith is battling Thenarse, DeJon Gomes, Anthony West and Austin Cassidy for the job.

 

And though defensive backs coach Marvin Sanders insists no player is ahead or behind in that race, Smith said he has spent most of his time this fall in dime packages, not the base defense.

 

“I don't know what more he can do,” Sanders said. “He can't put on a cape and fly over somebody. He's got to do what he can.”

 

But Smith embraces that competition, because he knows it forces NU's defensive backs to bring their best every day.

 

“When you mess up, you get worried because you know the guy behind you or beside you is doing better than you,” he said. “You know if you mess up one time, Coach Sanders will tell you to get out.”

 

With that kind of pressure, Smith knows there's no room for any more of his ‘‘ah, shoot'' plays. And that's fine by him.

 

“Those guys make me never want to mess up,” he said, “and I definitely love that.”

 

Contact the writer:

 

444-1201, sports@owh.com

 

 
Yet another reason we'll be just fine at safety this season. PJ is gonna be a solid, consistent player for the Blackshirts, & that's exactly what we need back there. IMO the Gomes-PJ tandem will be extremely dynamic & effective.

 
I'm really excited to see how the safeties preform this year. With the corners we got hopefully their youth will be boosted by the experience in front of them.

 
What, no mention of Thenarse? The guy hits like a freightrain. Two years ago Thenarse had the rep as the big hitter--even more so than Asante.

 
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