Three ‘freaks’ and a battle royale for four safety spots in Travis Fisher’s secondary | Football

Maturity — that’s what new Nebraska cornerback Tommi Hill needs, according to his position coach. If Hill grows up in Husker training camp, NU defensive backs coach Travis Fisher can predict where Hill’s career is headed.

“He’s going to be an NFL player if he don’t mess it up,” Fisher said on Husker Sports Radio on Thursday night. “It’s one thing to say those types of things about kids before they actually put the work in, but just the potential I see in him — with his movement skills — he’s just got to put the total package together to be that guy.”

Fisher called Hill, a 6-foot, 200-pound Arizona State transfer, an athletic “freak” who beats himself up too much after a bad play. Competitors are like that, Fisher intimated, but college football moves just too fast in an era of no-huddle offenses for Hill, or any other DB, to get stuck in their feelings.

“That’s why Myles Farmer and Quinton Newsome are so important in the secondary,” Fisher said of his two returning starters from the Atlanta area. “Because they can help out so much with that — getting guys like Tommi, with that kind of skill, to have the mindset of guys who have been here.”

Fisher said Newsome, 6-1, 180, will get pushed at corner by Hill and 6-4, 195-pound Braxton Clark, Fisher said, but it’s clear, both from spring camp and Newsome’s upward trajectory, that his job in NU’s secondary seems secure.

Farmer — 6-3, 200 — may not have that luxury. He appears to be in a competition of at least seven safeties for a four-man rotation on the back end. Fisher said he always wanted the luxury of being able to swap out two tired safeties for two fresh ones.

“Being able to take two out and not lose a step — or even gain a step — it’s what I’m really looking for,” Fisher said. “Especially on this level, at the end of the game where, teams will wear you down, and you need some fresh guys and fresh legs.”

Over the last year, Fisher’s moved from corner to safety both Marques Buford (5-11, 190) and Northern Iowa transfer Omar Brown (6-1, 195) in search of this ideal. They join junior college transfer DeShon Singleton (6-3, 205), Noa Pola-Gates (6-0, 180) and Alabama transfer Kaine Williams (6-2, 200) as the top seven working for four spots.

A fourth-year sophomore, Pola-Gates remains a “step down” from Farmer in terms of reacting on the field and communicating with teammates. Buford successfully cross-trained at corner and safety during his freshman year.

“Guy with an attitude,” Fisher said. “You want to put him somewhere on the field.”

Even if he played at Alabama last season, Williams has to get “acclimated,” Fisher said, to Nebraska, which is no “walk in the park” from a competition standpoint. Williams may play nickel, as well.

Singleton played corner in junior college, began spring camp slowly at safety, but so quickly found his stride by the spring game that Fisher wished Nebraska had 15 more practices for Singleton to get comfortable.

“He looked like a ‘Day 1’ guy playing that position in the spring game,” Fisher said.

Another safety, freshman early enrollee Jaeden Gould, snuck onto the field for a few extra spring game reps in and made plays, Fisher said, after the coach benched him. An eighth safety, Westside graduate Koby Bretz, has battled injuries. A ninth, 6-2, 165-pound freshman Jalil Martin, has been on campus for two weeks and needs to regain the weight he lost during track season. Fisher said Martin’s length and football smarts make him another “freak” in the DB room.

“He can play both positions, and he’s going to be able to play ‘em for a long time here,” said Fisher, who has a tendency to talk up freshmen as a reminder to veterans that their jobs aren’t safe. “I think he’s the next NFL player.”

* Cornerback Javier Morton, like Hill, is a “freak” who needs to mature. Fisher sat down with Morton on Wednesday to tell him as much.

“He’s got muscles everywhere, works out extremely hard,” Fisher said. “Gotta mature. Gotta mature in some areas to help us out this year. And he knows it — we had a talk about it yesterday.”

* Millard South graduate Gage Stenger is currently playing nickel, and is smart beyond his years, Fisher said. Another nickel — Lincoln Southeast graduate Isaac Gifford — has grown more confident and capable.

“He hasn’t been here four, five years but, maturity-wise, he acts like it,” Fisher said of the 6-1, 200-pound Gifford.

* Myriad injuries and medical issues have sidelined nickel Javin Wright since his arrival at Nebraska. Fisher expects Wright (6-5, 215) will be healthy for training camp.

“He’s doing everything the doctors are telling him to do,” Fisher said.