A proud former defensive back himself, Lance Guidry prefers a certain mold to the recruits he targets to play that position.
Guidry avoids players who are pigeonholed as “safety-type guys.” He wants his backers as athletic as possible and, he says, safety-type guys are hard to gauge. Can they move side to side well? Are they multitalented enough to rotate to other positions in the Cowboys’ five-defensive back scheme?
“If you get them and they don’t work out,” the second-year McNeese State coach said Wednesday, “you have to move them to linebacker.”
Guidry’s first full recruiting class at the helm of his alma mater, one littered with defensive talent, targeted one pure linebacker — Welsh’s Garrick Gray — a man Guidry labeled a “really, really violent hitter.”
The four other defensive backs who signed are versatile beings. Some were two-way high school players. Others dabbled in different sports.
All were recruited to McNeese for a sole reason: to bolster glaring depth issues at cornerback and looming graduations at nickel and buck safety.
“We looked at the depth chart, looked at what we were losing, what was coming back. We don’t have enough corners in our program,” Guidry said. “We’re trying to create depth with young guys and bring them along and learn from the older guys, but we’re going to ask them to come in and play early, no doubt.”
Khalil Thomas’ graduation leaves only Jermaine Antoine, Calum Foster, Darion Dunn and Colby Burton at cornerback. Antoine is a rising senior. Burton started at points last season but Guidry said the true freshman “lost some confidence” after being beat on a couple passes.
Hanif Muhammad and Colby Richardson will soon slide into the mix, both standing 6 feet or taller with more length at the position than either Thomas or Antoine (who is 5-11) possessed.
Muhammad, the class’ lone three-star prospect who remained committed to the Cowboys despite a flurry of Football Bowl Subdivision offers, has a well-chronicled story. Richardson’s recruitment was more subdued, one that began late in the cycle and included overtures from Louisiana-Lafayette and Nicholls State.
“Got great ball skills. I think he’s a steal, I really do,” Guidry said of Richardson, who played quarterback, receiver and cornerback at McMain High School. “He’s a guy that can come in and match up with just about anybody you put in front of him.”
Nickel is, perhaps, more dire. Dominique Hill and Josh Washington are entering their last season, forcing Guidry and his staff to “get guys in there that are ready to play.”
Guidry singled out three signees — Enos Lewis, Kordell Williams and Cory McCoy — as nickel possibilities, bearing in mind their ability to jump from position to position and their varied backgrounds in high school.
Williams, a renowned wrestler at Carencro who placed sixth in the 2016 state tournament, will begin at the nickel and Guidry left the possibility of moving him to safety. McCoy is the third-leading rusher in Leesville High School history and a hurdler whom Guidry said could switch sides of the ball if it is required.
And what of Lewis, a 5-10 high school linebacker whom McNeese tight ends coach Paul Marin discovered in Florida?
“(Marin) brought back the video and he is probably the most natural defensive football player I’ve seen in awhile,” Guidry said. “He’s going to play the buck safety for us. He played linebacker, wasn’t very big at linebacker, but somebody forgot to tell him that he was too small, because he don’t play that way. Really excited to get this kid; he plays the game the right way.”
Projecting whether any will make immediate impacts upon arrival to Lake Charles in August is an inexact science. Guidry can pore over film and laud measurables, but even he reminds that no one can project how these players will translate to college football and the potpourri of social and academic responsibilities that surround it.
“I know we got a bunch of good athletes, but it’s open competition,” Guidry said. “All the guys I used to work for said ‘You’re not going to win with the freshmen you sign, you’re going to win with the team you have in the offseason.’”
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