Seriously. Not even saying that he’d play as a freshman, but where the depth at safety currently is, this is tough. Injuries and weird shit happen to college kids. The team who overcomes the most due to depth are the best teams with Clemson losing Dexter Lawrence for the playoff and Ohio State winning a Rose Bowl without the presumed number 1 overall pick.
Julius Irvin is really special because he can cover like an abovee average corner & if we played him & developed him at corner he’d be at the caliber Sidney Jones was. The amazing thing about him at safety will be his ability to move around in coverage & do different things playing “robber” techniques much more like Budda rather than Rapp. Rapp did a lot of that stuff this year but not in so much press and in the slot. I like Mckinney despite his tough Rose Bowl performance but I’d compare Mckinney to Jojo where he needs help out there and good guys around him to take pressure off him, while lacking the ceiling and big play making ability the two guys we recruited in front of him did. (Isaiah Pola-Mao, Chaz Ah You). Yes, Even Jimmy can recruit better.
Where Rapp is special is blitzing off the edge or delayed up the middle, supporting the run by saving BBK’s ass and never allowing a 40 yard run in his career, but his coverage was more of a seem “robber” technique, hide behind and get to TE’s, and share the deep half with Jojo. But Rapp actually played more of what people would call a Strong Safety with Jojo playing way more snaps at free despite his being known for being slower.
That’s where Asa hurts and with Jimmy Lake recruiting an in-fucking-real amount of versatile DB’s who can do it all, Asa is a loss much similar to Kaho in that because the rest of the defensive class is so fucking good it won’t hurt the overall direction but because of the fit and need, it hurts the overall ceiling when injuries or other shit happen in big time games. You get Pola Mao, Mckinney doesn’t go in, who knows if Cam Williams gets hurt in the eventual natty if Asa Turner would be better than Jayden Williams.