Spring Breakdown: The Secondary

April 28, 2020 | Football

By: by Tyler Traylor

Bowling Green, Ohio - Throughout the spring, former BGSU tight end Tyler Traylor will break down each position for the 2020 football program. Today's installment will focus on the defensive backs.

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Spring Breakdown: The Quarterbacks
Spring Breakdown: The Defensive Line
Spring Breakdown: The Offensive Line
Spring Breakdown: The Wide Receivers
Spring Breakdown: The Linebackers
Spring Breakdown: The Running Backs

Bowling Green, Ohio – A unit that saw as many as three true freshmen start at times a year ago, the Bowling Green State University secondary should benefit in 2020 from the opportunities of a year ago. While the group is still young, there is experience to be found, especially from redshirt senior Jerry McBride III, junior Caleb Biggers and sophomore Jordan Anderson.

McBride is returning to the Falcons for his final season, after missing most of 2019 due to injury. In 2018, he posted 106 tackles and was a big play threat with two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and 50 yards in fumble return yards. He enters 2020 with 36 career games played and 18 career starts.

Biggers is also an experienced safety, recording 39 tackles last year for the Falcons. Against Central Michigan, Biggers tied the school record with a 100-yard fumble recovery, which he returned for a touchdown. He has added 14 career starts for the Falcons.

"The safeties have had a solid winter in the weight room and in the meeting room." Safeties Coach Jacob Schoonover said. "We have added strength from top to bottom and our content knowledge of the defense has improved greatly. We have a hungry group right now that sees playing time up for grabs. This summer will be invaluable to continue to learn this defense and to become problem solvers and field generals in the back end. Knowledge equals confidence and we need a little bit more of both between now and week one."

Anderson may have the most experience among the returning cornerbacks with 51 tackles in 2019 after starting seven games as a true freshman. Redshirt senior Ty Redding (33 career games, one career start) and redshirt freshman Davin Wilson (four games played, three starts) add to the experience and depth.

"We have a good group of young players who got valuable experience last year." Cornerbacks Coach Eric Lewis said. "Our biggest goal between now and the fall is simply to improve on our fundamentals and our communication as a group. Those two things will allow us to make many more plays on the ball as well as to help us eliminate explosive plays by our opponents."

Redshirt junior Cedric Mitchell adds experience with 21 career games under his belt and fellow redshirt junior Sy Dabney played 10 games a year ago. Redshirt senior Rodell Rahmaan is a converted wide receiver who caught two passes in 2019. A host of other Falcons add depth including redshirt freshmen Avi McGary, Davion Daniels, Hafiz Igiekhume and Patrick Day, along with redshirt sophomore Xander Spikes.

True freshman Myles Williamson was an early enrollee and the Falcons have other true freshmen starting in the fall, including Elijah Eberhardt, Deshawn Jones Jr., Marcus Sheppard and Trent Simms.