By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
Baylor football’s safety room will look as different as it possibly can when the 2023 season rolls around.
Not only did the position group lose two of its three starters, but former safeties coach Ronnie Wheat was fired in early December 2022. New defensive coordinator and safeties coach Matt Powledge has stepped in and leads a group that only returns three safeties from the 2022 depth chart, which included nine players.
Powledge has been preaching a “relentless effort” mindset to his defense since his arrival, and he said the safeties specifically have done a good job of demonstrating that on the field.
“We’ve done a good job of attacking the ball,” Powledge said. “I think there have been guys that not only understand what their job is but they’re starting to understand where their help is.”
That “help,” he said, is something the 2021 Baylor team knew to a “T.” Powledge was the safeties and special teams coach during that historic year when the Bears won a program-best 12 games.
Now back in Waco, Powledge said he wants to shift the identity of this new group to what it was like in 2021.
“We want people to turn on the film on Sundays when they’re playing us that next Saturday and say, ‘Holy cow, these guys played balls to the wall, like their hair’s on fire,’” Powledge said.
Powledge’s specific position corps, the safeties, is entering a new era with a lot of fresh faces in the room. The only returning natural safeties that saw the field are redshirt sophomore safety Devin Lemear and sophomore safety Alfonzo Allen.
Notable losses include Al Walcott (transferred to the University of Arkansas), Devin Neal (transferred to the University of Louisville), Christian Morgan (graduation), Mike Harris (entered the transfer portal on Dec. 29, 2022) and Byron Hanspard Jr. (graduation).
Seventh-year senior safety Bryson Jackson made the switch to the STAR position for spring camp. The addition of Jackson to the room bolsters it a little bit, and redshirt junior safety AJ McCarty also made a position change from being a cornerback last season.
Despite so many new names entering the room, McCarty said this group has the potential to be better than what last year’s squad produced.
“It leads us toward a higher ceiling because we have experience,” McCarty said. “We played last year, we know how it feels on the field instead of this being our first year about to play. … Having a year under your belt, I honestly feel like you can go out there and be more calm and be yourself, and you don’t have to think as much.”
Opponents averaged nearly 223 yards passing per game, and the Bears’ defense let up 17 touchdowns through the air. Teams also scored over 26 points per game on the 2022 defense, compared to a little more than 18 points per game in 2021.
The main thing Powledge is bringing back from 2021 is press coverage with the cornerbacks. Since Powledge oversees the entire defense, he wants those defensive backs to line up directly opposite of the wide receivers and jam them off their release.
Powledge said this can be “a tool in our bag” for the entire group, including the safeties.
“We want to get up in people’s faces and really challenge them at the line of scrimmage,” Powledge said. “Is that going to be who we are all the time? I can’t really tell you that right now. But I do think for us, it’s an area we want to improve on. We want to be tighter in coverage and we want to take away the windows for the quarterback. We want to apply some pressure, and then all of a sudden you get rush and coverage working together.”
Lemear started at safety in all 13 games last season and was named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention by the league coaches. He also earned votes for Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year. Other than Lemear, Jackson, McCarty and Allen have the most returning experience in terms of seeing action on the gridiron.
Jackson and McCarty both said they feel more natural at the safety position, rather than their respective roles in previous years. In terms of the transition for Jackson, he said “it’s going well” and that the room is in good hands with Powledge at the helm.
“It’s a lot of just attention to detail and focus that goes into it, and [we] couldn’t be more proud to be with Coach Powledge,” Jackson said. “He’s just been so detailed and intentional in meetings and every day, so that keeps all the guys in there locked in, and questions are always flying. He’s able to answer them and apply them to film.”
