Iowa safeties seek to play aggressive, not passive

IOWA CITY — Iowa struggled to defend the perimeter in several football games last fall, from a midseason win against Indiana to a pair of humbling defeats to Minnesota and Tennessee.

Senior free safety Jordan Lomax saw the problems up close and then in video review. He watched how runners hit the edge on Iowa's defense and then it was off to the races. Mindset was as much of an issue as technique and inexperience. So from the very first play of Saturday's spring scrimmage at Kinnick Stadium, Lomax wanted to set both the edge and the tone.

Iowa running back Jordan Canzeri broke open to the outside on a first-down run. As Canzeri angled out of the left tackle box, Lomax met him head on and took him down hard for a two-yard gain. That tackle showed the secondary could deliver thunderous hits and read perimeter runs more quickly than last year.

'We weren't being as aggressive as we should have been on the edge, keeping a firm edge so that way everyone can run and fill in the alleys,' Lomax said. 'We're definitely working on that in the spring. We've been more physical and preaching everybody get to the ball, everybody run to the ball. Just keep up the intensity.'

Lomax, a senior, is the vocal leader of a unit that returns three of four starters and a wealth of depth. Starting cornerbacks Desmond King and Greg Mabin — both juniors — combined for 25 starts last year. Junior cornerback Maurice Fleming has pushed Mabin in spring practice, while senior Sean Draper has significant experience.

The competition is fierce at strong safety. True sophomore Miles Taylor (6 feet, 195 pounds) earned the first-team nod Saturday, but he split reps with red-shirt freshman Brandon Snyder (6-1, 210). Both delivered hard hits in run and pass situations. On a pass over the middle to wide receiver Matt VandeBerg, a dump in the flat to Canzeri and C.J. Hillard run, Snyder powered through each ball carrier. Taylor had similar tackles throughout the day. They combined for a takedown of tight end George Kittle over the middle where Taylor popped Kittle and Snyder finished him up.

Junior Anthony Gair (6-2, 210), who started one game at free safety last year, also worked at strong safety.

'It's still kind of wide open in my mind,' Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'Miles has gotten the most work with the first group, then we've let both Snyder and Gair both flip-flop. What we're going to try to do is figure out one through four and just have our bases covered so that whoever the third guy is hopefully he can back up both spots.'

Taylor played on special teams last year as a true freshman. That experience gave him a slight edge entering the spring. So far, he's showed his teammates he's capable of earning the job.

'He's a little Tasmanian devil,' Lomax said of Taylor. 'He's just always full of energy. Energetic, speed and running everywhere. It's definitely good competition. You've got Snyder and Taylor and you've got Gair. They all can run around and deliver a nice blow. They're all good safeties. It will be interesting to see how this competition plays out.'

'They're both coming out here, and they're both being competitive,' Mabin said. 'You've got Anthony Gair, too, so it's a three-man competition. It's going to be hard to see who wins the position, but they're all competing and they're all keeping each other's spirits up. So that's a good thing.'

Regardless of who wins the job, the starting strong safety packs a punch.

'That's the Iowa way,' Taylor said. 'We're physical as a team and that's how we play: physical and tough. As you've seen in the past, our defense has been really physical. We like to hit.'

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