Alabama Football: It's possible that freshmen Brown and Humphrey both start at corner

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love the Alabama Crimson Tide’s way of operating on defense.

Orchestrated by perhaps the premier defensive backs coach in the world, head coach Nick Saban, the Tide’s combination of zone-blitzes, alternate coverages and aggressive line play is right up the alley of anyone fond of great defensive schemes.

Last year’s trouble, if you call being a few seconds away from a spot in the BCS title game trouble, mostly stemmed from a combination of a lack of pass rush and spotty corner play. Most expect the pass-rush to improve off the strength of the younger defensive linemen (most notably Jonathan Allen and A’Shawn Robinson) continuing the maturation process — in a football sense.

But even when the pass-rush improves, it can be argued that Bama still may not have had enough talent at corner to take advantage of it. And when you factor in an offseason injury to the most effective returning corner — sophomore Eddie Jackson — you understand how some fans of the Crimson and White may be feeling a bit of angst.

Enter in two heralded 5-star freshmen corners: Marlon Humphrey and Tony Brown.

Brown is already firmly entrenched in the rotation after being an early-enrollee and going through spring ball. He’s shown that he’s ultra-competitive, and he’s as fast as the day is long (which oddly doesn’t seem long enough when you write for a living).

And after delving deep into the tape on Humphrey, I wholeheartedly believe he is Brown’s equal.

With Jackson possibly on the shelf for an extended period of time, and the rest of the corners being average at best, it may be feasible that both Brown and Humphrey end up starting at some point.

After all, the cream does rise to the top.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Most fans at the Capstone may still be having nightmares at the thought of the Texas A&M duo of quarterback Johnny Manziel and receiver Mike Evans having an absolute field day with the Tide secondary. All Manziel had to do was go up top to Evans on a fade route and there was nothing Bama could do about it.

After a seven-reception 279-yard performance (one touchdown) by Evans, one would have to think that Saban called both Brown and Humphrey during a timeout hoping to procure a commitment.

Here we see a great example of how important corners are in this scheme. In a two-deep zone with man principles underneath, the Tide go with a two-man game, with the end and the tackle, up front.

The manufactured-pressure game is a big part of Saban’s defense; more times than not fabricating pressure leaves corners on a complete island. Here John Fulton, the early-season whippin’ boy, gets annihilated off the line of scrimmage by Evans.

Because Manziel did a good job of looking off his target, the free safety (the great Ha Ha Clinton-Dix) was frozen for a millisecond (not really, but you get the point), which is all the time a great QB needs to complete a pass.

Last year’s crop of corners, Deion Belue and Fulton, just weren’t as talented as once hoped for. And considering neither were drafted, we could plainly see how some of these problems arose.

And if we’re being honest with ourselves, this year’s incumbents: Bradley Sylve, Cyrus Jones and Maurice Smith may be closer to Belue and Fulton opposed to former stars Dee Milliner and Dre Kirkpatrick.

Jackson is very talented, but in this day and age sub-packages are all the rage. Teams needs multiple talents out on the edges.

Brown

I did an in-depth film study of Brown of recently. This 6’0″, 190-pound athlete has everything you’d want in a corner: speed, agility and feistiness. He actually has the type of competitive streak that makes Darrelle Revis the best corner in world (sorry, Richard Sherman).

Brown is an in-your-face, press-man corner; he’s been timed at a 4.35 in the 40-yard dash. He’s great with his transitions due to his uncanny agility, and he’s not afraid of being beat — as he was by future star receiver Robert Foster in Alabama’s annual spring game.

But in typical Brown fashion, he came up with an interception as he was tried on the same route against Foster later in the tilt.

Here’s the aforementioned interception against Foster. Brown has a tendency to get a tad bit reckless in his technique — mostly due to having supreme confidence in his ability to recover.

But when he does adhere to proper technique, it’s almost like he becomes the receiver. After getting a nice jam on Foster at the bottom of the route, he proceeded to ride in his hip pocket like an Iphone 5. After tracking and locating the ball, Brown shows of his leaping ability in high-pointing the interception.

“As playing early you can always can have corners who play early in their career, they key is getting the right guy out there and making sure he has the confidence to be out there, and mentally and physically ready to play in our league,” Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart said after a recent practice (h/t to Cliff Kirkpatrick of the Montgomery Advertiser). “That’s the toughest part.”

Confidence is not an issue for Brown

Humphrey 

The more I dig into the film on Humphrey, the more I see a future superstar in the making. At 6’1″, 187 pounds, Humphrey has the type of length most are looking for at the position, and his entire make up reminds me of former Tide star Dee Milliner.

Being the son of a former Crimson Tide player, Bobby Humphrey, certainly has gone a long way into crafting him into the technician that he is today. He’s absolute money in press-man as he has the arm length to redirect receivers.

Furthermore, he’s one of the best I’ve seen at the look-and-lean technique at this stage of a career. While Brown may be the flashier of the two, which in turn may bring him more hype, it may be Humphrey’s workman-like approach that cuts down on the transition time from prep to college.

But it’s his advanced technique that should allow him to play relatively quickly.

Case in point: Humphrey presses the receiver with the correct arm, sends him toward the sideline and performs his patented look-and-lean technique. It’s one thing to have proper technique at the bottom of the route, it’s a whole ‘nother to have the wherewithal to actually track the ball in flight.

This one almost looks like a repeat of the above sequence. Humphrey may have drilled this a thousand times because he plays it the exact same way each time: press, look and lean, track and deflect.

Both Brown and Humphrey can be trusted to be on an island with no safety help if necessary. Additionally, both players are superb tacklers and are equally adept at area principles.

Fans of the Crimson and White are holding their collective breaths in anticipation of Jackson’s return. But eventually the cream will rise to the top.

Look for Humphrey and Brown to be locking down receivers — in tandem — in the very near future.