Midseason Position Grades: Secondary

Alright, take a deep breath and grab an ice cold Coop… because we need to talk about the secondary. Six games in, and I don’t think there’s any doubt which of the positional groups has struggled the most in 2016. The Cowboys, for the most part, roll with two redshirt senior cornerbacks, a junior corner, a RS junior safety, and a senior safety, so lack of experience is not an excuse. Let’s start with the corners, the guiltiest party.

Cornerbacks

Coming into this season, I think the combination of a healthy Ashton Lampkin, Ramon Richards in his third season, and grad transfer Lenzy Pipkins (fun to say) seemed like a potentially solid group. They’ve had a boatload of starts between the three of them, and we even had two promising newcomers getting praise from Gundy himself behind them, in Rodarius Williams and Madre Harper.

But through six games, this group ranks 103rd nationally in passing yards allowed, at 270 per game, and 14.34 per attempt. Yuck. This is a stat that Glen Spencer may be losing sleep over, because West Virginia, Texas Tech, TCU, and Oklahoma remain on the back end of this schedule. It’s also a group that has just four picks in six games.

Lampkin, Richards, and Pipkins have all had their share of the blame, but perhaps the most jarring game of the season was Baylor. Ish Zamora continued his 2016 lifestyle theme of beating anything alive within 50 yards of him to a pulp for the world to see.

Additionally, Lampkin and Richards both got beat multiple times on fairly basic double moves, which was kind of shocking for two guys that had multiple years of starting experience in the Big 12. Here’s one of them, with Chris Platt leaving Lampkin in his dust.

If the poor play continues for these three upperclassmen, it may be time to give a younger corner such as Harper or Williams a shot at some playing time. We’ll learn a lot in a few weeks against Tech in Stillwater.

Safeties

This group, for my money, has played a bit better than the corners. Tre Flowers has been solid, especially lately, racking up eight tackles against Iowa State, to go with two breakups. He continues to be a physical presence at 6’3 and 200 lbs., and will be much needed in the upcoming Big 12 tilts.

Senior Jordan Sterns has been a monster in the secondary and helping the running game, with an astounding 39 tackles (12 against Texas!), even missing the Iowa State game. The 2015 All-Big 12 second-teamer is well on his way to an all league honor this year, and the Cowboys will need him to be healthy and at his best if they are to have any shot at the Big 12 title, playing the slew of impressive QB’s they’ll see to end the year.

The Pistols Firing Blog staff gave the secondary an aggregate grade of C+, which is the lowest for any positional group on the team. This looks to be the weakest link on the team, and if they play anything like they did the first six games of the season, this Cowboys team will lose several more games, no matter how many they score.

I’m concerned about this group but if they can find a way to pull it together and tighten things up, this defense will look completely different and could keep the Cowboys in the Big 12 title race well into November.

Secondary Grade: C