Cornerback depth Bohl’s top concern in fall camp
LARAMIE -- The two starting cornerback spots are solidified.
Craig Bohl repeated that again Monday afternoon.
Wyoming's head coach has been impressed with the progression of CJ Coldon and Azizi Hearn. Those two want to be good, he added. He said the maturity level -- and experience -- set them apart.
"I think our corner position is probably as solid as what we've been since I've been our head coach," Bohl said.
The praise doesn't get much higher than that, right?
That's the good news.
The bad? Who will back those guys up?
"I'm concerned about our third and fourth, and not only myself, but defensively," Bohl said. "One of the things that's going to be important during the fall camp is to see who those guys are."
The latest depth chart shows redshirt freshman Cameron Stone as Coldon and Hearn's back up. Xavier Carter, who was on the two-deep after spring ball concluded, entered the transfer portal this summer. That leaves a young, inexperienced group fighting for those final two spots.
Who are they?
Zaire Jackson, Mathew Posas and Kolbey Taylor.
Stone has two tackles in five career games. Posas redshirted last fall and Jackson and Taylor were playing high school football.
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"We're going to go through a process of seeing if a freshman can emerge or if we are going to have to double-train somebody," Bohl said at the team's media day last Friday. "I think we have some candidates, but to think that we're going to go through a regular season with two corners, I think we're saying the glass is pretty half full."
In other words, they can't count on that.
Keonte Glinton, who is listed as a nickel back and linebacker on the team's official roster, has already been taking snaps at the corner position. Keyon Blankenbaker, Bohl said, is another option to bring a veteran presence to the back end of his defense.
Hearn said he isn't concerned with depth right now.
"I probably sound crazy, but so many things take care of themselves," the junior said. "I don't even worry about that. I come to work every day and I need to do my job to the best of my ability. I feel like that's the coaches' job to worry about."
Jay Sawvel, Wyoming's second-year defensive coordinator, said the simple solution would be to pull Glinton or Blankenbaker to the perimeter. Still, they'd rather that be a last resort.
"We don't want to do that, but that would be dependent on the two guys staying healthy and someone else coming along," Sawvel said. "You know, we're kind of blessed with two pretty good nickels. You know, if something happened to one of our first two corners it would probably be hard to justify having one of them stand next to us on sideline. Right. So, there's reality in that."
Wyoming still has 26 days before Montana State pays a visit to War Memorial Stadium Sept. 4 for the season opener. The Cowboys have 95% of their roster back from a season ago, but Bohl knows the corner spot is the one that's glaring when it comes to lack of depth.
"That's the No. 1 concern that I have with our football team," he said.
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