JSU football: Defensive back depth a positive for Gamecocks

JACKSONVILLE — When talking to Rich Rodriguez about position groups, it seems his philosophy is always "the more, the merrier."
Luckily for Rodriguez and the team's defense, Jacksonville State's defensive backs are among the most talent-dense groups on the team.
Sophomore cornerback Jabari Mack, who had one of the most impressive spring campaigns of the team, said that he’s been pleased with the defensive backs and how they’ve fared against the team’s receivers during fall preseason practices.
“It's been good on both sides,” Mack said. “It’s good to see everybody making plays and all the team coming together.”
Despite the departure of longtime JSU cornerback Yul Gowdy, Jacksonville State’s cornerback room still has plenty of depth headed into the season.
Mack, Jamari Jemison, and Yessman Green all played in all 11 games last season while Marco Baker and Derek Carter both played in 10 games.
The cornerback group also added Kekoura Tarnue, who has had a strong campaign in spring and fall practices, from the transfer portal in December. Travis Collier, a Western Kentucky transfer, also signed with Jacksonville State over the summer.
“Our corners are probably the fastest guys on the team,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve got really good depth, and I don't think you can have too much depth there either. We hope we can have four or five guys that we can count on not just for regular rotation, but we'll play three or four at the same time.”
Mack said that the veterans in the cornerback group this season have been encouraging during the team’s preseason practices, saying that it makes for great competition as the group competes for a starting job.
“I like to see a lot of depth coming from last year,” Mack said. “Going from like six corners a game to now we got eight corners, and then just seeing everybody compete, everybody just wants to compete to help the team win. It's just going to be great competition, we all push each other to be better.”
The safeties will be led by Jeremiah Harris and Kolbi Fuqua, who appeared in all 11 of JSU’s games last season. Austin Ambush, who transferred from Maine, has also taken plenty of reps in preseason practices.
While eight of the 13 safeties are freshmen, the group has a teammate with the most experience on the roste.r
Harris, who has six seasons and 45 games of experience behind him, has been viewed by Rodriguez as an “extension of the coaching staff” during the team’s preseason practices.
“He's older than I think half the coaches anyway, he's been around for a long time,” Rodriguez said. “He's a great young man, he understands how we want to run the program. He understands the defense and he's a true leader out there.”
Mack said that having two seventh-year players in Harris and Zion Webb has been a huge boost for not only the defensive backs, but the whole team during the team’s preseason preparations.
“The team just revolves around the leaders,” Mack said. “What the leaders do, that's what everybody else is gonna do. It's just good to see everybody just looking up to those guys because they've been here long. They know what to expect, they’ve been here.”
Mack said that as the defensive backs continue to train in preparation for their Week 0 matchup with UTEP, the coaching staff has preached the importance of short-term memory when it comes to mistakes.
“You’ve just got to be relentless to compete, have short-term memory,” Mack said. “Sometimes receivers go and make a play. That's just what happens, they’re on scholarship too, they're going to make a play. You’ve just got to have short-term memory, come back and make the next play.”