FAYETTEVILLE — Alex Brignoni no longer roams in the back of the Fayetteville defense to provide his Division I level skills and leadership.
But even with Brignoni graduated and now at Arkansas, no one should feel sorry for what’s left behind in the Purple Bulldogs’ secondary.
“That is probably the strength of our football team when it’s all said and done,” Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said. “We moved Dre Greenlaw from cornerback to strong safety. Tres Tucker started two games at free safety last year when Alex Brignoni was out. Cornerback-wise, Jack Hornibrook was a starter last year. Jordan Dennis was pretty much a starting corner. And then we pick up Drew Conlee, who was a cornerback last year at Prairie Grove.
“And then we also can throw in two sophomores that have no fear in Kennedy Wade and Colby Sigears. So we feel pretty good back there.”
While Fayetteville must replace the program’s career interception leader in Brignoni at free safety, it’s clear pretty much everyone else returns in the secondary this fall. But with Keith Fimple in as new defensive coordinator, even a defensive backfield full of experience has undergone an off season full of change.
“We’re getting better,” Fimple said. “It’s a matter of terminology change from last year. We’ve had to move some guys around and we’re teaching them some new positions, some cornerbacks moving to safety. But we’ve got some really good sophomores who had a good showing during 7-on-7, and we’ve had more good days than bad days.”
Fimple has replaced Fayetteville’s 4-2-5 defense from a year ago with his 3-4 defensive scheme. This means four defensive backs on the fi eld instead of fi ve in the Bulldogs’ base defense, although Patton believes the secondary won’t look all that different by the time the games roll around.
“We’ll play some nickel and some dime stuff where we have the extra D-back in there,” Patton said. “We were a 4-2-5 defense last year and this year with us being a 3-4 multiple type defense we will have one less defensive back in there at times. But we’ll have that extra guy in there in several packages.”
Greenlaw (6-foot, 210 pounds), a junior, and seniors Tucker (6-2, 195) and Hornibrook (6-1, 160) have been put in charge of calling the defense out of the secondary, a job held by Brignoni last year.
“They’re picking things up and actually making most of the calls back there,” Fimple said. “That’s one thing we put on them. As coaches, we don’t recognize everything going on so they have to be able to recognize and correct it.”
Dennis, who will also start at wide receiver on off ense, had 32 tackles and four interceptions in a part-time role at cornerback as a junior. His role in the secondary could increase this season as he’s drawing more interest from colleges there.
“The colleges that have come in here, they like him better as a defensive back than they do as a receiver,” Patton said. “They think he’s going to be a fantastic defensive back at the next level.
“I’ll think we’ll have the same plan with Jordan as we did a year ago. But the biggest difference this year is Jordan is in shape. This time last year he wasn’t really in shape so we had to limit what he could do on the defensive side to probably conference play. He’s in fantastic shape now and he’ll play on defense in week one. How much is still to be determined, but we have great confi dence in those other guys at cornerback.”
Carson Baker (5-11, 185), a projected starter last season before an injury, will add depth at safety.