WSU safeties in cram course under Alex Grinch

PULLMAN – On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the Washington State campus once again is awash in the familiar sounds of spring. From the library and beyond, one can hear the thud of shoulder pads getting broken in, the whoops of receivers standing along the sideline and, of course, the casual rebuke of “Ball security” frequently uttered by coach Mike Leach while receiver Gabe Marks leaves a trail of defenders in his wake as he prances around Martin Stadium with a football casually slung under his arm. But there has been a recent addition to the football symphony and, for now, he’s overshadowing the rest of the band. Clad in the most movable pieces of the truckload of WSU gear he recently received, new defensive coordinator Alex Grinch has the biggest task of anyone during these 15 spring practices. He must install his defense and get his players to perfect it, and he insists they get it right. Loudly. “It’s very hard to set the bar installing a new defense,” Grinch said. “Because, coming back to that word ‘urgency,’ you’ve got to have a sense of urgency. You’d like it to be there now. “And if it was better in the past, you wouldn’t be in the situation where you’re installing a new defense so it’s probably a little bit naïve to think it’s going to be there that quickly,” he added. Still, Grinch is happy to nudge the process along by calling out each misstep and holding his players to a standard that says they do all the learning in the meeting rooms, and all the doing out on the field. In other words, the players learn in classrooms, not in cleats. That goes doubly so for the safeties, who are tasked with not only learning their assignments but being able to set the defense pre-snap. The field safety (strong safety in the vernacular) and boundary safety (free safety) will split the defense in half and dictate defensive assignments to their nearby teammates. “It’s a lot of fun,” said Isaac Dotson. “We’ve got guys flying around and things are really defined. Coach Grinch is doing a great job of making sure everyone is on the same page before we step on that field.” In the mix for those responsibilities are hard-hitting sophomores Dotson and Sulaiman Hameed, and senior Taylor Taliulu, who Grinch says has been the quickest to pick up the mental side of the position. Those three are competing for two starting spots and each has a comeback story. Dotson was a quarterback in high school and, at 214 pounds, is the largest of the group. He appeared to be a favorite for a starting job as a true sophomore last season but was injured in fall camp and redshirted. Hameed burned his redshirt for the Oregon game last year and excelled, making three starts. But an injury late in the season knocked him out for the final two games. Taliulu has started 10 games in each of the past two seasons but hasn’t been able to make the job permanent. There is almost no experience backing up those three, partially due to Darius Lemora’s move to starting nickel back. Lemora made 10 starts at safety as a redshirt freshman last season but will carve out a new role as WSU’s fifth starting defensive back. Backing him up is Colton Teglovic, a walk-on who has impressed the coaches with his work ethic and ability to diagnose plays quickly. Having a fifth member of the secondary on the field won’t ease the safeties’ burden any, however, since the nickel back’s coverage duties are similar to that of the Sam linebacker’s in last year’s scheme. “It’s pretty much the same, we just have different bodies in different areas,” Taliulu said. “I feel like we have different bodies that are capable of playing different positions at the right positions now.”