Demand growing rapidly for ballhawking safeties

Florida hopes that Will Hill can become the type of player Reggie Nelson was during the Gators' national-title run in 2006. Chris Livingston/Icon SMI

South Garland (Texas) High's Joseph Ibiloye tried to explain why he always seems to know where the ball will go. "Sometimes, you've got to think what you'd do if you were on offense," the Oklahoma-bound free safety said. "I look at field position. I look at the clock."

Then Ibiloye paused. Sometimes, he said, all the studying, the coaching and the reasoning melt away. Sometimes, something inside screams: Go get the ball!

"Sometimes, you take guesses," Ibiloye said. "It's instinct."

Quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers might get most of the attention, but lately college coaches are coveting safeties, whose instincts turn them into football-seeking missiles, just as much. At every level of football, the position has experienced a renaissance as coaches have realized how versatile their defense can be with a true ballhawk in the secondary. While the middle linebacker remains the playcaller for most defenses, the free safety has become the ultimate slash player -- as in cover/tackle/run support/blitz/punish.

The best free safeties do all five things well, and defensive coordinators love them for it. Got a shaky front seven? Use your ballhawk as a one-high safety and put your strong safety in the box. Nothing's getting past your man in the back. Have a suspect corner? Roll your ballhawk to his side and watch him dart in to pick off a pass from a quarterback who never saw him coming. Want to really mess with the quarterback's head? Blitz your ballhawk.

Ballhawk is an apt term, too. In nature, hawks use superior vision, an excellent vantage point and breathtaking closing speed to hunt their prey. Those essentially are the same tools a free safety needs to wreak havoc on an offense.

Philadelphia Eagles safety Brian Dawkins (who attended Clemson) was one of the first of the new generation of ballhawks. Former Miami Hurricanes standout Ed Reed and the late Sean Taylor subsequently expanded the minds of defensive coordinators as they exploded into ballcarriers and receivers. LSU's LaRon Landry (who now plays for Washington) and Florida's Reggie Nelson (Jacksonville) were their teams' ultimate weapons on defense in 2006, and that made them first-round draft picks. Before last year's draft, Redskins defensive coordinator Gregg Williams told ESPN.com that Landry is "like a Swiss Army knife."

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