Baskerville making quick adjustments at new position
CJ Baskerville was brought on to the Texas Tech football team during the offseason with a defined role laid out for him. After two seasons of playing the “warrior” safety spot at San Diego State, the junior came to Lubbock to assume the STAR position that Marquis Waters became a staple at a season ago. The trajectory of Baskerville’s season changed however, when a position switch was brought up to him during the Red Raiders’ bye week.
“I think it was kind of a defensive staff decision,” Baskerville said following Tech’s Tuesday morning practice. “It was the Wednesday of the bye week and coach (Ryan) Conry came in, who’s in charge of the STARs, he told me that (Tyler Owens) and I were gonna switch. He said there wasn’t anything necessarily that any of us were doing wrong, they just wanted to put their athletes in the best position to make plays.”
The STAR position requires whoever is playing it to be a lot closer to the line of scrimmage, while boundary safety is a more prototypical role in the secondary. The move paid off for Baskerville against TCU. Back in a more familiar spot, he finished with a game-high nine tackles, including a big hit that got the crowd riled up. To be in this situation in the first place was not something that Baskerville expected going into the season.
“It was definitely tough, I’m still learning it right now,” Baskerville said. “It just really comes down to film study and meeting with coach (Marcel) Yates and the guys just trying to make myself as comfortable going into the game. It was definitely tough but I mean, where there’s a will there’s a way, that’s kind of what it was. As the game progressed, when you get more into that game factor, I felt a lot more comfortable with it.”
Even with the familiarity of playing in a role that is closer to what he has had in the past, there is still a learning curve present for Baskerville. Defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter is known for the variety in his defensive schemes and it is this multiplicity that makes high football IQ a necessity for those running it.
“To be honest, it’s pretty different, except for aspects of cover three, feeding off your two,” Baskerville said when comparing the boundary safety slot at Tech to the warrior position at SDSU. “We play a vision’s quarters here versus at San Diego State we were more of a palm. It was more kind of comboing and paying attention to the routes and the receivers, whereas like going more visions (at Tech). That’s been the biggest difference for me, just being able to try and transition my eyes to the right place. That’s been my focus ever since I switched to the position. There are always similarities when talking about the boundary safety position in all defenses but I would say those are the differences.”
It was not all perfect for Baskerville against the Horned Frogs, something he himself would likely admit and was alluded to by head coach Joey McGuire Monday. With a run-focused Kansas team on the schedule this week, Baskerville is confident he can make the adjustments necessary to help shut down the Jayhawks’ prolific running attack.
“Just being more comfortable and being able to fit down the run when needed to be,” Baskerville said. “That kind of goes back to whereas at San Diego State we were in quarters, I wasn’t in the run fit at all. So getting myself to acknowledge that I’m in quarters, I’m still part of the pass but I’m definitely in the run fit. Knowing my alignments better and lining up faster will help me in the long run.
"They're a great team and the evolution of Kansas over the past five years has been amazing, so give all props to them. It's gonna be a tough battle. What they like to do on the offensive side is to do a bunch of motions, unbalanced sets to confuse the back and take shots. But they also do a good job of running the option, because (Jason) Bean, he's an athletic guy, one of the fastest in the country. Being able to contain him is going to be our number one priority."
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