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50 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED coverage skills, speed, physical and ball-hawking ability. If that sounds like a lot, it's because Williams likes him a lot. "He's going to be great — scary good," Williams said. "That's just my opinion. "He's extremely fast, you just don't see it yet. He makes a lot of wow plays. But you don't hear anything because he's always doing his job, so his man is never open." Purdue hopes Williams is right. It needs him to be right. The Boilermakers are replacing their top safeties from last season, with Landon Feichter, the team's leading tackler in two of the last three seasons, and Taylor Richards gradu- ating. Plus, Williams is shifting back to corner from safety, where he start- ed the first nine games last season. In order to fill the void, Purdue put Clark back at strong safety, where he played in high school and feels more natural now. And elevated junior Rob- ert Gregory into the starting lineup, after he'd be a reserve last season, while playing his third different posi- tion in as many years at Purdue. Because they're inexperienced, Hudson will try to scheme the Boil- ermakers' defense to best suit their skills. Clark can cover, so Purdue will use him in that capacity, almost as a third cornerback; and Gregory is a massive hitter who is most comfort- able the closer he gets to the line of scrimmage. "(But) Robert still has to be able to play into the middle of the field and off the hash," Hudson said. "Any time you can take a corner (like Clark) and put him in there at safety, you like that. Your strong safety is really your third corner. And the free (safety) in our defense, he could be a biscuit shy of being a linebacker." Unsurprisingly, depth is a concern. Purdue shuffled its second team much of the spring, with redshirt freshman Brandon Roberts and ju- nior Evan Feichter getting a majority of the repetitions at safety. Roberts wasn't moved to safety from corner- back until the spring. Tim Cason, who also came to Purdue as a cornerback, and Austin Logan, who started the first two games last season, could get camp looks. Purdue brings in rookie Andy Chelf, although he is coming off an ACL injury. Luckily for the Boilermakers, the young safeties will have veteran sup- port at cornerback. There, Williams and Brown figure to harass oppo- nents as frequently as possible. "I want to get in your face as much as I can and he wants to get in your face period, every play," Williams said of Brown. "It could be fourth-and-30, he wants to pressure you. With that mindset, that mentality, that ag- gressiveness, that's contagious; why lay back and play off if we can press them? And I think that helped us as a DB group, be aggressive with every- thing we do. No matter if you're up by 30 or down by 30, be aggressive." The abilities of their two corner- backs could allow the Boilermakers some luxury. Purdue likely will play primarily man defense on the perimeter, like it did last season, and leave Williams and Brown to try to slow receivers one-on-one. "We can lean on them, but I can't abuse them," Hudson said of the se- nior CBs. "We're going to play to their strengths, but that quarterback has to see different things too. But those two are good." Purdue will need to find a third. And a fourth. In the spring, sophomore Da'Wan Hunte ran with the first team, doing so with Williams sidelined by a foot injury. Those first three were the only scholarship corners on the roster then, but Purdue's doubled it now, adding freshmen Evyn Cooper, Mi- chael Little and David Rose. At least one could find his way to the field. But to do so, Hudson says, he's got to have a short-term memory. "And (that individual has to have) some maturity that they can handle the stress," he said, "and (under- stand) that they're going to fail at times, but we have guys who can handle it." j Secondary Fifth-year Senior 24 Frankie Williams* 5-9 190 CB Seniors 9 Anthony Brown* 5-11 190 CB 22 Stefan Certa 5-11 187 CB Juniors 3 Leroy Clark* 5-10 190 S 7 Robert Gregory* 6-2 217 S 27 Evan Feichter 6-0 191 S 5 Austin Logan 6-0 200 S Sophomores 2 Da'Wan Hunte 5-9 183 CB 46 Race Johnson 5-11 180 CB Redshirt Freshmen 25 Antonio Blackmon 6-0 181 CB 8 Tim Cason 6-1 195 S 49 Wes Cook 5-10 189 S 1 Brandon Roberts 5-11 198 S 41 Jacob Theineman 6-0 205 S Freshmen 15 Andy Chelf 6-0 190 S 6 Evyn Cooper 6-2 195 CB 10 Michael Little 6-0 175 CB 20 David Rose 6-0 175 CB * Projected starter