By Jeremy Schilling
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Monmouth University’s football team will have a young look on defense this year. That means many positions are up for grab on the defensive line, linebacker, and cornerback spots.
But one thing will not change for 2011: senior safety Jose Gumbs. The all-NEC defensive star who led the team in tackling in 2010 has been a constant on an ever-changing Monmouth team. This spring he has taken on another role: teacher.
“It’s more on the field [teaching], because in the classroom everyone understands it,” Gumbs said recently at spring practice. “But when it comes to the field it’s like ‘oh snap, I forgot what we gotta do exactly.’ But most of the time I guess it’s more about communication – I try to be the vocal leader and line everyone up and get everyone on the same page.”
For head coach Kevin Callahan, Gumbs’ expertise is invaluable.
“Anytime you have a player who’s been on the field that experience goes a long way to helping the younger players develop,” Callahan said. “Jose is a natural leader and is certainly knowledgeable about the position. He spends a lot of time with the younger guys, helping them learn the nuances of the secondary position. So he’s a great help – it’s like having another coach out on the field.”
For Gumbs, this year involves a slight position change, with his former partner at safety Kendall Haley having graduated.
“My main focus for myself, personally, is more about covering – I work more on the deep safety because last year I had Kendall work more on it when I covered man-to-man.”
As Gumbs looks forward to this year, his main priority is getting rid of the bad tackling that contributed to some of the Hawks early losses last season. According to Gumbs, it all starts with alignment.
“It’s all about alignment. A lot of people don’t know how to align themselves and set themselves up to make a tackle. A lot of people just go out and try to think that if you force feet at someone you’ll bring them down. It’s actually that you got to break down and take one side away and then take someone down. That’s the basics of tackling.
“Sometimes it’s just bad alignment where someone doesn’t force a play inside and they get a play outside.”
Callahan agrees.
“Tackling is the most important defensive fundamental because every play hopefully ends with a tackle. So it’s something you’ve got to spend a lot of time on, not only in individual drill work but also in live team situations. It’s usually the case that you do a good job in the individual drill work but when you head to a full team session that’s where you see some tackles being missed.
“We’re hoping that we get enough live work and we’re exposing our guys to enough to full speed stuff against the offensive unit that we’ll reduce those missed tackles.”
