Tennessee football could have the top cornerback/safety duo in college football with Cameron Sutton and Todd Kelly Jr. in the Volunteers secondary.
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At the beginning of the 2015 football season, and injury to LaDarrell McNeil and an illness to Todd Kelly Jr. forced then defensive coordinator John Jancek to reshuffle the secondary. Brian Randolph moved over to free safety while Evan Berry played strong safety.
The result was disastrous.
Although there wasn’t much help from Emmanuel Moseley that game, Berry, who is a true free safety instead of a strong safety, constantly got out of position, and Sutton was often left alone guarding three receivers on one side of the field.
Against Oklahoma, however, with McNeil still hurt, Kelly was able to return to strong safety. Backing up Sutton, he came away with two interceptions, and going into the fourth quarter they had held Baker Mayfield’s offense to three points.
But then Kelly started to get dinged up again, and like clockwork, Mayfield found his rhythm. We all know what happened in that game in double-overtime.
For a half, though, Butch Jones was able to show the world what the Tennessee football secondary could look like with Todd Kelly Jr. and Cameron Sutton at full strength on one side of the field.
That’s the expectation for the Vols this year.
Provided both can stay healthy, the combination of Sutton and Kelly should guarantee that half the field is completely shut off for every game. And it could make for the best cornerback/safety combo in college football.
Consider that Sutton already has a reputation as an athlete able to cover a lot of ground on his own, which is why he rarely gets balls thrown his way. Combine that with Kelly’s Eric Berry-like abilities at safety to cheat up and lay hits on people and to make tons of plays, including interceptions, in coverage.
No disrespect to Brian Randolph, who was a great four-year leader of the Vols, but Kelly is a better playmaker, and the combination of him and Sutton could be deadly.
Bob Shoop is a defensive genius whose base knowledge is coaching the secondary, so as an analytics guy, he has to know this.
It’s been a pretty safe bet all along that the No. 2 cornerback and the nickelback would start along the same side with the free safety, likely Evan Berry, backing them up there.
That leaves Kelly and Sutton on the other side. With Kelly backing him up, Sutton for the first time has a world of opportunities to make plays. If Shoop wants to keep Kelly deep on plays, Sutton can cheat up now and play bump and run. He’s got the speed to recover.
Meanwhile, there will be plenty of times when Shoop cheats Kelly up, at which point Sutton drops back and plays safe zone, allowing for Kelly to wreak havoc. Being able to sneak Kelly anywhere on that side of the field is a huge plus.
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And as a result, with Sutton’s leadership on that side at cornerback, the Vols have the best combination of a cornerback and safety on one side of the field in all of college football. Now they just have to address the other three positions.