Post spring football series Part 8 — Safeties

Harry · July 2, 2012

After taking a break to cover some of the developments in football recruiting and follow up with Tony Mitchell on his experiences at the Amare Stoudemire camp, it’s time to continue plugging along on our post-spring football series on UNT’s roster.

Today, we take a look at UNT’s safeties.

But first, a fun factoid — UNT has had one defensive back named first- or second-team All-Sun Belt since the end of the bowl era. Aaron Weathers was a second-team safety back in 2005. That’s one guy in seven years. In the four years prior, when UNT was at the height of a golden era in program history, Jonas Buckles, Craig “The Hit Man” Jones, Markeith Knowlton and “Neon” Don McGee combined to be named to the All-Sun Belt team nine times in four years. Buckles was a four-time all-conference pick.

There are a myriad of reasons UNT has struggled over the last few years, but the play of its defensive secondary has been toward the top of the list at times.

The safety spot remains a top concern heading into next season.

Ryan Downing and Brad Graham started almost all of last season as seniors and had their moments. Downing finished second on the team with 68 tackles, intercepted one pass, caused two fumbles and recovered two. Graham added 52 tackles and two interceptions.

read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/07/post-spring-football-series-part-8-safeties.html/