Can the Hurricanes replace Jaquan Johnson and Sheldrick Redwine? Here’s how they’ll try
Jaquan Johnson, the safety who University of Miami coach Manny Diaz — formerly UM’s defensive coordinator —often called “the heart and soul’’ of the Hurricanes defense, is now making plays for the Buffalo Bills.
Sheldrick Redwine, Johnson’s closest friend and former fellow starting safety for UM’s No. 1-ranked pass defense, is now making plays for the Cleveland Browns.
The two have left a gaping hole filled with, at the very least, uncertainty in the back of Miami’s defense.
Now, the Canes will choose among junior Amari Carter, sophomore Gurvan Hall, junior Derrick Smith, redshirt senior Robert Knowles and freshman Keontra Smith to replace the former star-studded tandem.
Former USC star safety Bubba Bolden still hasn’t arrived, but the team expects him before the start of the season, and co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach Ephraim Banda confirmed coaches will ensure, first and foremost, that he’s physically ready to compete.
“Like I told you guys in 2016 when we first set up here,’’ Banda said Wednesday, “we’re going to put the people that we trust on the field. And if there’s 11, then there’ll be 11. If there’s 14, then we’ll put 14 on the field. If I’ve got three, then there’ll be three safeties that rotate in. If I’ve got four, then great.
“...Jaquan and Redwine fought it out going into their junior year and they won the job and then they took it over. Their senior year, they just lapped everybody.
“I think this year is going to be a little different,’’ Banda continued on Day Six of fall camp. “I anticipate it being a rolling deal and I love it because that’s what we needed. This program’s about competition and the more competition you have, the better all your players play. So right now, I’ve got four that are competing really hard with a young guy that really is starting to figure it out.”
The 6-0, 200-pound Carter, who played in 12 of 13 games last season and started two games when Johnson was injured, will likely win one starting job.
“It’s good competition,’’ said Carter, who had 12 tackles and three tackles for loss, with one sack and three pass breakups last season. “It’s making everybody else better on the field, not just the safeties. Everybody. It’s making the receivers better. We have a great receivers corps.”
Carter graduated from Palm Beach Gardens High, the school from which his roommate and younger teammate Hall graduated. The two never played together in high school, however, because Hall had transferred from Palm Beach Lakes his senior year. Hall was a consensus four-star prospect rated as the nation’s 14th-best safety by ESPN.com.
“I look up to him as a big brother,’’ Hall, 6-0 and 195 pounds, said Wednesday. “He’s always on me. Like when I do wrong, he’ll always pull me back and lead me to the right direction.’’
Carter also called Gurvan his brother.
“We fight,’’ he said. “We’re there for each other when we need one another. It’s just a bond that real brothers have.”
When asked how he separates being roommates and close friends with Hall from competing against him, Carter explained that the way he’s “supposed to look at it, you’re competing against yourself.’’
“You’ve got to come out here every day and be better. If you’re not doing that, then you’re not making the person next to you better. So, if you have the day off and I’m stooping down to his level, then I’m going to get worse — all of us are going to get worse.
“It’s not just about competing against each other, it’s competing within yourself to make yourself better and the guys around you better. That’s how a team gets better.”
Among the rest of the safeties, Smith has had an outstanding camp, with several big plays and interceptions. And Knowles, according to defensive coordinator Blake Baker, has also impressed.
“At the end of the day, [and] I truly believe this, I’ve got a four-way fight and these kids are getting after it,’’ Banda said. “...We have a long way to go.’’
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 2:57 PM.
