Tag: Demetrice Martin

Michigan State football: Five defensive coordinator options as hire nears

Five candidates for the Michigan State defensive coordinator job as the hire looms near:

Just as Alan Haller’s search for a new football coach was tight lipped, Jonathan Smith’s search for a defensive coordinator has been very hush hush and close to the vest.

The clock is ticking for Smith to make a hire because the transfer portal is going crazy and the early signing period is less than two weeks away.

Naturally, the list of defensive coordinator candidates has shrunk, and Smith is homing in on specific candidates as he will looks to lock-in his defensive staff as the big recruiting month rolls along.

Let’s take a look, based on some educated guessing and intel from sourcing Spartans Wire has obtained, at which five candidates could be on Smith’s shortlist:

Ten Potential candidates to be the next defensive coordinator of Michigan State football

10 possible candidates that can be the next defensive coordinator at Michigan State

With the hiring of Jonathan Smith as Michigan State’s next head football coach, it also means that there will be a new staff coming to East Lansing. While Smith has already gotten a huge jump on hiring his staff, click here to view who has been hired by Smith so far, he has yet to announce who will be serving as the defensive coordinator for his staff.

Smith had two defensive coordinators throughout his tenure at Oregon State, so there are several options and possibilities for Smith to explore.

Let’s take a look at some of the potential candidates that could potentially be in the mix for MSU’s defensive coordinator position:

Demetrice Martin describes where defense has most improved since 2022

Oregon CB coach Demetrice Martin has been impressed with the growth and development from the defensive secondary this offseason.

A year ago, the Oregon Ducks had a offense that was as good as any in the nation, but a defense that at times struggled to hang with the best teams in the Pac-12. Whether it was missed assignments or blown coverages, the defensive secondary often received ridicule for their play down the stretch.

The Ducks finished the year with the No. 106 passing defense in the nation, with a third-down conversion rate that ranked No. 126 in the nation. While a lot of that had to do with the lack of a pass rush applying pressure to the QB, the secondary also shares some of the blame with subpar coverage.

Going into 2023, though, the defensive secondary is hoping to have a stronger start to the year, and cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin says that the driving factor in their success so far has been connection and communication.

“A lot more connection within the scheme,” Coach Meat said. “A lot better communication, understanding when to use certain tools that we’ve given them to put in their tool belt when it comes up to different parts of the coverages. Knowing just the different formations, things like that. A lot of that is a lot smoother.”

With many players in the secondary entering their second year under Dan Lanning and Coach Meat, there are others who transferred in this year to provide some support. Among them are former Colorado CB Nikko Reed, Alabama CB Khyree Jackson, and Ole Miss safety Tysheem Johnson. With those three, and a long list of incoming freshmen, Martin says that the learning process is taking some time, but guys are coming along quickly.

“Obviously, the young guys are struggling a little bit but they’re coming along too because we got a lot more guys that know it on the field,” Martin said.

As fall camp continues to roll along and the Ducks iron out more of a depth chart, the cream will rise to the top. There is a lot of talent in the secondary, but more production is crucial as Oregon prepares for a promising season that could land them in the College Football Playoff conversation.

After listening to Coach Meat, they appear to be well on their way to achieving that production.

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PFF release the top 10 returning safeties in the Pac-12

The Ducks used the transfer portal this offseason to land some of the top-graded safeties going into the 2023 season.

Arguably the most important part of a team’s defense is that team’s safeties. Their No. 1 job is protecting against and discouraging the deep ball, but they also have a responsibility in the run game. Since CBs typically have smaller frames, safeties are often the primary tacklers on outside zone runs, a running style becoming more and more popular.

Last season, the Oregon Ducks struggled defensively, but they especially struggled against the run. Sure, a lot of that responsibility goes to the front seven, but with the support of consistent tackling safeties, things may have gone smoother.

On Sunday, Pro Football Focus (PFF) released a list of the top 10 returning safeties in the Pac-12, ranked by PFF grade. While a Ducks safety doesn’t top the list, Oregon has more entries than any other school, which bodes well for a more consistent and physical defense than we saw in 2022.

Here’s where Oregon’s safeties rank among the top in the conference, per PFF.

4-star Safety, Jakob Gude puts Oregon in his top five

4-star Safety, Jakob Gude puts Oregon in his top five

Since the start of Dan Lanning’s tenure at Oregon, one of the Ducks’ biggest recruiting strengths has been at defensive back. It is likely that a lot of this success is due to the prowess of defensive backs coach, Demtrice Martin whose son Cole Martin will start his freshman year at Oregon next fall.

On Wednesday, another quality 2024 DB, Jakob Gude, showed interest in joining forces with the Ducks after high school when he named the Oregon Ducks one of his top five schools. Gude is ranked by 247Sports as a top 50 safety in next year’s class and the 53rd best player from his home state, Georgia.

Gude is nearly 6 feet tall and is 180 lbs. In pass defense, he uses his lean frame to cover ground more quickly than many bigger safeties could. While that lean frame can sometimes hurt Gude in the run game, his ability to position himself before and during the play can often make up for his lack of size.

Jakob Gude’s Recruiting Profile

Position Outlook: Nikko Reed adds another playmaker to crowded cornerback room

Who will be competing for the starting CB spots at Oregon, and how good are their chances of securing it? We broke down the options.

When coming to Oregon over a year ago, head coach Dan Lanning said that he wanted to create a Ducks’ roster that was stacked with talent, and competitive top to bottom. He didn’t care about the players who were listed as starters before his time in Eugene; his goal was to amass talent and have them all compete for the starting spot on the field.

“Iron sharpens iron.”

It’s a common phrase uttered by Lanning and his staff. It’s been impressive to see how the roster has taken shape over the past off-season with that ideal in mind.

Position battles are going to be fascinating to watch this fall in Eugene. With a handful of incoming transfers and many more highly-ranked recruits, the Ducks have a roster that is fraught with guys who could easily win the starting jobs.

One of the positions on the roster that will see the most competition is cornerback. The Ducks have welcomed in a couple of transfers who have shown that they can produce at a high level in the past, and there are some incoming freshmen who have a shot to make some noise as well. On top of the newcomers, veteran mainstays like Trikweze Bridges, Dontae Manning, and Jahlil Florence are also fighting to stay near the top of the depth chart.

What will the end result be once fall comes? We can’t wait to see. Here’s an early position outlook for the cornerbacks in Eugene.

4-Star CB names Oregon as one of his top schools

Another 4-star recruit in the class of 2024 names UO as one of his top schools. Check out CB Selman Bridges here:

Since coming to Eugene last year, head coach Dan Lanning and defensive backs coach Demetrice Martin have recruited an abundance of highly-skilled DBs. Former Alabama CB Khyree Jackson, high school track star Rodrick Pleasant, and 4-star Cole Martin — Demetrice’s son — were all recruited under the tandem of Martin and Lanning.

Now at the start of the 2024 recruiting cycle, Lanning and Martin seem to have another talented DB interested in Oregon. Yesterday, CB Selman Bridges named UO as one of his top nine schools. Bridges is a 4-star player who hails from Texas, which is the state home to four of his other top schools.

At 6’3″ Bridges is much taller than the typical CB, but he still possesses the breakaway speed that is vital for a lockdown corner. In coverage, he seems most comfortable in man-to-man sets, and he is capable both in the press and when he is backed off the line.

Even though Oregon has a surplus of young DBs, Oregon could still be an enticing destination for Bridges. In the 2023 NFL draft, former Duck Christian Gonzalez was the second CB selected, and a program’s ability to produce NFL-caliber CBs is a strong selling point.

Selman Bridges Recruiting Profile

Breaking down the DB recruiting boon at Oregon during the Dan Lanning era

It feels like recruiting in the defensive secondary has taken off for Oregon since Dan Lanning and his staff took over.

Has it? We broke down all of the numbers to find out.

Dan Lanning has been the head coach of the Oregon Ducks for only 17 months. Since taking over for Mario Cristobal in December of 2021, a lot has transpired. There have been roster shake-ups, numerous coaching changes, big-time wins, frustrating losses, and all-in-all, a successful start to the new era of Oregon football.

One thing that hasn’t changed under Lanning is recruiting success in Eugene. While Willie Taggart got the ball rolling in 2017 and turned a lot of Oregon eyes toward the world of recruiting in his one year at the helm, Cristobal really took things to the next level and recruited better than anyone ever had in Eugene.

Lanning picked up right where Cristobal left off, and is arguably doing things just as well, if not better than the former Oregon coach did.

While Lanning has a knack for star-studded visitor lists and a recruiting class that resembles an SEC school along the defensive trenches, one of the things that has stood out to me the most during his almost two years in Eugene is his — and his coaching staff’s — ability to recruit in the defensive secondary. Whether it’s cornerbacks or safeties, it has felt like picking up players who can cover with speed and be physical at the point of attack has been a priority for the Ducks.

Again, this ability is not Lanning’s alone but also should be credited to his coaching staff, mainly cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin, former safeties coach Matt Powledge, and current safeties coach Chris Hampton.

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On Sunday afternoon, the Ducks got a commitment from 4-star cornerback Ify Obidegwu, the No. 99 player in the 2024 class. His commitment urged me to dig into the numbers to answer a question that I have found myself routinely asking…

Is Dan Lanning’s staff better at recruiting defensive backs than any other coach we’ve seen at Oregon, or is this just a product of recency bias?

I dug through the numbers of the recruiting classes for the past five head coaches to get an answer, going back to the start of the Chip Kelly era when you could argue that recruiting started to be a focus for Oregon. Here’s what I found:

‘He knows what’s required;’ Oregon freshman DB Cole Martin stands out to Dan Lanning

“I think what makes it special is he’s the guy who’s gonna be up here at 6 a.m., you know, getting an ice bath, doing the extra.”

We have talked about true freshman defensive back Cole Martin quite a bit this spring, but with all due respect, that was mostly because of his relationship with his father, Oregon Ducks cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin.

Players had told us stories of them being a mirror image of each other in the locker room, and Coach Meat informed us that coaching his son was easier than he thought it would be, with the other defensive coaches — Dan Lanning, Tosh Lupoi, Chris Hampton, etc. — coaching him up before he could get to Cole.

“I just wait till we get home at night,” Coach Meat said.

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Now when we talk about Cole Martin, it’s because of the potential that he’s shown, and the standout performance that he had at Oregon’s spring game last weekend.

The true freshman popped off the screen for anyone watching and was clearly one of the most high-energy players on the field. Whether it was meeting the ball carrier in the open field with force, making a great break on an out-breaking route near the sideline to register a pass break-up, or running a punt back for 29 yards — the long of the day — there were things that Martin did throughout the scrimmage that made him jump off the tape.

After the game, we labeled Martin as one of the players who saw their stock rise the most, questioning whether or not he could be a solid rotation player for the Oregon defense this fall in his first season.

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Talking to head coach Dan Lanning after the game, it came as no surprise to the staff or the players on the roster that Cole rose to the occasion.

“Cole’s a good player you know, I think he’s exactly what we thought he was gonna be,” Lanning said. “He had a great spring practice. He’s super competitive.”

When you get to the collegiate level, everyone is talented. However, it’s the players who work the hardest, and take the best care of their bodies who end up finding the most success when all is said and done, using what they learned in the film room to build on the talent that they possess.

Martin grew up as a coach’s kid and obviously has seen Coach Meat teach some of the best players in the game over the years. It’s obvious that he knows how to succeed off the field in order to shine on it.

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“You know, I think what makes it special is he’s the guy who’s gonna be up here at 6 a.m., you know, getting an ice bath, doing the extra,” Lanning said. “He knows what’s required. Obviously, he’s a coach’s kid. So he does a little bit extra from that standpoint. He got some highlights today, but I’m sure there’s stuff that he wants to improve on.”

Based on what we saw at the spring game, the level of expectations have been set for Cole. There’s a belief now that he can have an impact on Oregon’s defense as a freshman, and build from there.

If he continues to put the work in off of the field and grow as a player as we’ve been told he does, it’s going to be fun to watch how good he can eventually be in Eugene.

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‘He’s a spitting image of Coach Meat;’ Cole Martin is part of the family at Oregon

“It’s funny at times when they butt heads because it’s like ‘okay this the same person talking to himself.’”

The idea of a coach’s son in the world of sports growing up was not uncommon in the slightest. Quite often, the head coach of a team would typically have one of their kids on the roster, moving through the different levels of youth sports as their kid grows up. Typically, there may tend to be a hint of nepotism involved, with the coach’s kid often playing quarterback, pitcher, or point guard.

When you get to the college level, though, the idea of a coach’s kid becomes far rarer. Almost never do you hear about the coach of a team having his son on the roster. This year in Eugene, we’ve been treated to those dynamics playing out with the Oregon Ducks between cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin and his son, defensive back Cole Martin.

Coach ‘Meat’ has been in Eugene for two years now, coming as one of the key members of Dan Lanning’s first coaching staff with the Ducks. Cole is an incoming freshman, rated as a 4-star prospect in the 2023 class.

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Obviously, Oregon players are particularly familiar with the eldest Martin in the program. But getting to know his son has been a treat, and often a source of entertainment in the meeting room.

“It’s actually crazy because like, young Cole is a spitting image of Coach Meat,” cornerback Dontae Manning said on Saturday. “Like the aggression, the anger, the hype-ness. And it’s crazy like it’s literally his twin in a meeting room.”

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The dynamics of having a position coach in charge of molding his son at a major D1, Power 5 program like Oregon are complicated. Does Coach Meat take it easy on Cole, making sure that he understands the process and goes through everything mentally at his own pace? Does the coach go harder on his son than other players, taking an extra step to push him a bit further because he wants him to be better than the rest?

It’s a hard tightrope to walk, but one that Coach Demetrice is traversing well so far.

“It’s been a good experience, a lot easier than I thought it would be,” Coach Meat said. “Because of Coach Lanning, you got Coach Tosh (Lupoi), you got Coach (Chris) Hampton; those guys are on his butt for everything so they get to him before I get to him. I just wait till we get home at night.”

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When he does get the chance to coach up his son, though, is the approach different? Does he have to be mindful of the parenting of history and potential dynamics at play?

“No, he’s a tough kid,” Coach Martin said. “He’s been around me all his life. So he understands how I get down and how I coach and how I teach. So he knows when to say ‘when.’”

That doesn’t always mean it’s smooth sailing, of course. With any coach and player, there are bound to be arguments, and a little bit of tough love; that’s just how coaching works. If a player does something wrong, or misses an assignment, the coach is going to have to do what they can in order to make sure that the player corrects that mistake going forward.

But when you have a coach and a player who are so similar, and look a like, and live life with mannerisms that mirror each other, it can get a bit comical from an outside perspective.

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“I mean it’s funny at times when they butt heads because it’s like ‘okay this the same person talking to himself.’ Like it’s crazy,” Manning said. “But yeah, it’s crazy in that meeting room, I love it though.”

Anyone who has gotten a chance to know Coach Meat over the years has nothing but great things to say. I was personally able to talk to Cole Martin extensively a year ago after his commitment to Oregon and was blown away at how mature he came across for a teenager.

Maybe it’s due to good genes. Maybe it’s due to good coaching.

Regardless of the reasoning, there’s an extra dose of Martin in the Oregon locker room this year, and hopefully for many years to come. I can’t imagine a world where the Ducks are not better for it.

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