Bradley McDougald Tops 2011 Breakdown of Kansas Jayhawk Safeties

It is never too early to start some good old fashioned positional breakdowns.

Hopefully by this summer, every Kansas player or joining member will fit into these articles.

The players are quasi-ordered (without too much oversight at this point in the year) with regards to the amount of impact I expect them to have throughout the next season. More importantly, each has been labeled with a role the the individual either already fills or should grow into in 2011.

We will start this year's selection of way-too-early breakdowns with the safeties.

Brandon Hawks and Taylor Lee do fit a certain stereotype of the undersized, in-state walk-on. However, a college program cannot improve without effort on these guys' behalf.

It's important to recognize and praise that effort, too, in hopes that guys like Lee and Hawks will keep working even harder to help make the whole team better.

Hopefully over the course of this year and/or next, their long-overdue efforts will be rewarded.

Sometimes when people use the phrase "under the radar," they are asserting that the entity to which they are referring could be a pleasant surprise.

When I use the phrase here, it is because most people have probably never heard his name, let alone due to any prediction as to what he might like.

Still, the guy has decent measurables and played in a very talented Junior College secondary.  Perhaps he was just overshadowed? 

Either way, he's a walk-on junior playing for a sub-par team for a coach who gives everyone a chance.  Who knows what could happen.

Unlike his good friend James Sims, Ray Mitchell is still being eased into the college scene.

He's got good safety size. He packs decent athleticism relative to Kansas' other safeties. The skills just aren't that polished.

It may be another year or two before he's field-ready. 

In the meantime, aside from refining his fundamentals, he needs to be aggressive in practice and even inside the weight room. Lacking a nasty temperament was a main knock on Mitchell coming out of high school.

Alex Matlock is the kind of project safety that usually gets turned into a linebacker at the University of Kansas.

Fortunately, Kansas should already have a plethora of small, speedy outside linebackers in 2011. (i.e. Huldon Tharp, Jake Farley, Jake Love, Collin Garrett and Ben Heeney).

Matlock should have the opportunity to develop wherever he is most needed, and it all starts with a redshirt season in 2011.

This box-press-safety prospect isn't perfect in coverage, but would be ideal in a spy role or manning-up runningbacks on first and second down.

It's been a while since Kansas had a nasty, intimidating and physically-imposing safety patrolling the box. It should've been Darrian Kelly; perhaps Matlock will actually step foot within the university.

Victor Simmons may have one of the highest potential ceilings of any recruit in this 2011 class.

He possesses size similar to Bradley McDougald (6' 1", 190 pounds), and his knack for finding his way into plays is a trait similar to what got Keeston Terry on the field so early into his career.

Unlike McDougald, however, he lacks solid step-for-step man coverage skills.  His straight line speed and ball-hawking skills are better-suited to playing a deep zone safety.

Unlike Terry, he also needs work as a fundamental tackler and he's not the smoothest player on the field.

The need for development will have Simmons red-shirting in 2011. He and Matlock, though, have the look of a promising over-under set of safeties down the road.

Dexter Linton is a solid free safety prospect. He's a good center-fielder, but has abilities in man-coverage as well. He is quick, takes good angles and isn't bad at all in run support either.

He's got two years of college under his belt now, but all reports say he's still in the development stage.  2011, though, might be his last true opportunity to salvage his name from the career-long nooks and crannies of the deep end of the depth chart. 

If he doesn't challenge classmate Prinz Kande for special teams time and the fourth safety-spot on the two-deep chart in 2011, he could easily get jumped by Simmons, Matlock or the newcomers of 2012.

I do expect him to see some game time in 2011. Hopefully he seizes his opportunities. 

Prinz Kande is an average sized safety (6' 0", 195 pounds) who was pretty highly touted coming out of high school.

He hasn't fulfilled on that potential just yet, but with juniors Lubbock Smith and Bradley McDougald in front of him and Keeston Terry looking good early, he's got a little time on his side to keep developing.

Kande plays with the attitude of a strong safety but is versatile enough to cover both deep safety positions. He's farther along in the growth process than Linton, but has plenty of work left to do.

In 2011, he would help this team out a lot by becoming an aggressive special teams weapon and improve enough to challenge Lubbock Smith to improve himself and perhaps press for serious minutes.

Lubbock Smith is just another decently athletic, decently sized, Texas-bred Jayhawk safety.

Smith is faster than most of the other Kansas safeties and has good quickness to boot. Surprisingly, though, his best work seems to be done in the box.

I think a knock I have on Smith is that he's not aggressive enough in coverage. He leaves plenty of cushion, relying on his catch-up speed and play-diagnosis abilities to try to separate the receiver from the ball as it gets there.

This being said, Smith is a well-rounded, experienced safety who rarely gets beat by the big play. In 2011, I'd like to see him making big plays on the ball and become a defender quarterbacks have to watch out for.

I think Lubbock Smith starts ahead of Keeston Terry, for now.

Smith simply has more experience under his belt and holds a bit of an athletic advantage over Terry.

Starting or not starting is just words on a program, though. Terry will play just as much, as both a nickel safety and or spelling the starters, and be just as valuable to the defense as Smith.  He'll be starting sooner than later.

He's the tallest of any Jayhawk safety and has plenty of room to continue filling out his physical build.  He's a smooth tackler in the box and a play-maker in coverage. 

I've often compared his lack of elite athleticism to Justin Thornton, but Thornton overcame that and made it to the NFL anyways. Terry has far better tools than Thornton.

Hopefully he can stay healthy for the entire season and show the Kansas faithful the type of player he can become.

We've all been expecting Bradley McDougald to become one of KU's go to guys for a while. It simply seems his destiny has always lied on defense rather than offense.

I was always left hoping for a bit more out of his offensive production anyway. Seeing him be so immediately productive on defense was more than satisfying.

Sure I feel bad for him; he came to KU to avoid playing safety. On the other hand, I'd bet his classmate Toben Opurum isn't completely thrilled with his circumstances, either.

Not exactly what Kansas fans expected of these two after the first five games of their 2009 true freshmen season.

McDougald is already displaying better ball-hawking skills than any other defensive back on Kansas' roster (Tyler Patmon is good, but hasn't dealt with multiple position switches and re-switches), and his athleticism from the safety position is top-notch.

I firmly believe McDougald has the abilities and opportunity to become the most improved player in the Big 12 in 2011. With any luck, quarterbacks will underestimate him for a few games.