Spring practice offered Matthias Farley a chance to make yet another adjustment.
Farley has grown used to switching around positions since arriving at Notre Dame a few summers ago. He enrolled as a wide receiver and has since played both cornerback and safety, most notably filling on for an injured Jamoris Slaughter during a BCS National Championship Game run.
Back in the spring Farley shifted to the nickel back role, a testament to his knowledge base at multiple positions and overall versatility.
"It's definitely an adjustment," Farley said. "I enjoy being close to the line of scrimmage. But yeah, you really have to train your eyes in different ways. Things around you are a lot quicker. That comes with repetition and getting more comfortable with the position. But I definitely like being closer to the line."
Fall camp brought about a more solidified role for Farley as the nickel, where he competed with fifth-year transfer Cody Riggs. Riggs has since moved into a starting spot at cornerback alongside Cole Luke, who is in for KeiVarae Russell as the academic investigation continues.
Austin Collinsworth and Max Redfield have taken hold of the safety spots with recent competition from Elijah Shumate. Farley has also taken reps at the back end.
"I think it's gonna give us a lot of flexibility to use him and his abilities to our advantage," defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks said. "Again, at that nickel spot you've gotta be able to do a lot of different things. I think Matthias is smart enough and athletic enough to do anything we ask him to do. That makes you feel comfortable, especially matching up with some of these spread offenses we're gonna face this season."
Nickel back has evolved into arguably one of the most difficult and intricate positions on any defense, thanks to the advancement of spread offenses. No longer can nickels just be the third best cornerback on the team.
Certain teams will match up their slot receiver, often one of the most explosive players on the field, with the nickel in hopes of creating mismatches. Support in the run game is also crucial.
Sometimes the nickel back is almost an undersized linebacker. Slaughter played the position that way when healthy.
"That's a tough position to play," Cooks said. "Other than corner that might be one of the toughest spots to play because you're on a slot receiver. You're asked to play man-to-man, you're asked to blitz off the edge, you're asked to play zone coverages. Now a days with these spread offenses and the zone read series, a lot of teams are playing it more on first and second down. That's a critical position and it's good to have a smart guy there that's played corner and played safety and brings some ability to do a little bit of everything that you need at that position.
Farley expects to be near the line of scrimmage most weeks, although that's something that could change from week to week.
"It's definitely a game plan thing I would say," Farley said. "A lot of it is predicated on the offense. If you play a team like Stanford they're not gonna have a slot receiver out there that many times. It might be different in situations like that. But we haven't really gotten into that."
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