With the ball
at his own ten yard line, Southern Mississippi’s
freshman quarterback Damion Carter took his first snap
of the game and rolled left, then quickly threw the ball
to Daven Holly’s side of the field. He should have
thrown it somewhere else. Leaving three would-be
tacklers twisted into pretzels on the field, Holly took
the ball back twenty yards for the touchdown. It
wasn’t really fair. Holly was off the receiver,
well off. Another unsuspecting quarterback
bludgeoned by the Cincinnati Bearcats cornerback who, as
the draft approaches, is destined to gather the sort of
momentum which saw Shawntee Spencer go from relative
obscurity to a mid day one pick in this year’s draft.
Last year,
despite their 5-7 record, Cincinnati had one of the best
defensive backfields in the NCAA, even finishing with a
better completion percentage against than the Miami
Hurricanes, the NCAA’s pass defense leaders. In
large part due to Daven Holly’s six interceptions, they
matched Miami’s 19 total. The pass defense got lit
up by Ben Roethlisberger and Mike McGann, but gave up
little else the rest of the season despite a pass rush
that only generated 22 sacks on the year. Head
coach Rick Minter was asked to leave and the Mark
Dantonio era begins this fall. Coach Dantonio
brings with him defensive backs coach Harlon Barnett,
one of the most promising young defensive backs coaches
in the country. Coach Barnett was gracious enough
to answer a few questions for us about Daven:
DBI:
Coach Barnett, first, congratulations on your new job.
Like your nephew Darren, Daven also had to choose
between playing receiver and defensive back. Is it
your experience that there are challenges inherent in
that kind of transition, such as getting some of the
instinct to go after the ball out of the defensive back,
and keeping him more focused on the man?
Coach
Barnett: It is quite common for a player to be
switched from receiver to defensive back. Both
positions demand ball skills-the ability to adjust to
the ball being in the air. The major difference
with defense is the demand to watch your guy all the way
down the field, but that’s a demand for any defensive
player. Any player moving from receiver to
defensive back has to learn the techniques, but the
transition is usually quite easy because they have good
ball skills.
DBI:
When you were playing safety at Michigan State and in
the NFL, you were outstanding at using your hands to
just with receivers and keep them from getting off the
line cleanly. To the layman, it appears as though
that is one area where Daven and the rest of the
secondary could have been better last year. Do you
come into the practices with a set of drills which are
specifically designed to improve that, or is that more
of a personal instruction “as needed?”
Coach
Barnett: We definitely work on drills to help
us get our hands on receivers and disrupt their pattern
because that throws off the timing of the offense.
That’s something Daven is very good at.
DBI:
You are inheriting a defensive backfield that finished
first in the conference against the pass last year, and
with Daven and Doug Monaghan back, the heart of the
secondary is intact from last year. There will be
a lot of eyes on you and how you handle the situation.
How do you guard against asking too much of them while
pushing them enough so they are always challenged?
Coach
Barnett: We are going to try to perfect the
schemes that we have. We’re not running the same
system that they ran last season. There is
definitely some good talent in the secondary with Dave
and Doug bringing leadership and we feel real confident
about our secondary and we’re looking for a really great
year.
DBI:
When the ball is in the air, Daven appears to attack it
as well as anyone in college right now. Any
worries that opposing QBs will see that on last year’s
films and try to exploit his aggressiveness?
Coach
Barnett: Daven has a good feel for breaking on
the motion of the quarterback. We have a drill to
teach our guys how to position and break He has good
vision on the quarterback and knows when to break on the
ball. I haven’t seen anything which would cause me
concern that he would get beat by being so aggressive.
If he does get beat, he has the make-up speed to get
back into position.
DBI:
If I remember correctly, you guys ran a lot of very
aggressive man-to-man at Michigan State. Given
that Daven is one of the best cover corners in the
country, do you foresee using a lot of that same style
here?
Coach
Barnett: We like to get up in the receivers’
face and be aggressive, but we will mix it up too.
You can’t play man the whole game. We will have a
mixture of man and zone coverages. We will try to
exploit Daven’s talents as much as possible because he
is an excellent man cover as well as a zone player.
DBI:
Daven wasn’t used much as a blitzer last year. Any
chance he’ll be used more in that capacity?
Coach
Barnett: You never know. It depends on
the schemes you put in week to week.
DBI:
The perception right now is that Daven can be left to
cover the opponent’s best receiver and the rest of the
defensive backfield can just be filled in from there.
Is that a correct assessment? Does that in some
way determine how you will lay out your strategy in many
cases?
Coach
Barnett: He does have the ability to cover
guys well-he is an excellent one-on-one player.
We’ll incorporate him in the best way we see possible.
Everything will be based on our game plan for that week.
DBI:
Coach Barnett, you’ve been quoted as stating that you
firmly believe in destiny. I believe you to be
capable of some great things, and the coaching
profession is a very fluid field, what do you believe
your destiny to be in those three years.
Coach
Barnett: My goal is to get better as a coach
over the next three or so years, and talk to as many
people as I can about the different aspects of coaching
and recruiting. I’m enjoying myself right now at
the University of Cincinnati. I’m a born and
raised Cincinnatian. Right now, I am looking
forward just to this year because I think we’re going to
have a good year.
DBI:
What do you believe Daven’s destiny to be?
Coach
Barnett: Only God knows that. I only
know that here in the next hour, he is to be out on the
football field practicing for the coming season.
As long as he continues to work hard every day as he has
been, the sky is the limit.
Holly is still
getting acclimated to changing from wide receiver to
cornerback two years ago, but he was voted Second Team
All-Conference USA last year. Predictably, his
ball skills were far ahead of his other skills, but he
finished last year light years ahead of 2002 in his back
pedal and turn, adjusting to the receivers actions, and
his hand work, though it appeared as though some bulking
up would help with bigger receivers. He managed 23
tackles, 6 interceptions, and 9 passes broken up.
His run support and tackling skills needed some
polishing, but he supported the run aggressively and a
few added pounds would do wonders for the tackle totals.
The
thing about Holly that sets him apart is his awareness
on the field and his excellent speed. He has been
timed by the team at a 4.39 and appears to play every
bit that fast. His recovery speed and closing
speed once the ball is in the air is exceptional.
As for his awareness, there are plenty of players in the
NCAA who run fast, but don’t have vision and awareness
when they are running
—
Daven does. He reacts very quickly to changing
situations and thinks extremely well on his feet, making
good decisions when other corners may cost themselves
precious moments in hesitation, trying to figure out
what was happening. Daven was also gracious enough
to answer a few questions for us:
DBI:
Daven, your 5-7 record last year overshadowed the
overall solid play of the defense and the excellent play
of the secondary in particular. Did the defensive
backs take any consolation in the fact that you finished
first in the conference against the pass?
Daven:
Yes. It felt like a good achievement. I think
we played solid all year. A lot of people didn’t
expect us to be that good in the secondary, since we had
a new starting cornerback. We want to continue
that success this season.
DBI:
Was there anything in particular that drew you to
Cincinnati?
Daven:
Cincinnati was not too far from home, but gave me a chance
to get out on my own a little away from home.
DBI:
It’s often difficult for two-way players to dive up the
excitement of the offensive side of the ball. The
perception is that guys who score the touchdowns get
most of the glory. Was that a difficult decision
for you, or was there a time when it just became obvious
to you that you were a cornerback at heart?
Daven:
It was very difficult, at first. After a while, I
could see how I was going to help the team, and I am
committed to doing that.
DBI:
With the exception of a few odd plays last year, you
seemed to be in control of your man or zone, and teams
tended to avoid your side of the field, yet the
post-season honors seemed to go elsewhere. Does
that put a bit of a chip on your shoulder for the
upcoming year, or are you confident that coaches and
scouts-the people who need to know in your quest to take
the next step in your career-are aware of your excellent
play?
Daven:
I feel if they-scouts-don’t know now, they will by the end
of my senior season. There were a lot of great
players in our conference last year. One
cornerback was drafted. The NFL has a great
scouting system and I think they will know a lot about
me by the end of this year.
DBI:
One of the only questions about your play at the next
level is that some question if you have enough bulk to
fill effectively in run support. What are you
weighing in at these days? And, do you feel that
concern is justified?
Daven:
I weigh between 185 and 190. I don’t think that
people should be concerned about my ability to stop the
run. I can close on the ball and take away
separation to make tackles. I feel strong. I
have bulked up more since last season. I think
people will see me in more run coverage this year with
the schemes we are playing.
DBI:
You close on the ball so quickly, it would seem natural
that you sometimes try to bait quarterbacks into making
throws by hanging off the receiver a bit. Do you
do that sometimes? Or is it easier just to cover
your man and watch the throw go somewhere else?
Daven:
I feel that when you have a lot of speed and know about
football coverages, you can always bait the quarterback.
I study a lot of tape to know the type of quarterback I
will face each week. There are some you can’t
bait. But I will try to do it any time I get a
chance.
DBI:
Judging by the fact that you were named to the C-USA
commissioner’s honor roll a couple years ago, you seem
to be a man who takes his academics seriously.
Football accolades are great, but does the honor roll
give you a different sort of pride? Do you feel
that keeping up with academics gets more difficult as
there is more of a demand for your time with football
related things-such as answering reporters’ questions?
Daven:
I feel that academics is always first on the list of
priorities. You can get hurt any time and have
football taken away from you. The time you spend
on football gets more demanding the more you get
involved in your team and become a starter. That’s
part of being a student athlete. You’ve got to
balance your time.
DBI:
Your speed is well known. How do you keep yourself
from relying too much on it, and focusing on playing
with the proper techniques?
Daven:
You have got to know and understand speed. You need
to know when to speed up and when to choke it down.
I focus on techniques and how to cover different
receivers.
It is never
easy when a new coaching staff takes over a program, but
there is a lot of excitement in Cincinnati about the
Bearcats. Just based on the cover ability he
showed last year, Daven should be considered a day one
pick. How up he climbs will greatly depend on how
physical he gets in run support schemes and of course,
how he times at the combine in the 40-yard dash, the
cone drills and what he manages to register on his
vertical leap, teams will want confirmation of the
athleticism he shows on the field. Daven is an
exciting player and it is his destiny to play on
Sundays.
