Maybe the most important job for the Southern football team this season is being handled by one of its three new assistant coaches, first-year offensive line coach Damon Nivens.
The Jaguars are young and thin across their line, whose performance provides the foundation for the rest of an offense with depth and talent everywhere else.
Nivens’ intensity and relative youth may actually be a perfect fit for this line.
“I’m an uptempo guy, real fueled-up, ready to go,” Nivens said. “I try to get things done as quickly as possible up front, with an attitude and with dominance.”
Of the 13 linemen on the roster, six have yet to play a down of college ball: two true freshmen, two sophomores who were nonqualifiers last season and two redshirt freshmen (with right guard Joshua Keelen, on defense in the fall and recovering from shoulder surgery in the spring, not taking an offensive snap in practice until this month).
Keelen may be academically ineligible and not play this season. If that were to happen, the group would go down to 12 members.
Plus, of the veterans, the center is a sophomore, Ramon Chinyoung, and the critical spot of left tackle is now being manned by a senior tight end, Trent Thomas. Junior left tackle Ruben Oliver just arrived from a summer internship and sophomore left tackle Allen Buckner has missed much of the camp with heat-related issues.
Meanwhile, guards Jacoby Collins, a senior, and Adrian Banks, a junior, are academically ineligible. Three February signees also are initially ineligible. The loss of those two is part of the reason junior Rafael Louis has moved inside to left guard from tackle (and Thomas joined the line as well) this camp.
Both Thomas and Louis, who has bulked up considerably since the spring, are a tad light for their respective positions.
“We have a lot of quickness and agility on (the left) side,” Nivens said.
While the numbers may seem down, they’ve actually improved since the spring.
Nivens had just seven active linemen in the spring. Collins and Banks were out after recovering from surgeries.
“I feel a little more up to speed,” Nivens said. “We’ve gotten more depth. ... I can work a little more reps.
“We’ve just got to work through it. Guys go down, but you have to have guys behind him step up.”
Photo: Advocate staff photo by LIZ CONDO
New Southern offensive line coach Damon Nivens will be working with a relatively young and inexperienced group.
True freshman left guard Brian Bridges, meanwhile, has yet to be OK’d by the NCAA Clearinghouse. By rule, he is allowed to practice through Wednesday but then will have to sit out until, or if, he gets clearance.
“I think they’re improving, but we’re doing a lot of movement on defense now and they’ve got to develop chemistry,” SU head coach Pete Richardson said about the offensive line. “The more they can see it, take them and watch the film, and bring them back out and do it again, the better they’re going to understand.
“It’s tough for a young kid. Their heads are swimming, but that’s what they’re going to see in a game.”
Nivens, a former black college All-American left tackle at Southern, replaced his former mentor, 14-year SU offensive line coach Gary Smith, in March.
“The only thing we’re doing is changing personnel,” Richardson said of Nivens taking Smith’s place. “What we’re doing is almost the same. He was taught it for four years, and he went on to the next level and learned a little more of the technical part.”
A transfer from Troy, Nivens helped Southern win a black college national title and three Southwestern Athletic Conference crowns from 1997-99. He went on to be a free agent for the Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys and played with the Scottish Claymores and Amsterdam Admirals in NFL Europe.
Nivens said that professional experience helped mold him.
“It’s a different atmosphere at that level,” Nivens said. “You don’t have to worry about classes. That’s your job. That’s your nine to five. You go there with an attitude and play hard.”
Nivens returned to Southern in 2003 as an assistant to Smith. That season, SU went 12-1 and won the SWAC and black college national titles. He then spent two seasons as the offensive line coach at Istrouma High, where he coached Keelen and Buckner in 2005. That line paved the way for Louisiana Tech running back Daniel Porter to go off for 2,034 yards and 34 touchdowns as well as an 2006 line that placed four on the All-District 6-4A first team, a unit headlined by all-state tackle Dallas Thomas.
“I took that intensity down to that level,” said Nivens, who said teaching high school players also taught him “patience.”
Richardson said he’s seen the change in Nivens from the Istrouma experience.
“It’s a maturity factor,” Richardson said. “At that level, you always have to start with ground zero.”
That blend of experience, combined with Nivens’ youth, seems to be a good mixture this camp.
“He’s energetic about it,” Richardson said. “He’s pushing them. He played the spot and he can teach the little things.”
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