SU’s Chatman getting reps at strong safety

Gary Chatman is nobody’s bum. At 6-foot-3 and a shade under 220 pounds, he looks more like a smooth-sailing missile than a rumbling, rolling fire hydrant. He is the kind of rare athlete who’s well-suited to not only play the drop linebacker position at Southern, but excel at it. Chatman had 57 tackles last year, 11 of them behind the line of scrimmage in playing one of the most important positions.

Yet as the Jaguars wrapped up their second week of spring football practice, Chatman ran with the second-team defense. On purpose. Spring practice is often a time for experiments, grand and small — and for now, Chatman is practicing as a strong safety. “I’m still trying to get the feel for it,” he said. “But it’s coming along all right.”

From the first day of this offseason, SU coach Pete Richardson said he wanted to look at Chatman in a different role. And as Richardson noted, there really aren’t many differences between Southern’s strong safety and drop linebacker. “He’s struggling with the instincts of playing two different positions, even if they’re similar,” Richardson said. “The more he goes through it, the better he’ll get at it.”
The move is something of a risk, but it’s not really a risk.

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