Ball State defensive coordinator Jay Bateman isn't fretting over the task of replacing six former defensive starters for the 2012 season.
In fact, he almost sounds like he's enjoying it.
"I don't want to not pay homage to what Sean [Baker] did, Andrew Puthoff, and some of those guys who were valuable players for us," Bateman said. "But I don't know if anybody feels like we lost somebody where [we say], 'Oh my gosh, how are we going to line up without this guy?'"
Players ranging from tested veterans like cornerback Armand Dehaney and hungry underclassmen like defensive end Nick Miles and safety Chris Pauling now carry the expectations to fill the holes left by Baker, Puthoff and others.
Even if the new starters aren't ready to live up to the standards set by their predecessors, they don't have much of a choice. Ball State is coming off one of the poorest defensive seasons in the Mid-American Conference, giving up a league-worst 510.3 yards per game and a second-to-last 34.7 points-per-game.
Bateman reasoned the poor performances came down to such little experience with his defense, especially for players like Travis
Freeman and Tony Martin, who were playing under their third defensive coordinator in three years.
"There were some growing pains," Bateman said. "I think [the past schemes] hadn't been very complicated on defense. Not that we're the Pittsburgh Steelers, but we do a little more than [the players] had done."
As veterans get used to practicing the same schemes they learned a year ago, younger defenders are just trying to make names for
themselves.
Pauling, a true freshman, has seemingly already accomplished that. Bateman singled him out when asked about early defensive standouts this summer, saying he is "more athletic than anything we've had."
Bateman also mentioned safeties Brian Jones and J.C. Wade, cornerback Eric Patterson and linebacker Kenneth Lee as players who have impressed him recently.
Now that Baker, Joshua Howard and Kyle Hoke have graduated, Jones and Wade especially couldn't ask for a better opportunity at securing a starting position. Lee is also in position to start at strongside linebacker.
"Those guys are better athletes than a lot of the guys that played last year," Bateman said.
Of course, as those former backups are promoted into starters, new backups need to replace them. An injury can come at any time.
"We're so much more capable of putting a backup kid or rotating a kid in, where last year we couldn't," Bateman said. "We didn't have anybody."
Who those backups will be isn't set in stone. The depth chart is still not set as the team prepares for its first game of the season.
But finalizing that chart is no chore to Bateman, even if the players are making it difficult on him.
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