By ROBERT CESSNA
Steven Terrell's teammates and coaches know how good he's becoming. They've seen it in practice for two years.
Now he's got a chance to show the nation.
Terrell is having an excellent fall camp trying to solidify his spot as Texas A&M's starting free safety. He had two interceptions in Monday's workouts and caused a fumble. There's not been a day when No. 21 hasn't turned a head or two when the first units square off.
"Last year, he was a little bit hesitant in pulling the trigger on what was happening," A&M head football coach Mike Sherman said. "This year, he's really blossomed into trusting his instincts and reacting to what he sees. There's no hesitation and he's probably one of the fastest guys on the team, so you see that blur going down field trying to make a tackle."
Terrell didn't get too many chances to make tackles last year as a backup cornerback. Half of his eight tackles came on special teams.
"Last year, I was a newcomer," Terrell said. "I was hanging back, trying to get used to the whole college football thing. This year, I have to step in and be a leader and make the calls."
Terrell has been a mentor at some practices because he's been the most experienced safety. Fellow sophomore Steven Campbell is expected to battle Terrell for the starting position, but a tweaked ankle hasn't allowed Campbell to practice. Strong safety Trent Hunter is one of the team's leaders and by far the secondary's most experienced player, but even he missed a couple practices with an injury. Hunter's backup coming out of spring drills, Colton Valencia, is no longer with the team.
That's left Terrell to lead the redshirt and incoming freshmen.
"I have to help the younger guys get accustomed to the new defense," Terrell said. "It's a big change. I feel I have a big role to fill this year."
Not only has he switched positions, but A&M has switched from a 4-3 defensive alignment to an attacking 3-4 under first-year defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter.
The 5-foot-10, 197-pound Terrell has enjoyed the transition that has him blitzing one play, then dropping back in coverage the next.
"I feel like I'm a more of a natural safety," he said. "That's where I played in high school."
He looks comfortable in the new defense, said A&M sophomore wide receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu, who played with Terrell at Allen High.
"You got Terrell out there going three different ways before the snap," Nwachukwu said. "You got Trent going, spinning in different directions. You've got [cornerback Terrence Frederick] going crazy. As a receiver looking at it, it's crazy. You've got to change your route every time they do something like that. Those guys work. They push us every day."
And every day, everything each player is supposed to do gets a little easier.
"It's a team defense," Terrell said. "It's not like I'm going to do my job and let [the other guy] do his. [DeRuyter's] real big on team and communication, about having a fight and an attitude, a swagger about you."
That's been reinforced by the unit's ability to force the quarterbacks to throw balls away, get tackles behind the line of scrimmage or force turnovers.
"I feel our defense puts us in better positions to make turnovers," Terrell said. "I think that's the biggest difference [from last year]. His style of disguising and messing with the quarterback, that's the main reason why we have so many turnovers right now."
There's also the hard hitting, which even caused Sherman early in fall camp to remind the team to be smarter when not wearing full pads.
"Everyone comes up and hits," said Frederick when asked which defender in the secondary hits the hardest. "Trent comes down hill and [so does] Terrell -- either one of them two. We're just tying to make plays. Anyone out there in the DBs has had a big hit or two or three. We're just trying to push each other."
Terrell, who helped Allen win the Class 5A Division I state title in 2008, pushed for playing time as soon as he arrived. He didn't start a game last season but played in all 13.
He had an even better spring. His speed off the edge allowed him to block four placement kicks in special teams drills. Sherman also used Terrell as a wide receiver, but defense is his forte. It didn't take him long to take a liking to DeRuyter's defense, getting two sacks in the Maroon & White Game.
Notice about comments:
Theeagle.com is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. theeagle.com cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not theeagle.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Full terms and conditions can be read here.
Aggiesports.com is proud to offer our users enhanced commenting features. You can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends’ recent posts, add an avatar that fits your personality and more. If you have posted here before you’ll need to sign up again, and if you’ve never posted start now by signing up! If you've already registered for the new comments on www.theeagle.com then just use your Eagle username to log in and start commenting.