Improving Very Much a Group Project
Safety trio tries to keep pace with each other
Mike Brohard
When it comes to working hard, Jordon Simmons turns his attention to one particular position group on the team.
His assessment, since spring camp and through the summer is three players standout out every day – safeties Henry Blackburn, Ayden Hector and Jack Howell.
“I love those guys,” Simmons said.
So does defensive coordinator Freddie Banks, who also serves as their position coach.
When it comes to workouts, they all encourage each other, but they damn well don’t want one of the other two outperforming them. It sets a tone for themselves, but make no mistake, the rest of the team is watching too.
It’s as close to a sibling rivalry as one can get without sharing actual blood. They consider themselves brothers, which means some taunting takes place. Take any brother trio, one of them is going to be viewed as the smart one, another the dumb one. And there’s always a mischievous one.
Which one is which being open for debate. None of them would vote themselves the smart one (they said that would be in bad taste). Banks just smiles, like any proud father would.
And plead the Fifth.
“I love them all the same,” he said.
It’s hard to pick a favorite when the work ethic is top notch. You don’t favor one over the other when they all want to put in the work, be it on the field or in their own time. Their individual goals are very much shared.
To be the best player they can be. Also, be better than those other two guys.
“I think that plays a big part, at least for me personally. In the summer when we were doing hard workouts like the Deskin, the you’ve-gotta-dig-deep workouts, I hated seeing them in front of me,” Hector said. “I would hate seeing them in front of me in stadiums. Now it’s translated in the weight room. The three of us lift together and we feed off each other’s energy and we get competitive and chipping at each other – ‘oh, I lifted more than you in this, and now I’ve got to lift more in bench.’”
The challenge is always there. Get to the line first. Don’t mess up an assignment throughout practice. Don’t even think about being misaligned in the defense.
Most of all, never fall behind. That’s the worst.
“I mean, we compete at everything, every day. I think that’s definitely makes a bond and chemistry between players,” Howell said. “That’s something I pride myself on every day is just working the hardest and trying to be the best. I don’t care what it is. If we’re doing stadiums or running races, I always try to get next to (Tory Horton); he claims he’s the fastest on the team, so I try to run with him. That’s something I definitely take pride in.
“I think Ayden started falling behind in stadiums one day, and we got to chewing him out a little bit. We hold each other to a high standard, and I think that’s what you need. You want to be elite, and you want to take your game to the next level. I’m just fortunate to have people like that around me.”
Hector knows the day well. He didn’t eat breakfast and he didn’t do a good job of hydrating heading into the session. As he started to lag behind, he started to see stars and the trainers needed to assist him.
As bad as that felt, the voices he heard – Blackburn and Howell – were the most painful part.
“I ended up finishing the stadiums, but Jack will never let me live that down,” Hector said.
They already have a lot to live up to, but they aspire to do even more. Howell isn’t the oldest but has taken on a protective big-brother role. He’s the one who was a Freshman All-American and a first-team All-Mountain West pick, but he’d rather talk about how talented Blackburn and Hector are and just how vital they are to his success and that of the overall defense.
The team had seven interceptions a year ago, and Howell and Hector combined for six of them. Howell led the nation’s defensive backs with 108 tackles – and the Rams – but as a trio, they piled up 202, 8.0 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. They defended 25 passes and forced five fumbles.
And like any good son, they don’t want to disappoint dad.
“One hundred percent, that’s what it is. Coach Banks holds us to a really high standard, and he expects perfection out of us,” Blackburn said. “If we make a mistake, that’s not acceptable in our room. We’re all four-year vets, so we’re not allowed to make mistakes a younger guy learning the defense may make. Our standard is a very high standard, and if we go off that standard it’s a problem right away. Usually we’re pretty good about it, but once in a while somebody makes a mistake, and those meetings get pretty serious at time.”
It’s not a toxic relationship; we’re always pushing each other and holding each other accountable.Henry Blackburn
Blackburn said if they do screw up, they consider it such a personal affront they own up to it immediately and take ownership with the other two. They don’t happen often, because of their combined football IQ.
The way they view it, if you put Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla in the room, one of them is going to be seen as the dumb one, but you like your chances with either one solving the problem. Even a smart kid makes a mistake, and when they do, the correction isn’t made without parental input.
Call it the last word.
“They know when they make a mistake, but I still feel like I’ve got to say something,” Banks said. “That’s my job. It’s like man, I want to make sure he understand how important it is. The majority of things, they work so hard in the film room they don’t mess up. It was a Saturday night in the offseason, I came to the office and there were seven dudes watching film. My wife was laughing, like, ‘I bet your happy.’ The culture and the standard is getting to where we want it to be.
“There was a day where I said we were cancelling walkthrough and they were like, ‘no, coach, let’s do it.’ This is one of the most fun years of my career. I think we’re going to win a lot of games, but it’s fun coaching these guys because they take the coaching, they’re coaching the young guys, speaking the same language. This is just a special group that we might never get again, so we’re taking advantage of coaching these dudes. The outside world may not know it, but it’s going to be a special year.”
Part of what makes is special for the players is the guys around them. They feel a certain ownership to the defense, because the man who calls it is their primary coach. Their desire is to be the positive examples when the entire defense meets.
They speak up, and their voices hold weight; Blackburn and Howell were both named captains. They are expected to make plays – big plays, game-changing plays. They do it for the common good, but there’s more to it inside.
They can’t let one of their brothers get the best of them.
“Jack, Ayden and I have a great relationship. We’re always talking smack to each other, we’re always trying to one-up each other and we’re always trying to be better than each other,” Blackburn said. “It’s not a toxic relationship; we’re always pushing each other and holding each other accountable. We have a group chat where we’re constantly talking and we’re all friends and hang out outside of football. Our relationship has grown so much from last year to this year. It’s awesome to have guys like that around me pushing me, guys who hold themselves to a high standard and hold me to a high standard. It’s been a great relationship this whole offseason. We’ve been working every day, doing extra stuff and getting extra work in.”
The only feeling worse than falling behind is watching one of the others lag back. Well, it’s somewhat fun for them, because then there’s a person to taunt the rest of the day.
From Simmons’ standpoint, or even that of Banks, there’s not much to say. True, one of the trio will be third, but as a group, he can always find them far in front of the rest of the pack.