STARKVILLE — Corey Broomfield has bought into the plan.
This summer the senior cornerback sat in the office of Mississippi State University football coach Dan Mullen and got the message nobody wants to hear initially. Essentially Broomfield was told he was no longer in line for a full-time starting position at cornerback but he still had a critical role on the team.
“I trust and believe in the program 100 percent because our coaching staff wouldn’t do this if they thought it was the wrong decision for me or the team,” Broomfield said.
Then the good news came. Broomfield was told to take his act to free safety and quickly learn a new position in order to get seniors Broomfield, Johnthan Banks and Darius Slay on the field together to provide more leadership and experience to the MSU defense.
“I kind of had to move because we had too much talent in that cornerbacks room with myself, Banks, Slay and even freshman like Cedric Jiles,” Broomfield said.
Broomfield, who has nine interceptions in his MSU career, said Tuesday he’s looking forward to more responsibility at the line of scrimmage and then playing centerfield watching the quarterback from 15 yards away at safety.
“I love blitzing and we got a lot of great packages this year to get me and Banks down there coming off the edge so we’re going to attack the cornerback,” Broomfield said. “I ain’t worried about (the size difference at the line of scrimmage) because when you got speed and force then it can overcome total weight.”
Now he must deal with a new position coach, new meeting room and the challenge of getting his first interception since the 2010 Egg Bowl rivalry game against the University of Mississippi.
At safety, the player has to talk more and this clearly isn’t a problem for the smack-talking Broomfield as he joked Tuesday that now he’ll actually feel like he’s talking to his teammates instead of just talking to himself on a positional island at cornerback.
“I’ve gotten to the point that when I talk trash everybody can hear me because I’m so close to the line of scrimmage now,” Broomfield said with a child’s laugh. “It’s fun up there and I know the media talks all the time how far away we are at cornerback from the line so now I may be up a little bit closer.”
The questions and doubt don’t exist in the MSU locker room about Broomfield being able to make a transition in less than a year when it has gone from a conception to a reality in less than a year of work.
“Broom fits our scheme because it can never hurt to have more speed and intelligence out on the field at the same time,” Slay said.
While Mullen wouldn”t commit to Broomfield being a full-time safety, especialy in third down situations where MSU will need at least three cover cornerbacks, but said he’s satistified with the transition and most importantly the unselfishness of the decision in Mullen’s office this summer.
“Corey is kind of a very intelligent person,” Mullen said. “Whether it’s Broomfield moving or Banks moving, he’s played some safety in training camp and he doesn’t blink an eye. It’s whatever it takes to do for the team to win, and that’s really the attitude we want in your older guys. I think that”s the leadership you look for and I think we have that with our older guys.”
One guarantee is after playing in all 38 games of his college career, Broomfield will be on the field in some capacity.
“I may be at safety one play, then nickel cornerback the next play and then John Banks could be at a linebacker spot on the third play,” Broomfield said. “I promise you we’re going to mess with the quarterbacks’ brain.”
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