Nickel Stealing Dimes: DeBerry Finding Joy Playing Inside
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Staff Writer
Josh DeBerry is a different player this year. It’s not just the haircut, although he joked Tuesday that he has a better visual on the ball now that he doesn’t have a canopy of dreads over his eyes.
“He’s become one of our leaders,” second-year Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley said last week. “Not just in the way that he practices, but he’s become pretty vocal for us, too. Physical kid, tough, studies really hard.
“I think he’s taken a huge step.”
A second one. All while playing a new position. A year removed from starting seven games at cornerback and earning All-ACC honorable mention honors, DeBerry moved to nickel: a position occupied by now-free safety Jason Maitre most of the 2020 season.
DeBerry, who started one game at nickel last year, doesn’t find the position demanding.
That said, Hafely, defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu and defensive backs coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim ask a lot of the 5-foot-11 junior. DeBerry has played 24 more defensive snaps than any other Eagle this year, according to Pro Football Focus. He’s lined up 255 snaps in the slot, 90 out wide, 36 in the box, eight on the line and even one at free safety.
DeBerry is part of BC’s blitz packages, and he’s one of the defense’s best tacklers. Actually, by PFF’s standards, he is the best. He has registered a team-leading 90.4 tackling grade this season. He ranks second among all Eagles in both total tackles (33) and solo tackles (26).
DeBerry calls cornerback his “natural position,” but he’s taken a liking to the nickel spot.
“Whatever fills the coach’s need, I can do,” DeBerry said Tuesday. “I can play inside, outside. I like the aspect of playing inside. I get to make more tackles, get a little more involved.”
He had to do both last weekend at Louisville.
DeBerry started the game at nickel, then slid over to corner when Brandon Sebastian got hurt in the second quarter and back to nickel following an arm injury to true freshman Shawn Asbury II. Despite all that movement, DeBerry finished with a career-high eight total tackles, including seven solos and one TFL, not to mention a forced fumble—one of three first-half takeaways for the Eagles.
BC was great at forcing turnovers at Louisville. The Eagles came up with four, granted their offense converted those into only seven points, but the defense was stealing possessions at will. What the unit didn’t do well, however, was limit Malik Cunningham, who finished with 133 rushing yards.
BC will face another dual-threat quarterback this week in Syracuse’s Garrett Shrader. Except, Shrader—who scampered for 174 yards and three scores at Virginia Tech last week—is more of a downhill runner than an elusive one, which helps the Eagles, according to DeBerry.
“We gotta watch how we can contain the quarterback better,” DeBerry said. “First person gotta wrap up, and the second person, you have to go after the ball. We definitely gotta make our tackles. And we just gotta learn from [Louisville] and can't let that happen again.”
BC’s pass defense ranks first in the ACC and 22nd nationally. The secondary has thrived during the second year of the Hafley era. Whereas the Eagles’ back end was a serious weak point in 2019, it’s now arguably the team’s greatest strength.
And DeBerry is probably the most consistent performer of the bunch. He has a missed tackle rate of just 2.6%, he has allowed just 16 catches on 33 targets for an average of 11.6 yards per reception, per PFF, and he’s picked off two passes.
He’s also continued to mature. And he knows what’s at stake on Saturday.
“We're definitely hungry for a win,” DeBerry said. “And we're gonna do anything we can to get the win. But … we’re still going to be ourselves.”
