It's raining 4-stars in East Lansing! The Spartans just received a commitment from Pennsylvania safety Demetrious Cox, who is a consensus 4-star recruit. This is a really big one for the Spartans. If we added up the ratings for all the recruits, it's quite likely that Cox might be the highest rated recruit this year, or perhaps tied with Aaron Burbridge. Cox is generally considered a top-20 safety, and Scout actually ranks him the 8th best safety in the country. Cox also received offers from just about everyone. Some of his top offers include: Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, and Wisconsin.
Cox does possess good size for a safety (6'1" and 190 lbs.), but like Madaris his speed is unclear. Rivals has him running the 40 in 4.48 seconds, while ESPN has him running it at 4.71. Scout also says, "Cox is not a player who is going to light up stopwatches" and rates his backpedal speed as an "area for improvement." But on the other hand, ESPN also says, "Cox is a really explosive athlete with terrific play speed, sudden change-of-direction and the ability to be a homerun threat in space." It's hard to tell what's going on here, so let's look at some video:
First of all, we can see that Cox did just about everything for his team. He played quarterback, safety, and punt returner (anything else?). His speed looks pretty good in this video. He's not a 4.3 guy, but he looks like he has good speed, and most importantly he plays fast. He plays with confidence and aggressiveness, especially when he's taking on the role of a running back. There's not much video of him at safety, but the few clips there are show that he seems to have good instincts. He seems to be near the action and looks like a solid hitter. He also has the ability to go up for the ball, so he should be able to challenge taller receivers.
Since Cox appears to have played a lot of positions in high school, I suspect he'll be a little raw at safety as a freshman. Moreover, safety is one of those positions that requires some tactical awareness to play well. You just don't see many freshmen safeties. So as highly-regarded as Cox is, I think he's not going to get much playing time until his second year in the program and at that point he probably still won't be a starter -- unless his athleticism and instincts turn out to be too outstanding. Regardless, the secondary looks to be set for several years.
This may just about do it for the 2012 class, unless Dodson, Johnson, or Jackson commits. We had to wait a long time for these final commits and it's been worth it.
Cox does possess good size for a safety (6'1" and 190 lbs.), but like Madaris his speed is unclear. Rivals has him running the 40 in 4.48 seconds, while ESPN has him running it at 4.71. Scout also says, "Cox is not a player who is going to light up stopwatches" and rates his backpedal speed as an "area for improvement." But on the other hand, ESPN also says, "Cox is a really explosive athlete with terrific play speed, sudden change-of-direction and the ability to be a homerun threat in space." It's hard to tell what's going on here, so let's look at some video:
First of all, we can see that Cox did just about everything for his team. He played quarterback, safety, and punt returner (anything else?). His speed looks pretty good in this video. He's not a 4.3 guy, but he looks like he has good speed, and most importantly he plays fast. He plays with confidence and aggressiveness, especially when he's taking on the role of a running back. There's not much video of him at safety, but the few clips there are show that he seems to have good instincts. He seems to be near the action and looks like a solid hitter. He also has the ability to go up for the ball, so he should be able to challenge taller receivers.
Since Cox appears to have played a lot of positions in high school, I suspect he'll be a little raw at safety as a freshman. Moreover, safety is one of those positions that requires some tactical awareness to play well. You just don't see many freshmen safeties. So as highly-regarded as Cox is, I think he's not going to get much playing time until his second year in the program and at that point he probably still won't be a starter -- unless his athleticism and instincts turn out to be too outstanding. Regardless, the secondary looks to be set for several years.
This may just about do it for the 2012 class, unless Dodson, Johnson, or Jackson commits. We had to wait a long time for these final commits and it's been worth it.
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