When Derrick Canteen decided to transfer to Cincinnati, it left the Virginia Tech Hokies with an opening at nickel cornerback. While a transfer portal addition seemed to be a possibility, the Hokies also had intriguing young CB options who seemed like they could be ready for the role.
However, CBs coach Derek Jones revealed back in February that the Hokies were planning to use star CB Dorian Strong at the nickel spot when they go to their nickel defensive packages.
“You know Dorian’s our best football player in the secondary, and most of the time, what you’re seeing now is the best receiver is in the slot, so you want Dorian matched up on that. (interlude). That’s the one thing that the NFL people said they would like to see Dorian do more of is playing in the slot. So I think it’s a win-win situation having a guy who’s proved he can covered anyone in this league to be able to play that situation where as you’re not throwing a freshman in there on some of the best receivers. So I think what we’ll probably do is we’ll probably with Dorian Strong because those other guys can move outside, they’ve already played outside. But no reason to put a freshman or a redshirt freshman on a high level guy that we know is a NFL Draft pick when we have one on our team that we can move in there,” Jones said.
The logic makes sense given how often we see teams have their best WRs in the slot nowadays whether that’s Cooper Kupp or Deebo Samuel in the NFL, or Jaylin Lane for Tech last season.
Since those remarks, Strong has gone through a full spring and offseason developing his game at the nickel CB spot in addition to his primary role on the outside. Strong doesn’t feel he’s where he wants to be yet at the nickel spot, but is generally pleased with his progress while having an understanding of the areas where he has the most work to do.
